1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 The story of women's suffering in the time of Moses, peace be upon him. 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:18,600 Pharaoh's torment of women during the era of Moses, peace be upon him. 3 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:25,600 Allah recounted to us Pharaoh’s torment of the women of the Children of Israel in five surahs of the Qur'an: 4 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:34,820 In Surah al-Baqarah, Surah al-A'raf, Surah Ibrahim, Surah al-Qasas, and Surah Ghafir. 5 00:00:34,820 --> 00:00:36,979 He, the Exalted, said: 6 00:00:36,979 --> 00:01:01,340 “And (remember) when We did deliver you from Pharaoh's folk, who were afflicting you with dreadful torment, slaying your sons and sparing your women: that was a tremendous trial from your Lord.” (2:49) 7 00:01:01,340 --> 00:01:04,069 And He, the Exalted, said: 8 00:01:04,069 --> 00:01:29,140 “And (remember) when We did deliver you from Pharaoh's folk who were afflicting you with dreadful torment, slaughtering your sons and sparing your women. That was a tremendous trial from your Lord.” (7:141) 9 00:01:29,140 --> 00:01:31,969 And He, the Glorified, said: 10 00:01:31,969 --> 00:01:40,450 “And (remind them) how Moses said unto his people: Remember Allah's favour unto you when He delivered you from Pharaoh's folk who were afflicting you with dreadful torment, and were slaying your sons and sparing your women; that was a tremendous trial from your Lord.” (14:6) 11 00:01:40,450 --> 00:02:06,599 “And (remind them) how Moses said unto his people: Remember Allah's favour unto you when He delivered you from Pharaoh's folk who were afflicting you with dreadful torment, and were slaying your sons and sparing your women; that was a tremendous trial from your Lord.” (14:6) 12 00:02:06,599 --> 00:02:09,939 And He, the Mighty and Majestic, said: 13 00:02:09,939 --> 00:02:39,840 "Indeed, Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and made its people into factions, oppressing a group among them, slaughtering their sons and sparing their women. Indeed, he was of the corrupters." 14 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:43,930 And He, the Exalted, said: 15 00:02:43,930 --> 00:03:06,280 “And when he brought them the Truth from Our presence, they said: Slay the sons of those who believe with him, and spare their women. But the plot of disbelievers is in naught but error.” (40:25) 16 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:09,240 The meaning of "the worst of torment": 17 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:14,240 That is, Pharaoh subjected the women of the Children of Israel to various kinds of torment. 18 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:17,240 Among them is the first kind: 19 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:21,240 Sparing their lives solely to humiliate them. 20 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:24,240 Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, may Allah have mercy on him, said: 21 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:31,240 "As for the interpretation of His words 'the worst of torment,' it means that punishment which grieved and afflicted them. 22 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:35,240 Some scholars said it means 'the severest torment,' 23 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:40,240 but had that been the meaning, it would have been expressed as 'the most severe torment.' 24 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:48,340 If someone were to ask: What was that torment with which they afflicted them, and which grieved them so deeply? 25 00:03:48,340 --> 00:03:53,340 It would be answered: It is what Allah the Exalted described in His Book when He said: 26 00:03:53,340 --> 00:03:58,340 'Slaughtering your sons and sparing your women.'" 27 00:03:58,340 --> 00:04:01,620 Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, said: 28 00:04:01,620 --> 00:04:05,620 "This slaughtering of the sons and sparing of the women was itself the worst of torment." 29 00:04:05,620 --> 00:04:09,620 Muhammad Rashid Rida, may Allah have mercy on him, said: 30 00:04:09,620 --> 00:04:14,620 "Since deliverance can only be from injustice or harm, 31 00:04:14,620 --> 00:04:19,620 He clarified what He delivered them from by His words: 'afflicting you with the worst of torment,' 32 00:04:19,620 --> 00:04:25,620 meaning imposing upon you and inflicting you with punishment that caused you distress and humiliation. 