The story of women's suffering in the time of Moses, peace be upon him.
Pharaoh's torment of women during the era of Moses, peace be upon him.
Allah recounted to us Pharaoh’s torment of the women of the Children of Israel in five surahs of the Qur'an:
In Surah al-Baqarah, Surah al-A'raf, Surah Ibrahim, Surah al-Qasas, and Surah Ghafir.
He, the Exalted, said:
“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)
And He, the Exalted, said:
“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)
And He, the Glorified, said:
“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)
“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)
And He, the Mighty and Majestic, said:
"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."
And He, the Exalted, said:
“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)
The meaning of "the worst of torment":
That is, Pharaoh subjected the women of the Children of Israel to various kinds of torment.
Among them is the first kind:
Sparing their lives solely to humiliate them.
Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"As for the interpretation of His words 'the worst of torment,' it means that punishment which grieved and afflicted them.
Some scholars said it means 'the severest torment,'
but had that been the meaning, it would have been expressed as 'the most severe torment.'
If someone were to ask: What was that torment with which they afflicted them, and which grieved them so deeply?
It would be answered: It is what Allah the Exalted described in His Book when He said:
'Slaughtering your sons and sparing your women.'"
Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"This slaughtering of the sons and sparing of the women was itself the worst of torment."
Muhammad Rashid Rida, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"Since deliverance can only be from injustice or harm,
He clarified what He delivered them from by His words: 'afflicting you with the worst of torment,'
meaning imposing upon you and inflicting you with punishment that caused you distress and humiliation.
Then He made this clear by His words:
'Slaughtering your sons and sparing your women.'
That is, they killed the males of your offspring
while keeping the females alive,
in order to weaken and humiliate you,
ultimately leading to the severing of your lineage and your annihilation.
'And in that was a tremendous trial from your Lord.'
That is, both in that agonizing torment
and in the deliverance from it,
each contained a great trial and test for you from your Lord."
Just as He stated in another verse:
“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)
Al-Tahir ibn 'Ashur, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"The word *istihya'* (sparing life) is in the morphological form of *istif'al*,
which denotes seeking or intending life;
that is, keeping them alive or demanding their survival.
The context of mentioning it here, in the course of reminding them of the calamities that befell them,
indicates that sparing the females was done for a vile purpose:
namely, to violate their honor and chastity,
leaving them with no choice but compliance due to captivity and enslavement.
Thus, His words 'and sparing your women'
are a metonymy for a specific form of sparing their lives.
That is why it was included in the demonstrative reference:
'And in that was a tremendous trial from your Lord.'
For had the intended meaning of sparing them been merely literal life,
there would have been no reason to couple it with such a catastrophe."
Al-Shinqiti, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"His words, the Exalted:
“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)
'Slaughtering your sons and sparing your women'—
the literal sense of this noble verse
indicates that sparing the women
was part of the torment that Pharaoh was inflicting upon them.
Yet it has been stated in another verse
that female children are a gift from the gifts of Allah
to whomever He bestows them upon,
which is His saying, the Exalted:
“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)
Thus, sparing some children in this manner
would normally be better than all of them perishing,
just as the poet al-Hudhali said:
'I praised my God after 'Urwah's loss, when
Khirash was saved—and some evils are lesser than others.'
The answer to this is
that although females are a gift from Allah to whomever He grants them,
their remaining under the subjugation of an enemy
who subjects them at will to immorality and dishonor,
and exploits them in arduous labor, is itself a form of torment;
their death would have been a relief from such suffering.
Indeed, the pre-Islamic Arabs used to wish for the death of daughters
out of fear of precisely such disgrace."
Abu Zahrah, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"His words, the Exalted:
'And sparing your women,'
mean seeking the survival and preservation of their women,
not out of a desire for their well-being,
but so that they might serve as maidservants in their homes
and that they might exploit their beauty.
This is an outrageous injustice known only to Pharaoh and his ilk,
just as we have witnessed one of their kind in this contemporary era.
Sparing the women alive
was intended to torment and subjugate the men,
and that is among the worst forms of torment."
Thus, the facets of torment become evident to us based on what the scholars of Tafsir have explained:
using them as bondwomen,
violating their honor,
and breaking the spirits of their men.
The second kind: the slaughtering of their infants.
This kind of torment was even more agonizing to a woman's psyche than the first.
For this child whom she carried in her womb for nine months,
enduring the hardships of pregnancy and the excruciating pains of labor and delivery—
just as she rejoiced over his birth,
Pharaoh's soldiers would arrive to slaughter him.
How shattered would the heart of such a bereaved mother be?
And how long would this pain and heartbreak linger within her?
The third kind:
psychological distress and chronic anxiety.
This was another form of agony experienced by women during the time of Moses, peace be upon him:
constant anxiety and distress with every single pregnancy.
For she never knew
whether her newborn would be a boy who would be slaughtered,
or a girl who would be spared only to be humiliated and degraded when she grew up.
This agony tormented her throughout the entire nine months of fear, anxiety, and dread;
she knew neither how to conceal her pregnancy,
nor how to protect her unborn child,
nor what the fate of this pregnancy would be,
nor how the story would end.
Have you ever seen suffering akin to what women endured then, or what they face today?
We will continue in our next session, if Allah wills.
And all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
The story of women's suffering in the time of Moses, peace be upon him.