'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' Allah, the Exalted, said: "And when your Lord called Musa, 'Go to the wrongdoing people, the people of Pharaoh. Will they not fear?" He said, 'My Lord, indeed I fear that they will deny me. And my chest constricts, and my tongue does not speak clearly, so send for Harun.' And I have a sin against me, so I fear that they will kill me.' He said, 'No, go both of you with Our signs. Indeed, We are with you, listening.' So go to Pharaoh and say, 'Indeed, we are the messengers of the Lord of the worlds. Send with us the Children of Israel.' He said, 'Did we not raise you among us as a child, and you remained among us for many years? And you committed your deed which you did, and you were of the ungrateful.' The meaning is: And remember when your Lord called Musa. The narration of this story is a representation for the disbelievers of Quraysh for their denial of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him. And 'that' in His saying, 'Go' can be an explanation without a grammatical position, like 'that is', and it can be otherwise, and it is in the position of accusative. And His saying, 'Will they not fear?' means: Say to them. Thus, in this phrase, he combined the meanings of negating fear of them and commanding them to fear. The majority read: 'Will they fear?' with a 'ya' from below, while Abdullah ibn Muslim, Hamad ibn Salamah, and Abu Qulabah read: 'Will you fear?' with a 'ta' from above, meaning: Say to them. Due to the great power of Pharaoh, his deification, his long duration, and what the hearts have absorbed of his awe, Musa, peace be upon him, said: 'My Lord, indeed I fear that they will deny me.' The majority of people read: 'And my chest constricts' in the nominative, and 'and my tongue does not speak clearly' likewise. Al-A'raj, Talhah, and Isa read that in the accusative. The reading in the nominative is a report from Musa, peace be upon him, about the occurrence of the constriction of his chest and the non-clear speech of his tongue. For this reason, Abu Hatim preferred this reading. The reading in the accusative implies that this is included under his fear, and it is a conjunction to 'they will deny me.' Musa, peace be upon him, had a sharpness in his character, and there was a stutter in his speech due to the ember in his childhood. Abu Amr narrated from Al-A'raj that he read in the accusative 'and my chest constricts' and in the nominative 'and my tongue does not speak clearly.' It may be that the non-clear speech is due to the ambiguity of the meanings that require precise words. If this is at a time of chest constriction, the tongue does not speak clearly. He, peace be upon him, said: 'And untie the knot from my tongue.' The preferred reading is the nominative. And His saying, 'So send for Harun' means: He will assist me and support me. Harun, peace be upon him, was an eloquent minister with a broad chest. He omitted some of the intended meaning from the saying, as the remaining part indicates it.

Then Moses, peace be upon him, mentioned his fear of the Egyptians because of his sin, which was the killing of the man he struck. Qatadah and Mujahid and the people said: He feared that he would be avenged for it. So Allah, the Exalted and Majestic, said to him: ﴿No﴾ in response to his saying: ﴿Indeed, I fear﴾, meaning: Do not fear, in response to that, for I have not burdened you with what you have been burdened with except that I have decreed with your support and victory. And He commanded Moses and Aaron to address Moses only, for Aaron is not spoken to by consensus. But He said to Moses: "Go," meaning you and your brother. And "the signs" encompass all that He sent them with, and the greatest of that is the staff, with which the incapacity occurred, [and the white hand], and with the two signs, Moses, peace be upon him, challenged Pharaoh. There is no disagreement that Moses, peace be upon him, is the one whom Allah, blessed and exalted is He, entrusted with the matter of prophethood entirely, and that Aaron, peace be upon him, was a prophet, a messenger, a helper, and a minister. And His saying: ﴿Indeed, We are with you﴾ either makes the two a plural, or it refers to them and those sent to them and the Children of Israel. And His saying: ﴿Listening﴾ is in a manner of glorification and might that belongs to Allah, blessed and exalted is He. And the form of "Listening" gives attention to the matter that is not in the form of "Hearing," otherwise Allah, blessed and exalted is He, is not described as seeking to listen. Rather, the intent is to show concern to increase the comfort of Moses, peace be upon him, or it may be that the angels, by Allah's command, are listening.

And His saying: ﴿Indeed, We are the messengers of the Lord of the worlds﴾ indicates that the Arabs have made "the messenger" a source in that they described it with both singular and plural and feminine forms. Among that is the saying of Al-Hudhali:

"Send me to her, and the best of the messengers will inform them of the news."

And from him is the saying of the poet, even if he is a later generation:

"Indeed, the one I saw in the morning speaks to me, a messenger."

And His saying: ﴿Send with us the Children of Israel﴾ means: Release them, for it is in the meaning of sending which is in the meaning of freeing, as you say: I sent the stone from my hand.

Moses, peace be upon him, was sent to Pharaoh for two matters: one of them is to send the Children of Israel and remove from them the humiliation of servitude and oppression. The second is to believe and be guided. He was commanded to confront and resist him in the first matter, and he was not commanded to do so in the second according to what has reached him of his command. And he was sent with worship and the law to the Children of Israel only, this is the saying of some scholars.

And Pharaoh's saying to Moses: ﴿Did we not raise you﴾ is in the context of condescension and belittlement, meaning: We raised you as a child, or did we not kill you among those we killed, so you remained with us for years? So when was this that you claim? And the majority of the reciters read: "from your age" with a dammah on the meem, and Abu Amr read: "your age" with it being sukoon.

Then he confirmed it regarding the killing of the Egyptian by saying: ﴿And you did your deed which you did﴾. And the deed - with the opening of the 'fa' - is the instance of the action. And Al-Sha'bi read: 'your action' with the kasra of the 'fa', which is the form of the action. And his saying: ﴿And you are of the disbelievers﴾ has three possible interpretations. One of them is that he means: And you killed the Egyptian while you are among the disbelievers in killing him; for he is a soul and it is not permissible to kill him, as said by Al-Dahhak. Or he means: And you are among the disbelievers in My favor in killing him, as said by Ibn Zayd. These two have the same meaning in terms of the wording, but they differ in the shared term of disbelief. The second interpretation is that it could mean mockery, meaning: And you are upon this religion and you are among the disbelievers according to your claim, as said by Al-Suddi. The third - which is the saying of Al-Hasan - is that he means: And you are now among the disbelievers, referring to Pharaoh, regarding the belief that was between them. Thus, the speech would be disconnected from his saying: ﴿And you did your deed﴾, and it would merely be a statement that he was among the disbelievers. This interpretation could also mean disbelief in the favor.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

There was between the departure of Musa, peace be upon him, when he killed the Egyptian and his return to Pharaoh as a prophet, eleven years excluding the months.