05 October 2014: Musa (part 12) 9 Signs / Calamities

05 October 2014: Musa (part 12) 9 Signs / Calamities

Story of Musa* (part 12)

9 Signs from Allah to the People of Pharaoh
Following the humiliation and PR disaster of Pharaoh in court by the miracles of Musa*, and the conversion of the top magicians to being Muslim, Pharaoh resolved not to agree to the request of Musa* and denied his message and did not free Bani Israel. Hence, Allah sent down some more signs (miracles) to persuade Musa* and his people. The people were all aware of the message of Musa* because whilst recruiting the top magicians people would be told the issues! Musa* told his people to be patient and they will have victory. But his people had a slave mentality and were very negative and defeatist.
We seized Pharaoh's people with years of drought and scarcity of fruits so that hopefully they would pay heed. [TMQ 7: 130]
Whenever a good thing came to them, they said, "This is our due." But if anything bad happened to them, they would blame their ill fortune on Moses and those with him. No indeed! Their ill fortune will be with Allah. But most of them did not know. [TMQ 7: 131]
They said, "No matter what kind of Sign you bring us to bewitch us, we will not have faith in you." [TMQ 7: 132]
So We sent down on them floods, locusts, lice, frogs and blood, Signs, clear and distinct, but they proved arrogant and were an evildoing people. [TMQ 7: 133]
Whenever the plague came down on them they said, "Moses, pray to your Lord for us by the contract He has with you. If you remove the plague from us, we will definitely believe in you and send the tribe of Israel away with you." But when We removed the plague from them—for a fixed term which they fulfilled—they broke their word. [TMQ 7: 134-135]

We talked about most of the signs this week:
1.    Snake / Staff
2.    White Hand
3.    Years of drought
4.    Scarcity of fruits*
5.    Floods
6.    Locusts
7.    Lice / ticks / fleas
8.    Frogs
9.    Blood**

* Some Scholars consider ‘Scarcity of Fruits’ to be part of sign / miracle 3 (Years of Drought) because you cannot have one without the other. They would then have the splitting of the Sea as the last sign / miracle
Floods ~ This has been recorded as severe weather changes and floodwater that would not evaporate or drain away – thus preventing food from growing near the Nile
Locusts were so many that they blacked out the sky and ate all the crops anyway. Once finished eating the food they would invade the houses and eat the furniture!
Lice / ticks / fleas would live on the skin and cause immense skin irritation and cause the people to scratch away constantly
Frogs have been recorded as being so many that they would be everywhere, from inside food to the beds and even jumping in people’s mouths as they tried to eat or talk
** Blood will be discussed next week InshaAllah, as well as more detail about the response of Pharaoh and the people

Response from Pharaoh
Despite the arrogance of Pharaoh, he and his people were suffering each time. Then his inner circle / cronies (Malla) insisting that Pharaoh negotiate with Musa* to lift the magic/signs otherwise there will be revolution and Pharaoh will lose power anyway. So Pharaoh had to send a delegation to Musa* and then Musa* would be promised freedom for his people and Egyptians believing so Musa* would make du’a and the punishment would be gone. But Pharaoh would go back on his word as his cronies would say that their own gods or deeds made it happen!
These later miracles would affect the people of Egypt but would exempt the people of Musa* - Bani Israel!
Also, we rely on Qur’an and Sunnah for these stories and are not referring to the Bible for these stories because we have confidence in our sources but not confident that the Bible is authentic – as we know it has been changed as is not protected by Allah.