Ṭāhā

قَالَ أَلْقِهَا يَا مُوسَي

فَأَلْقَاهَا فَإِذَا هِيَ حَيَّةٌ تَسْعَي

قَالَ خُذْهَا وَلاَ تَخَفْ سَنُعِيدُهَا سِيرَتَهَا الاُولَي

19. “Said He: ‘Cast it down O Moses!”
20. “Then he cast it down, and lo! it was a serpent gliding.”
21. “Said He: ‘Take it, and fear not, We will restore it to its first state’.”

In the first couple of holy verses, mentioned in the above, Moses is commanded to throw down his rod and he immediately, and without wasting any moment, threw his rod down, when suddenly it became a great snake and began moving. Here are the verses:

The Arabic term /tas‘a/ is derived from /sa‘y/ in the sense of ‘to walk swiftly’, so that it does not reach to the state of running. In the next holy verse, He told Moses to take the rod. Here is the verse:

Then, as soon as Allah, the Glorified, told him to take it and fear not, his fear went away so that Moses (as) put his hand into the mouth of the serpent and seized its neck; so the serpent changed into its first state, i.e., a rod.¹⁶ It is cited in Majma‘-ul-Bayan that this rod was made of a heavenly piece of wood which the former prophets had inherited from Adam, and Shu‘ayb (Jethro) had given it to Moses (as).

Explanations

1. Human beings naturally are afraid of dangers and the causes of vice and harm, and they avoid them. It is evident that Moses (as), who is a man, also fears. What is criticized, and even disgraceful, here, is heartily fear and anxiety from other than Allah, which is against bravery and it is one of the evil qualities for the true believers, and Moses (as), of course, had been far from it.

2. The fear of Moses (as), perhaps, was for the reason that he had considered the command of ‘cast it down’, respectful, like the command of ‘take off your shoes’, but when it changed into a serpent, he surprised.

Intrinsically, this very fear is itself an evidence that that happening was a miracle, otherwise, a sorcerer who himself knows that his sorcery is not a fact, naturally is not afraid of his own magic.

3. In any moment, Allah gives life to millions of lifeless things, or He takes the life of millions of living creatures. Here, He also gave life to the lifeless rod and then He took it back from it when it became a rod again. Keeping this event in mind, the question is: can He not cause a living person to die, and then He restores him to his first state?¹⁷

Verily, when Allah’s view changes a rod into a serpent, then what happens if He puts a graceful view upon us? And, when the favoured thing of Allah can swallow all the magic of the sorcerers, will His favour toward our hearts not swallow all the evil temptations?

4. At the first onset of the adventure of Moses, there happened two miracles for him. The first was that his rod turned to be a serpent; and the second was that the serpent was restored to its first state.