Tafseer of Abraham · Ibrahim · 14:6
And [recall, O Children of Israel], when Moses said to His people, "Remember the favor of Allah upon you when He saved you from the people of Pharaoh, who were afflicting you with the worst torment and were slaughtering your [newborn] sons and keeping your females alive. And in that was a great trial from your Lord.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah, exalted be His remembrance, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: Remember, O Muḥammad, when Mūsā ibn ʿImrān said to his people among the Children of Israel: اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ (remember the favor of Allah upon you), which He bestowed upon you. إِذْ أَنْجَاكُمْ مِنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ (when He saved you from the people of Pharaoh): this means: when He saved you from the people who adhered to the religion of Pharaoh and obeyed him. يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ (who made you undergo the grievous punishment): that is to say: they made you taste the severe torment. وَيُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ (and they slaughtered your sons): together with making you taste the severe punishment, they also slit the throats of your sons.
The wāw was inserted in this place because, by His words وَيُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ , it was reported that the people of Pharaoh punished the Children of Israel with all kinds of torment besides the throat-slitting, and with the throat-slitting as well. In another place in the Qurʾān, however, it occurs without the wāw: يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ يُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ (al-Baqara: 49), and in another place: يُقَتِّلُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ (al-Aʿrāf: 141) — without the wāw — because يُذَبِّحُونَ and يُقَتِّلُونَ in those places served as an explanation of the kinds of torment that they made them undergo. So it is in every whole that one wishes to elucidate further: one mentions the explanation without the wāw; but when one wishes to follow it with something that is not an explanation of it, one uses the wāw.
Muḥammad ibn al-Muthanná related to us, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿUyayna, concerning His words وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَى لِقَوْمِهِ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ : "The favors of Allah upon you and His days."
His words وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ (and they let your women live): this means: they let your women live and refrained from killing them. This was their istiḥyāʾ of them. We have explained this in an earlier place in a manner that makes repetition here superfluous. Its meaning is: they let them live. To this belongs the report from the Prophet ﷺ: "Kill the old men of the polytheists (mushrikīn) and spare their young ones" — that is to say: let them live and do not kill them.
وَفِي ذَلِكُمْ بَلاءٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ (and in that is a great trial from your Lord for you): Allah, exalted, says: and in what the people of Pharaoh did to you of all kinds of torment, there is a great trial and test for you from your Lord. "Al-balāʾ" can in this place also mean "favor," or it can refer to the trial that befalls people through adversity.
