Lessons from the Story of Musa (as) and Firoun

Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE MOST BENEFICENT, THE MOST MERCIFUL

The story of Musa (AS), Firoun and the splitting of the sea is well known to everyone. It is one of the greatest miracles of Allah and is mentioned at various places in Quran. There are many lessons that one can learn from this story and some of them are discussed below.

1. Do what you can.
Musa (AS) in his own capacity did whatever he could to escape the army of Firoun. He did not sit there and wait for the miracle to happen. He could have stayed there, did nothing and ask Allah to deal with Firoun, but he didn’t until there was no option left but to call upon Allah and only then did the miracle of the splitting of the sea took place.

This life is one of cause and effects, miracles can happen but our responsibility is that we do everything we can in our personal capacity then leave it to Allah. We can’t stay put and expect things to work on their own. One of the greatest prophet, who would talk to Allah subhana wa taala didn’t do it, how can we?

2. Never be hopeless with Allah.
The miracle of the splitting of the sea was granted to Musa because of his unwavering faith in Allah. They were in a very tough situation and some of his followers did doubt him and thought that it was impossible to come out of it. They thought that either the army of Firoun would kill them or the sea will consume them. But Musa (AS) trusted his Lord and never lost hope in Him. Thus, Allah saved them.

They said:

“Indeed, we are to be overtaken!” Surah Ash-Shu’arah, Verse 61

In spite of this, Musa’s faith did not waiver and he said to his people with full certainty:

“No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me.” Surah Ash-Shu’arah, Verse 61

And so, the sea was parted opening a way for Musa and the Children of Israel to escape.

A believer must take a lesson from this incident that he should never lose hope in Allah, though we may be in situations where we may think that there’s no way out, let’s remember that the help of Allah is always near. If Allah can part the sea to help Musa and his people, He too can remove our difficulties and obstacles. What’s required of us is that we have complete reliance in Allah and have hope in Him.

3. Miracles can happen.

We come out of every tough situation. We are blessed with so many things. In certain tough times, when everything seems obscure, moments of pure joy and victory arrives o the series of events take place that save us from our difficulties. Are all that not a miracle. We may not witness a sea being divided but we do witness the events of our lives.

As believers, we believe that everything happens only by the will of Allah and though something may seem like a coincidental string of events, we believe that it was all planned by Allah.
4. Flee from sins.

When Firoun oppressed the believers to the extent that they were no longer able to practice religion freely, Allah instructed Musa(AS) to flee with the children of Israel to another land. If we too are faced with such a situation and our Iman is at risk, we too should try to flee to a place where we can safeguard our faith.

In today’s world we may face dangers similar to it like such situations where we may feel that we may fall into sin. At that time we must safeguard ourselves. Stay away from it. Stop following people and their actions blindly and think before we do anything. If we have ‘friends’ who we have tried to invite to good but we find that instead, they are pulling us towards the wrong path, we should disassociate with them if such a relationship takes us away from the right path.

5. Don’t wait for death to realize the reality.

When Pharaoh and his army were engulfed by the sea and they began drowning, Pharaoh cried out:

“I believe that there is no deity except that in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am of the Muslims.” Surah Yunus, Verse 90

But this declaration of faith was not accepted by Allah as he had already begun his transition into the next life and the veils of the unseen had begun to unravel before him. As believers, we too must not wait until it’s too late. Our book of deeds will be sealed when death overtakes us and from then on, we can no longer add a good deed (except if we did acts of Sadaqah Jariyah) nor edit out any sins that have been recorded.