33 00:04:25,620 --> 00:04:28,620 Then He made this clear by His words: 34 00:04:28,620 --> 00:04:32,620 'Slaughtering your sons and sparing your women.' 35 00:04:32,620 --> 00:04:35,620 That is, they killed the males of your offspring 36 00:04:35,620 --> 00:04:38,620 while keeping the females alive, 37 00:04:38,620 --> 00:04:40,620 in order to weaken and humiliate you, 38 00:04:40,620 --> 00:04:44,620 ultimately leading to the severing of your lineage and your annihilation. 39 00:04:44,620 --> 00:04:48,620 'And in that was a tremendous trial from your Lord.' 40 00:04:48,620 --> 00:04:50,620 That is, both in that agonizing torment 41 00:04:50,620 --> 00:04:52,620 and in the deliverance from it, 42 00:04:52,620 --> 00:04:57,620 each contained a great trial and test for you from your Lord." 43 00:04:57,620 --> 00:04:59,620 Just as He stated in another verse: 44 00:04:59,620 --> 00:05:05,620 “And We have sundered them in the earth as (separate) nations. Some of them are righteous, and some far from that. And We have tried them with good things and evil things that haply they might return.” (7:168) 45 00:05:05,620 --> 00:05:08,819 Al-Tahir ibn 'Ashur, may Allah have mercy on him, said: 46 00:05:08,819 --> 00:05:11,819 "The word *istihya'* (sparing life) is in the morphological form of *istif'al*, 47 00:05:11,819 --> 00:05:13,819 which denotes seeking or intending life; 48 00:05:13,819 --> 00:05:18,819 that is, keeping them alive or demanding their survival. 49 00:05:18,819 --> 00:05:23,819 The context of mentioning it here, in the course of reminding them of the calamities that befell them, 50 00:05:23,819 --> 00:05:28,819 indicates that sparing the females was done for a vile purpose: 51 00:05:28,819 --> 00:05:31,819 namely, to violate their honor and chastity, 52 00:05:31,819 --> 00:05:36,819 leaving them with no choice but compliance due to captivity and enslavement. 53 00:05:36,819 --> 00:05:40,819 Thus, His words 'and sparing your women' 54 00:05:40,819 --> 00:05:43,819 are a metonymy for a specific form of sparing their lives. 55 00:05:43,819 --> 00:05:46,819 That is why it was included in the demonstrative reference: 56 00:05:46,819 --> 00:05:51,819 'And in that was a tremendous trial from your Lord.' 57 00:05:51,819 --> 00:05:54,819 For had the intended meaning of sparing them been merely literal life, 58 00:05:54,819 --> 00:05:58,819 there would have been no reason to couple it with such a catastrophe." 59 00:05:58,819 --> 00:06:02,040 Al-Shinqiti, may Allah have mercy on him, said: 60 00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:04,040 "His words, the Exalted: 61 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:10,040 “And (remember) when We did deliver you from Pharaoh's folk, who were afflicting you with dreadful torment, slaying your sons and sparing your women: that was a tremendous trial from your Lord.” (2:49) 62 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:15,040 'Slaughtering your sons and sparing your women'— 63 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:19,040 the literal sense of this noble verse 64 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:22,040 indicates that sparing the women 65 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:26,040 was part of the torment that Pharaoh was inflicting upon them. 66 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:28,040 Yet it has been stated in another verse 67 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:32,040 that female children are a gift from the gifts of Allah 68 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:34,040 to whomever He bestows them upon, 69 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:36,040 which is His saying, the Exalted: 70 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:43,040 “Unto Allah belongeth the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth. He createth what He will. He bestoweth female (offspring) upon whom He will, and bestoweth male (offspring) upon whom He will;” (42:49) 71 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:46,100 Thus, sparing some children in this manner 72 00:06:46,100 --> 00:06:48,100 would normally be better than all of them perishing, 73 00:06:48,100 --> 00:06:50,100 just as the poet al-Hudhali said: 74 00:06:50,100 --> 00:06:53,100 'I praised my God after 'Urwah's loss, when 75 00:06:53,100 --> 00:06:57,100 Khirash was saved—and some evils are lesser than others.' 