be your downfall, so he began killing their male infants. Moses’s mother (peace be upon him) grew fearful for her child, and Allah inspired her—an inspiration, not prophetic revelation—that when she feared for him she should place him in a wooden chest and set it afloat upon the river. How wrenching it is for a mother to put her baby in a box and cast it into the water! Yet she was a believer who trusted the promise of Allah, so she did as she was told: she placed him in the chest and set it upon the river. Pharaoh’s soldiers caught sight of the box, seized it, and made ready to kill the child. When Pharaoh’s wife saw him, however, Allah cast love for him into her heart and she said, “He will be a comfort to the eye for me and for you. Do not kill him; perhaps he will benefit us, or we may adopt him as a son”—all the while they did not perceive what lay ahead.

Meanwhile Moses’s mother was in turmoil; her heart felt empty, as though nothing remained inside her, so great was her anxiety for her son despite her faith in Allah. By His power Allah decreed that every woman brought to nurse the child would be refused—he would not suckle from any of them. At that moment Moses’s sister, whom their mother had sent to learn what would happen to him, saw the people searching for a wet-nurse and said, “Shall I direct you to a household who will care for him for you and will treat him well?” Thus Allah restored him to his mother before he had suckled from anyone else; he drank from no breast but hers, though she had earlier cast him into the river. Allah returned him to her safe and sound.