(2:49-57-63-93)
(4:154) (81:80) (7:16-20) (7:138-140-160)
According to
some historians, the Hyssop dynasty ruled Egypt when Moses came with his
message. Ramses II of the Hyssop was
ruling when Moses first started delivering his message; Merneptah, the son of
the king Ramses, followed Moses and his nation.
As a result he and his forces drowned in the sea. As was the prevalent custom of Egyptian kings,
his body was recovered from the sea and mummified. The details of Pharaoh’s mummification are not
given in the Quran; these are discoveries made by the modern research. The Quran only gives the permanent laws for
the rise and fall of nations.
The crossing of
the sea from Egypt into the valley of Sinai was a landmark in the history of
the Israelites. After the death of
Pharaoh, the Israelites were free to live the way they wanted. In Egypt they had lived completely in the grip
of Pharaoh, always working in compliance with his wishes, fulfilling his orders
without thinking. The life in Sinai was
full of challenges; this new life demanded new solutions, thinking and planning. The Israelites were not used to this mode of
living. Their human potentialities had
been crushed under the burden of servitude.
They were like a bird that was used to living in a cage and loved it.
God had bestowed
great favors upon them: for safety, they were placed in a valley with a
mountain protecting them from invaders.
The clouds were covering the sky to save them from the scorching heat of
the desert. They were getting free food,
without labor, in the form of manna
and silva (a type of sweet glue and quail). The Israelites asked Moses for water; in the
life of the desert, water is the most valuable commodity, and God directed him
to a rock. When the dirt was scraped from the rock twelve springs gushed forth.
God allocated one spring to each tribe. Moreover, they had vast grounds of Sinai to
live in, clear atmosphere, and on top of it, no fear. What else could they desire?
For the
training of the Israelites, two prophets, Moses and Aaron, were teaching and
training them. Some historians are of
the opinion that the prophet Shuaib also joined Moses to educate the
Israelites. However, they were not
happy; the new life was full of challenges and they were used to the
thoughtless life of slaves. At every
new situation, if they had to face some discomfort, like children, they complained
and taunted Moses: “Why have you brought us into the desert from Egypt? Without
you we were facing hardships in Egypt, and with you we are facing troubles in
the desert.”
In reality,
they disliked the new way of living, which was full of challenges, demanding mental
and physical endeavor. The nation of
Israelites lacked determination; they disliked continuous struggle, action, and
discipline. The following event is a good
example of their mental state: when Moses was crossing over to a new place in the
desert, they met a nation that was sticking firmly to idol worship. The Israelites requested to Moses, “Please
make a god like their idol for us.”
Moses was flabbergasted by the request.
He told them that idol worship was a path to destruction, and he could
never do such an act. The concept of one
unseen Allah governing the whole universe was unintelligible for them. Their
maturity had not reached the level where abstract concepts could be apprehended
without tangible shape.
