Story Night 2025: Pharaoh Shall Drown - Summary (EN)

A sneak peek about Story Night 2025 was posted. Ust. Nouman Ali Khan mentioned that this is his first time giving a little bit of Story Night's material. It was about the story of Musa a.s., the most comprehensively narrated story throughout the Quran. The period highlighted in the session would be from the day Musa was confronted with Firaun's best magicians until the moment Firaun drowned in the sea. That would be a pretty long story to delve into. (The session was around 4 hours in total)

Before jumping into the summary of this year's Story Night, let's always remember that Quran is The Divine Speech from Allah and is meant to be the ultimate guidance for humanity. This also means that every single verse has something for us to take into our lives, and that is the core goal of our journey in understanding the Quran: What hikma can I take from this?

 ***

Egyptian Religion 101

During the time of Musa a.s., Egyptian people worshiped stars. Stars are believed to be the cause of wealth, good harvest, good climate, good health, and all other goods. In their beliefs, gods must be pleased with beautiful temples and sacrifices, hence the findings of scattered pyramids of all sizes in the modern world.

Among the people was a ruler, the highest of royals, a Pharaoh, whom we call Firaun, whom was believed as a hybrid: half human, half god. Firaun's job was to ensure harmony in the kingdom. Firaun was also believed to be the source of truth and justice. 

Two features that were very distinct about Firaun is that he wore a crown with a snake figure on top (many sources refer to it as the Uraeus) and a staff. This snake symbolized that no one can attack Firaun, as bad things might happen to them related to the snake "god" or "supreme power". The staff represented power and guidance.

Below Firaun were the priests, the only people who can enter the temples to offer sacrifices to their gods. Before entering the temple, the priests had to perform a washing ritual to ensure their hands were pure before giving up sacrifices.


Musa vs. Magicians and the Crisis of Faith

Musa a.s. was confronted by Firaun. In an open field, watched by countless eyes, Egyptians and Bani Israilians, Firaun gathered the best magicians to defeat Musa. Straight into the strike, Allah swt. gave revelation to Musa a.s. to throw his staff to the ground. By Allah's will, the staff turned into a big snake, a real one. It swallowed the magicians' fake snakes. All symbols of Firaun's power. And with real snake that was more impressive, this event shook people's faith.

All this time we've been fed with the ideology of Firaun being the most powerful, but what is this man doing, coming out will real snake when Firaun's snake is just a still figure on top of his head?

Nouman Ali Khan pictured the situation of people talking to each other, murmuring, assuming.

"Where did Musa get that staff?"

"Maybe from a temple!"

"He might be a priest then!"

According to The Quran, the magicians were so shocked they started to also believe in Musa's god. 

The crisis didn't end that moment. Allah swt. prepared another wave of faith crisis.

Allah swt. gave revelation to Musa a.s. to take his hands out of his robe and his hands were white and glowing. Those hands quickly caught people's attention because those were the most accurate and most legitimate representation of purity which no priest could ever get after their washing rituals.

"He's a pretty good priest."

"There must be a god connected to him!"

Enraged by the situation, Firaun ordered the magicians, or so-called priests, to be tortured and killed. This sparked another crisis to the society.

"All this time we've been following the priests and now they believe in Musa's god??"

"All this time we've been told to follow the priests and suddenly Firaun wanted them dead??"


Religion is the tool to control people

Firaun and the Egyptian politicians use religious narratives told to the society so they can obey Firaun. People were enslaved and forced to serve the royals. Social gap was ever widening. People were under control because they believed the whole story about gods and Firaun as their "god", which was descended across generations.

This faith crisis raised bigger crisis as the society's trust to the government sank. Musa was considered a threat. The military panicked and suggested Firaun to kill Musa, but Firaun instead ordered to kill male children (QS Al Qashash 40:25). As bizarre as this event sounded, there were some items we can take.

  • The "weird" order of killing male children was because they still need the next generation of women to give birth to more people, meaning more slaves. Sick.
  • The moment Musa a.s. "attacked" Firaun, sparks of fear started to linger in Firaun. Why? If people started to believe Musa a.s. more than him, he would lose his power and governance.


The Complexity of Bani Israil

During the crisis, Musa a.s. already had followers, and most of them were Bani Israil. Bani Israil were the slaves, the oppressed people. The order to kill children of course made them panic. Musa told them to be patient and seek refuge to Allah (QS Al A'raf 7:128), but this didn't fit into their minds and caused faith crisis between them, loosen the bond. This event could be seen from many perspectives.

The land belongs to Allah

As the oppressed, some people from Bani Israil started to side with the oppressors because that was considered the safest way. Although being oppressed, Musa a s. told them "Don't be scared. The land belongs to Allah."

From generation to generation, Bani Israil had believed that the land of Egypt belongs to the Egyptian government, leaving them with no sense of belonging or security to the place they were living in. In fact, the Egyptians had just happened to own the land, and Allah gives the land to whoever He wants of any of His slaves (QS Al A'raf 7:128). This concept was something Bani Israil had to learn.

Suffering is not a curse

The oppression Bani Israil had to endure at the moment were being taken as Allah's anger and punishment. That was the common mindset from Egyptian religion that the Pharaoh brought up. What Musa a.s. tried to bring them to understand was that the one with power is not blessed and the one powerless is not cursed. The real powerful people are the muttaqin, people with taqwa. No other worldly things could compare to having taqwa for those living in tauhid.


Transactional Religion

Have you ever heard about transactional religion? This topic was actually presented on Story Night 2024 "Breaking Free". People from the past worshipped things to fullfill their wantings such as health, wealth, bounty harvest, et cetera. They present sacrifices in return of wordly things. This concept of worship didn't align with tauhid, which became a huge challenge of dakwa.

"We've been tortured before we know Allah and we are now even more tortured after we worship Allah. Where is Allah's help?" they said, demanding help in return of their submission to Allah.

"Maybe Allah will kill your enemy, ..." Musa a.s. said.

"Right. That's the God I worship. Kill our enemies and make us powerful."

"... then let's see how you'll behave."

Musa a.s. reminded Bani Israil that because taqwa is the most important, answers to our prayers aren't guaranteed by the intensity of our supplication alone. The real question is: can we guarantee our taqwa will endure after we get what we asked for?


Musa's God is Angry

Following Firaun's threat to kill male children, Allah swt. sent series of punishments to Egypt. Firstly, Allah swt. stopped the rain in Egypt. Drought brought no harvest, no food (QS Al A'raf 7:130). Egypt was on the verge of collapse. According to Egyptian's beliefs, the catastrophe was caused by an angry god, which then was ascribed to Musa's god. Remember, Musa was the only "proven" magician after the snake battle. But the government persisted not to believe in Musa a.s. To make it worse, Egyptian politicians exposed that good times meant their gods were responding to them and bad times meant Musa is to be disobeyed because his god is evil (QS Al A'raf 7:131).

Why were they so threatened by Musa? 

  • According to the military, Musa a.s. was the biggest threat. If someone knew about a corrupt government and drive the story back, the government will be destroyed. Musa was the man.
  • Musa a.s. only fear Allah swt. No threat would defeat him or at least made him surrender to the government and be "normal" Egyptian society.

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