“He said, ‘O Moses, I have chosen you above all people by entrusting you with My messages and by speaking to you. So take what I have given you and be among the grateful.’ (144)
“I have chosen you above all people” means: I have selected you above all people. Ibn Kathir and Abu Amr recited “inniya” with the final ya vowelled with fathah; likewise in, “My brother, strengthen...” [Ta-Ha 31].
“With My messages”: the scholars of the Hijaz recited it in the singular, “with My message,” while the others recited it in the plural. “And by speaking to you; so take what I have given you”: that is, what I have bestowed upon you. “And be among the grateful”: grateful to Allah for His blessings.
If it is asked: What is the meaning of His saying, “I have chosen you above all people by My messages,” when others besides him were also granted messengership? The answer is that, since messengership was not granted universally to every person, it is sound for Him to say, “I have chosen you above all people,” even though others shared this distinction with him. This is like a man saying, “I have singled you out for my consultation,” even if he has consulted others as well, so long as he has not consulted everyone.
Some reports relate that, after his Lord spoke to him, Moses, peace be upon him, could not be looked upon by anyone because of the light that had covered his face. He continued to wear a veil over his face until he died. His wife said to him, “Since your Lord spoke to you, I have been like a woman without a husband.” So he uncovered his face for her, and something like the radiance of the sun overcame her. She placed her hand over her face, fell down prostrate before Allah, and said, “Supplicate to Allah to make me your wife in Paradise.” He said, “That will be yours, provided that you do not marry after me, for a woman belongs to her last husband.”
Abu Sa'id al-Shurayhi informed us; Abu Ishaq al-Tha'labi informed us; Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ali al-Muzakki informed us; Abu al-Abbas Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ishaq al-Sarraj informed us; Qutaybah ibn Sa'id narrated to us; Rashid ibn Sa'd ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Mughafiri narrated to us from his father, from Ka'b al-Ahbar, that Moses looked in the Torah and said: “I find a community that is the best community brought forth for mankind: they enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, believe in Allah, in the first Book, and in the last Book; and they fight the people of misguidance until they fight the one-eyed Dajjal. My Lord, make them my community.” He said, “It is the community of Muhammad, O Moses.”
Moses then said, “My Lord, I find a community who greatly praise You, who watch the sun, who refer matters to Allah’s judgment, and who, whenever they intend to do something,”