Abd Allah related to us—my father told me, Ismaʿil ibn ʿAbd al-Karim ibn Maʿqil ibn Munabbih told us, ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil informed us—he said: I heard Wahb ibn Munabbih say:
When Moses, peace be upon him, caught sight of the fire he walked toward it until he drew near. He found before him a great blaze springing from the branch of a tree, verdant—intensely verdant. To his eyes the flames only kept swelling and flaring, while the tree, though ringed by fire, grew ever greener and lovelier. He stood looking, unsure what to make of it. He supposed at first that someone had set a torch to the tree and that its deep greenery, the abundance of its sap, the thickness of its leaves and the size of its trunk were what still held the flames in check. On that assumption he stayed, hoping a live coal might fall that he could carry off.
When the wait grew long he reached toward it with a small bundle of twigs, wanting to take fire from it. As soon as he did, the flame bent toward him as though seeking him; he drew back in fear, then circled the fire. The blaze lured him and he longed for it, yet nothing seemed closer to going out than it. His amazement grew. Moses reflected and said, “It is a fire from which no ember may be taken. It blazes within a tree without burning it—yet its extinction, great as it is, would be quicker than a blink!” He concluded that the fire was under command, wrought for some purpose, but he did not know by whom or for what. Perplexed, he could not decide whether to return or stay.
As he stood thus he cast his glance toward the crown of the tree. It was greener than ever, its colour shining skyward and dispelling the darkness. The greenness then began to glow, then to yellow, then to whiten until it became a radiant light—a column between heaven and earth, bright as a sun-beam that dazzles the eyes. Whenever he looked at it, it almost snatched away his sight. His fear and sorrow intensified; he pressed his hand over his eyes, clung to the ground, and heard a rustling and a humming unlike anything any ear had ever heard for sheer majesty.
When his distress reached its limit and terror overwhelmed him, so that his very wits were about to fail for what he was seeing and hearing, he was called from the tree: “O Moses!” He answered at once, not knowing who was calling him; his speedy reply was but the comfort of hearing a familiar voice. He said, “Here I am—many times! I hear Your voice and sense Your presence, yet I do not see where You are—so where are You?” He was told, “I am above you, with you, before you, and nearer to you than you are to yourself.” On hearing this Moses realised that such words could come only from his Lord—Glorified and Exalted be He—so he was certain. He said, “So it is as You are, my God. Is it Your own speech that I hear, or the speech of a messenger?” He replied, “No; I am the One who speaks to you. Draw near to Me.”
Moses gathered his cloak about him and leaned on his staff, forcing himself to stand, but his joints shook, his legs trembled, his tongue failed, and his heart was crushed; no bone any longer held another—he was like a dead man save that the breath of life still coursed within him. He crept forward in terror until he stood close to the tree from which he had been called. The Lord—Mighty and Majestic—said: “What is that in your right hand, O Moses?” (20:17). He answered, “It is my staff.” He said, “And what do you do with it?”—though none knew that better than Moses. Moses said, “I lean on it, and beat down leaves for my sheep, and in it I have other uses” (20:18).
Moses indeed had many uses for the staff: it had two prongs and below them a hooked crook. The Lord—Mighty and Majestic—said, “Throw it down, O Moses!” Thinking He meant merely, “Cast it aside,” Moses flung it away. Then he glanced toward it—and lo, it had become the greatest serpent ever seen, slithering about as though hunting something to seize. It passed a boulder the size of a mighty camel, uprooted it, struck with one of its fangs at the base of a huge tree and tore it up. Its eyes blazed with fire; the crook had become a mane bristling like meteors; the two prongs had become a gaping mouth like a wide cistern furnished with grinding molars and fangs. When Moses saw that, he “turned in flight without looking back” (27:10). He ran far off, thinking he had escaped the serpent; then he remembered his Lord and halted, ashamed. He was called: “O Moses, return to where you were.” He came back, still in great fear, and was told: “Take it with your right hand, and do not fear; We shall restore it to its former state” (20:21).
Moses at the time wore a woollen mantle fastened with wooden pins. When he was commanded to seize the serpent he folded the edge of the mantle over his hand. An angel said, “Moses, if Allah—Exalted is He—had not safeguarded you from what you fear, would that cloak have protected you?” He answered, “No, but I am weak, and out of weakness I was created.” He uncovered his hand, thrust it into the serpent’s mouth until he heard the crunch of its teeth, then grasped it, and it was again the staff he knew, his hand resting between its two prongs as when he leaned on it.
Allah—Exalted is He—said, “Draw near.” He kept drawing him until Moses rested his back against the trunk of the tree; his trembling left him, he clasped his staff in both hands, and bowed his head and neck. He was told:
“Today I have set you in a station no human after you shall attain. I have brought you near until you heard My speech and stood in the closest place to Me. Go, therefore, with My message: you are under My eye and My hearing; with you are My hand and My support. I have clothed you in a coat of My authority with which you will be fully empowered for My command. You are a mighty host among My hosts.