76 00:06:57,100 --> 00:06:59,199 The answer to this is 77 00:06:59,199 --> 00:07:04,199 that although females are a gift from Allah to whomever He grants them, 78 00:07:04,199 --> 00:07:07,199 their remaining under the subjugation of an enemy 79 00:07:07,199 --> 00:07:10,199 who subjects them at will to immorality and dishonor, 80 00:07:10,199 --> 00:07:15,199 and exploits them in arduous labor, is itself a form of torment; 81 00:07:15,199 --> 00:07:18,199 their death would have been a relief from such suffering. 82 00:07:18,199 --> 00:07:22,199 Indeed, the pre-Islamic Arabs used to wish for the death of daughters 83 00:07:22,199 --> 00:07:24,199 out of fear of precisely such disgrace." 84 00:07:24,199 --> 00:07:27,300 Abu Zahrah, may Allah have mercy on him, said: 85 00:07:27,300 --> 00:07:29,300 "His words, the Exalted: 86 00:07:29,300 --> 00:07:31,300 'And sparing your women,' 87 00:07:31,300 --> 00:07:35,300 mean seeking the survival and preservation of their women, 88 00:07:35,300 --> 00:07:37,300 not out of a desire for their well-being, 89 00:07:37,300 --> 00:07:40,300 but so that they might serve as maidservants in their homes 90 00:07:40,300 --> 00:07:43,300 and that they might exploit their beauty. 91 00:07:43,300 --> 00:07:48,300 This is an outrageous injustice known only to Pharaoh and his ilk, 92 00:07:48,300 --> 00:07:52,300 just as we have witnessed one of their kind in this contemporary era. 93 00:07:52,300 --> 00:07:56,379 Sparing the women alive 94 00:07:56,379 --> 00:07:59,379 was intended to torment and subjugate the men, 95 00:07:59,379 --> 00:08:02,379 and that is among the worst forms of torment." 96 00:08:02,379 --> 00:08:07,379 Thus, the facets of torment become evident to us based on what the scholars of Tafsir have explained: 97 00:08:07,379 --> 00:08:10,379 using them as bondwomen, 98 00:08:10,379 --> 00:08:12,379 violating their honor, 99 00:08:12,379 --> 00:08:15,379 and breaking the spirits of their men. 100 00:08:15,379 --> 00:08:18,449 The second kind: the slaughtering of their infants. 101 00:08:18,449 --> 00:08:23,449 This kind of torment was even more agonizing to a woman's psyche than the first. 102 00:08:23,449 --> 00:08:28,449 For this child whom she carried in her womb for nine months, 103 00:08:28,449 --> 00:08:33,450 enduring the hardships of pregnancy and the excruciating pains of labor and delivery— 104 00:08:33,450 --> 00:08:35,450 just as she rejoiced over his birth, 105 00:08:35,450 --> 00:08:39,450 Pharaoh's soldiers would arrive to slaughter him. 106 00:08:39,450 --> 00:08:43,450 How shattered would the heart of such a bereaved mother be? 107 00:08:43,450 --> 00:08:48,450 And how long would this pain and heartbreak linger within her? 108 00:08:48,450 --> 00:08:51,340 The third kind: 109 00:08:51,340 --> 00:08:54,379 psychological distress and chronic anxiety. 110 00:08:54,379 --> 00:09:00,379 This was another form of agony experienced by women during the time of Moses, peace be upon him: 111 00:09:00,379 --> 00:09:05,379 constant anxiety and distress with every single pregnancy. 112 00:09:05,379 --> 00:09:07,379 For she never knew 113 00:09:07,379 --> 00:09:10,379 whether her newborn would be a boy who would be slaughtered, 114 00:09:10,379 --> 00:09:15,379 or a girl who would be spared only to be humiliated and degraded when she grew up. 115 00:09:15,379 --> 00:09:21,379 This agony tormented her throughout the entire nine months of fear, anxiety, and dread; 116 00:09:21,379 --> 00:09:24,379 she knew neither how to conceal her pregnancy, 117 00:09:24,379 --> 00:09:27,379 nor how to protect her unborn child, 118 00:09:27,379 --> 00:09:30,379 nor what the fate of this pregnancy would be, 119 00:09:30,379 --> 00:09:33,379 nor how the story would end. 120 00:09:33,379 --> 00:09:39,570 Have you ever seen suffering akin to what women endured then, or what they face today? 121 00:09:39,570 --> 00:09:44,460 We will continue in our next session, if Allah wills. 122 00:09:44,460 --> 00:09:47,460 And all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. 123 00:09:47,460 --> 00:09:56,169 The story of women's suffering in the time of Moses, peace be upon him.