Ṭāhā

اذْهَبْ إِلَي فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّهُ طَغَي

قَالَ رَبّ‌ِ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي

وَيَسّـِرْ لِي أَمْرِي

وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِن لِسَانِي

يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي

24. “Go to Pharaoh! Verily he has transgressed (the bounds).”
25. “(Moses) said: ‘My Lord! Expand me my breast!”
26. “And make easy for me my task,”
27. “And loose a knot from my tongue,”
28. “(That) they may understand my saying.”

From this verse on, the content of the verses indicate that the command of Messengership of Moses is issued, a great and heavy messengership, a messengership which begins with conveying the command of Allah to the most powerful, and the most dangerous person of the people of the society of his time, Pharaoh. It says:

Transgression (tuqyan) means: ‘violating the bounds of all dimensions of life’; therefore, such a person in Arabic is called /taqut/. Yes, for improving a corrupt environment and creating a perfect revelation, we must begin with the most mischievous ones and the leaders of disbelievers, those who have control over the functions of all essential elements of the society. Moses not only did not fear such heavy commission, and did not ask Allah for the least alleviation, but also he embraced it eagerly to follow; and he wished Allah (s.w.t.) to give him the necessary means of succession in this commission.

And in view of the fact that the first means of victory is a great spirit, a high thought, and an effective intellect, or, in other words, the ‘expansion of breast’, the verse says:

And since there are some difficulties along this way, which cannot be removed save by the grace of Allah, in the second stage he asked Allah to make the affairs easy for him and to remove all the barriers from his way. He said:

Then, Moses (as) requested Allah to give him a better ability of speech. He also expressed specially the reason of this request. He said:

This phrase, in fact, is an interpretation unto the previous verse. It means that he asked to be able to speak so clear, elegant, and expressive that every hearer could understand him. In other words, as soon as Moses (as) was commissioned to the Divine Messengership, he demanded four things from Allah:

1. The expansion of breast:

2. A preparation for the conditions:

3. A fluent speech:

4. Having an assistant:

And since Moses (as) had been commissioned to different subjects, such as: worshipping, political, revolutionary, social, ethical, personal, and congregational affairs, and paying to every one of them naturally causes man to neglect some others, therefore, the expansion of breast is utterly necessary for obtaining them all. The expansion of breast is necessary both for the person himself and for fulfilling the responsibility, and Moses asked them all from Allah.