“I am sending you to a frail creature of Mine who has exulted in My bounty, felt secure from My plan, and been deluded by the world until he denied My right, rejected My Lordship, worshipped others beside Me and claims he does not know Me. I swear by My might: were it not for the excuse and the proof I have set between Myself and My creation I would seize him with the grasp of a tyrant at whose wrath the heavens, the earth, the mountains and the seas would quake. If I command the sky, it will pelt him; if I command the earth, it will swallow him; the mountains will destroy him and the seas will drown him. Yet he is despicable to Me, fallen from My sight; My forbearance encompasses him. I alone am the Self-Sufficient—none other is rich.
“Convey to him My messages. Call him to worship Me alone and devote My Name purely; remind him of My days; warn him of My vengeance and My might; tell him that nothing can withstand My anger—and yet speak to him with gentle words, ‘that he may take heed or fear’ (20:44). Let him know that I am swifter to pardon and mercy than to anger and punishment.
“Let not the worldly finery I have given him alarm you; his forelock is in My hand: he does not blink, speak or breathe save by My leave. Say to him: Respond to your Lord—His forgiveness is vast. He has granted you a respite of four hundred years, during which you have constantly fought Him, imitating Him and turning His servants from His path, while He sends the sky to rain upon you and the earth to grow for you; you have known no sickness, no ageing, no poverty, no defeat. Had He willed to hasten punishment or strip you of your bounty He would have done so; but He is patient, immensely forbearing.
“Struggle against him—both you and your brother—seeking My reward. If I wished I could bring against him hosts he could never resist, but I desire that this weak servant, so pleased with himself and his multitudes, should learn that a small company—indeed, a mere handful aided by Me—overcomes a great host by My permission.
“Let not his adornment please you, nor what he enjoys. Do not stretch your eyes toward it; it is only the blossom of worldly life, the finery of the pampered. Had I willed I could deck you two with a splendour that would make Pharaoh realise his power is helpless beside what you possess. But I prefer to turn you away from that and withhold it from you—and thus I deal with My friends. From of old I have chosen this for them: I drive them from worldly ease as a compassionate shepherd drives his camels from pastures of ruin; I keep them from its comforts as he keeps them from deadly resting places—not because they are lowly in My sight, but so that they may receive their full portion of My honour, untouched by the world and unquenched by desire.
“Know that My servants have never adorned themselves for Me with anything finer than renunciation of the world. It is the garment of the God-fearing: a robe by which they are known for serenity and humility; ‘their mark is upon their faces from the trace of prostration.’ Those are truly My friends. When you meet them, lower your wing to them, yield to them your heart and your tongue. Whoever insults or frightens a friend of Mine has declared war on Me, confronted Me, exposed himself and invited Me to battle—and I am quickest of all to aid My friends. Does one who wars against Me think he can stand before Me, or escape Me, or outrun Me, when I alone avenge them in this world and the next and never entrust their victory to another?”
Wahb said: Moses, peace be upon him, then set out for Pharaoh. Pharaoh had encircled his city with a forest he had planted, in which he kept lions under their keepers; when he loosed them on a man they devoured him. The city had four gates through that forest. Moses approached along the main road, in full view of Pharaoh. When the lions saw him they roared like foxes; their keepers were astonished and fearful before Pharaoh.
Moses continued until he reached the gate where Pharaoh was and struck it with his staff; he was wearing a woollen cloak and trousers. The gate-keeper marvelled at his boldness and barred him, saying, “Do you know whose gate you strike? It is your master’s gate!” Moses replied, “You, I and Pharaoh are all servants of my Lord—Majestic is He—and I am His emissary.” The gate-keeper informed the next, and he the next, until the report passed through seventy doorkeepers—each commanding troops such as Allah willed, like the greatest governors today—until it reached Pharaoh. He said, “Bring him in to me,” and Moses was admitted.
Pharaoh said, “Do I know you?” Moses replied, “Yes.” Pharaoh said, “Did we not rear you among us as a child?” (26:18). Moses answered with the words Allah has recorded. Pharaoh said, “Seize him!” Moses acted first: he threw down his staff and, “behold, it became a manifest serpent” (7:107). It lunged at the people; they fled, and twenty-five thousand of them died, killing one another in their panic. Pharaoh himself sprang up and fled into the palace, then said to Moses, “Set between us an appointed time so that we may consider.” Moses said, “I have not been commanded to that; I have been commanded to confront you outright. If you will not come out to me, I shall come in to you.” Then Allah revealed to Moses: “Set a term between yourself and him, and let him fix it.” Pharaoh said, “Make it forty days,” and Moses agreed.
Pharaoh ordinarily relieved himself only once every forty days, yet that day he needed the privy forty times.
Wahb continued: Moses went out from the city, and when he passed the lions they wagged their tails and walked alongside him, escorting him. They harmed neither him nor anyone from the Children of Israel.