Al-Baqarah 49: At one time, We saved you and your ancestors from the auxiliaries of Pharaoh; they were subjecting you to tormenting punishment, killing your sons and sparing your daughters alive. There was a great trial for you in this from your Lord.

Surah Al-Baqarah, verse forty-nine. Once We had rescued you and your forefathers from Pharaoh's henchmen. Now what does this support? This verse. What did we say? O Children of Israel, remember all the blessings I bestowed on you, and that above the worlds I raised you. Right? Now it supports 'all the blessings I gave you'. Let me see: We had rescued you and your forefathers from Pharaoh's henchmen. Subjecting you to the worst of torment, they slaughtered your sons and wanted to keep your daughters alive. And in this there was for you, from your Lord, a great trial. Yes, a trial. Indeed, Allah Almighty says this in His verse: Before the afflictions of those of old befall you, did you think you could enter Paradise right away? He says.

Yes.

So, once We had rescued you and your forefathers from Pharaoh and his henchmen. Subjecting you to the worst of torment, they slaughtered your sons, and wanted to keep your daughters alive, and in this there was for you, from your Lord, a great trial. Once upon a time the astrologers say: from the Children of Israel a boy will be born who will take your throne from you. Thereupon Pharaoh at once kills the Children of Israel's male children, and was leaving the girls free.

This was a great trial for the Children of Israel.

What it calls the worst of torment: all the sewers, underground channels, the greatest hardship, the worst jobs and the heaviest taxes were imposed on them. They gave what they earned to the state and went hungry themselves. They lived in great poverty. Yes. In Egypt Pharaoh had proclaimed his divinity and made people worship him. In this situation Pharaoh's astrologers, that is, the sorcerers, told Pharaoh: a boy will be born, he will be a prophet.

A question may come to your mind right away: How do they know? How do they know?

These sorcerers I called astrologers were in partnership with the jinn. And the jinn, before the Prophet came into the world, used to sit in the constellations and listen to the angels' conversations. And they would come and tell these to the astrologers, the sorcerers. And some of these turned out true, some (?). After the Prophet (peace be upon him) was born, these jinn could no longer approach those places. They found (?) pursuing them. That's how the sorcerers, the astrologers knew. Yes.

They told Pharaoh: a boy will be born, he will be a prophet. Thereupon Pharaoh began having all the boys born that year killed, while the girls he spared. When Moses was born, his mother put him in a basket and set him adrift on the (?).

To Moses' mother, Allah Almighty, three nights in a row, through dreams, putting him in a basket and setting him on the Nile, He shows her. Three nights in a row.

And at last she (?), prepares a basket, and on the Nile sets him adrift. And she tells her daughter, that is, his sister: my girl, along the bank of the stream, follow your brother. Following her brother, she sees that in Pharaoh's palace one of his wives takes the basket.

Because he had the boys killed, his women hide him for a while. Then: this is a very beautiful child. Let's raise him here, she says. And Pharaoh consents to this. Then the child won't nurse. He won't nurse at anyone's breast.

His sister comes. I know a woman, she says. Probably, she says, they had killed her child too. Her milk, she says, will probably suit him, she says. When his mother, his mother, as wet nurse was taken into the palace, Moses began to nurse her milk. And so his mother was reunited with her son. Thus she raises him in the palace.

These, how beautiful, Allah Almighty's (?); His unknown doors are many; from those unknown doors He opens His mercy to them.

The truck couldn't get out, Hodja. Yes. The truck must be leaving. The cars have blocked the road. Yes. Let them move the cars.

Among Allah Almighty's miracles: Moses, passing by Pharaoh's palace, is seen by Pharaoh's wife. He is taken out of the river and raised in the palace. Again among Allah Almighty's miracles, his mother is given to him as his nurse.

And at last Moses grows up in the palace. Meanwhile Pharaoh continues oppressing the Children of Israel.

And when they were about to be slaughtered, by Allah Almighty's mercy Moses takes the lead of the Children of Israel and, to save the Children of Israel from oppression, takes them away from Pharaoh.

These are sentences passed over briefly.

There is a lot in brief here. But since we will tell it in the coming verses, we pass over it briefly here. It's worth touching on. We will touch on it again, sentence by sentence.

He sends Moses to Pharaoh as a messenger, Allah Almighty.

Pharaoh does not believe Moses.

Then he gathers his astrologers. The astrologers compete with Moses in magic. The (?) the astrologers throw become a monster. When Moses throws the staff from his hand, it swallows those monsters, and the astrologers say: we believe in Moses' Allah.

When Pharaoh keeps oppressing them, Allah Almighty gives Pharaoh what are called the seven miracles: blood, locusts, famine, drought and such afflictions. Frogs. Each time, to Moses they plead. When those afflictions are lifted from them, they return to their old ways. Finally, when he was about to destroy the Children of Israel, Allah Almighty tells Moses: take your people by night, set out. And he takes his people away. Pharaoh, hearing of this, goes after the Children of Israel with his army. Meanwhile, at the Red Sea, by Moses striking the sea with his staff, they cross over. When those plunge into the sea wanting to catch them, Allah Almighty destroys them, them, in the sea.

So He takes them away from Pharaoh. Pharaoh, hearing of this, goes after Moses with his army. He corners Moses at the shore of the Red Sea. Then, by Allah Almighty's miracles, Moses heads out into the sea. The people of Israel cross over. When Pharaoh, too, plunges into the (?) sea, Allah Almighty, Pharaoh together with his henchmen, drowns in the water before the eyes of the people of Israel. This event was a great trial for the people of Israel. How beautifully Allah Almighty, through events, lets the reward that awaits the patient be lived.

That was their trial. Part of the trial is also this: Moses kills a man. And he goes to the prophet Shuaib. When he comes back again, he takes the Jews, that is, the Children of Israel. When he nears the Red Sea, they say: how well we lived under Pharaoh's rule. Now, they say, you will destroy us all here, get us killed, they say. If only we hadn't followed you, hadn't obeyed you, they say. And some say: we have believed in him, and we know he will save us from here, they say. Believers and unbelievers within the same people cross over. And finally, those who saw so many miracles, amid these trials, still go against Allah.

When Moses climbs Mount Sinai, goes to receive the Ten Commandments, the calf that the Samiri had made, they begin worshipping it again.

From this verse, in short, we understand that the world is not merely play and a plaything. Each of us, toward Allah Almighty, has a responsibility. As long as we live on earth, during our life we encounter many evils and many goods. Within these evils and goods, the actual deeds we do become our good deeds and our sins. So the duty falling to us, even when these are evils, is to accept what comes from Allah Almighty, to bow to His command, and to put our trust in Allah Almighty.