Moses (a.s) appears in the Qur’an not only as a lawgiver and liberator but as a mirror in which humanity can watch its own spiritual awakening unfold in stages; his staff, hand, shoes and even his infancy become “tools” that translate divine love into forms the evolving human mind can bear.
Throughout history Allah’s actions manifest in stages, whether in the creation of the world, the ascent of the spirit, or the dispensation of punishment and reward, and this gradual unfolding is reflected in the journey from Adam’s instinctive innocence to the moral consciousness symbolised by his first act of disobedience, which opened the door to choice, responsibility and spiritual growth.
Prophets are thus sent in stages, in harmony with human intellectual development, for
“Allah does not burden any soul with more than it can bear” (2:287)
guiding mankind towards spiritual stability and sobriety as hearts learn to merge their limited selves with the limitless Divine. From Adam’s awakening of intellect, through the unification of faiths by the Promised Messiah(as), to the advances of AI, one theme persists: unity. Humanity’s progress in spirit and science reveals that diversity leads us back to the oneness of the Creator.
The stages of Moses (a.s), Jesus (a.s), Muhammad (s.a), and the Promised Messiah represent four sequential phases of humanity’s spiritual evolution and devolution, with each Messiah sent as a divine helper to restore faith and guide mankind to righteousness.
Within this graduated scheme Moses (a.s) stands beside the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s.a) as a pivotal figure, both described as “first” in their respective stations of faith and submission, revealing both similarity and transcendence.
Regarding Moses (a.s), Allah says,
“And when Moses came at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show Thyself to me that I may look at Thee.”
He replied,
“Thou shalt not see Me, but look at the mountain; if it remains in its place, then shalt thou see Me.”
And when his Lord manifested Himself on the mountain, He broke it into pieces and Moses (a.s) fell down unconscious. And when he recovered, he said,
“Holy art Thou, I turn towards Thee, and I am the first to believe” (Ana Awwalul momineen)” (7:144).
The Holy Prophet(sa) is likewise commanded,
“Say , My Prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are all for Allah, the Lord of the worlds, He has no partner, And so am I commanded, and I am the first of those who submit (Ana Awwalul Muslemeen)” (6:163-164; 6:15; 39:12-13)
showing a shared archetype of primordial faith while other verses indicate that where Moses (a.s) stood at the edge of the blessed valley, the Holy Prophet(sa) had entered fully into it, beholding “the greatest of the Signs of his Lord” (53:9). The Perfect Man(sa) fulfilled all capacities bestowed by God, but man cannot transcend his created nature to become divine. Despite millennia of years of computation, a machine is still a machine. No spark of consciousness has emerged. Consciousness cannot be manufactured by sheer iteration. It must be bestowed by God, just as proximity to Him at the highest station of the Prophet(sa) required God’s descent, not just man’s ascent. (Surah an-Najm 53:9)
The encounter with the burning fire in the sacred valley of Tuwa powerfully illustrates how divine intention meets human need, especially when the heart is most open and receptive as it was for Moses (a.s). As the Quran says, when Moses (a.s) approached the fire, a voice called out:
“Blessed is he who is in the fire and also those around it; and glorified be Allah, the Lord of the worlds” (Falamma ja’aha nudiya an boorika man fi-n-naar wa man hawlaha wa subhana-llahi rabbil-’alamin, (27:9).
The phrase man fi-n-naar wa man hawlaha can be understood in two ways:
it may refer to those seeking the fire versus those simply nearby, or it can point to those actually enveloped by the ‘fire’—whether that symbolizes the fire of divine love or the challenges of trial. Some later commentators misinterpreted this, wrongly asserting that God’s essence is in the fire or that the fire itself represents Him, which contradicts sound theological understanding. The phrase boorika man fi-n-naar, meaning “Blessed is he who is in the fire,” uses a passive form suitable for created beings, not God Himself; for the Divine, the exclusive term is tabaraka, as all blessings originate from Him. Therefore, the intended blessing here is for those present at the revelatory scene, not a suggestion of divinity inhering in the fire. The Promised Messiah(as) says :
“The verse, {So glorified is Allah, the Lord of the worlds} indicates that God’s appearance in this phenomenon was pure and without physical mixture. Related verses (19:53 20:12-13, 28:31,79:17) reinforce that the voice was a means for Moses’(a.s) elevation—his limited, personal search became the gateway to a higher recognition of the Divine.”
At the same time, the Qur’an shows that what happened at Ṭuwā was a remarkable experience, and that the experiences of Prophets vary in significance; some are mainly about the Prophet’s own spiritual journey, while others lead to new laws and guidance shared with their community. Whatever its scope, Moses (a.s) he is told to enter this communion free of worldly attachments:
“So take off thy shoes; for thou art in the sacred Valley of Tuwa” (20:12-13).
In spiritual language “shoes” signify worldly ties such as family and communal bonds, so the command “take off thy shoes” carries the deeper sense of setting aside, at that moment of nearness, all preoccupation with wife, children and people, mirroring the inner stripping away of distractions that every seeker must taste in order to stand truly present before God.
Among the chief “tools” bestowed upon Moses(a.s) is his hand:
“And draw thy hand (Yad) close under thy armpit, It shall come forth white, without any disease — another Sign, that We may show thee some of Our greater Signs; ‘Go thou to Pharaoh; he has indeed exceeded all bounds” (20:23-25; see also 7:109; 26:34; 27:13; 28:33).
The Qur’anic Yad, meaning hand or arm, also carries the figurative senses of favour, authority, help, protection and even “community”, and in this light Moses (a.s) is instructed to keep his “hand” , his people , close under his care so that they may emerge spiritually luminous and morally sound, like a hand that comes forth white without disease. Mystics further note that the bodies of highly spiritual men emit subtle rays whose purity reflects their degree of nearness to God, and prophets in particular radiate a pure white light, so that the miracle of Moses’s (a.s) hand is not a magician’s trick but a symbol, and in some sense a manifestation, of a community gradually purified, enlightened and rendered capable of radiating guidance to others through clear arguments and moral integrity.
The rod is another of Moses’s (a.s) great signs, repeatedly reappearing at decisive moments in his mission to show that the power at work is not his own but that of the Lord whose trust he carries. When first entrusted with prophethood he is asked what is in his right hand, and he answers that it is his staff, a shepherd’s tool on which he leans and with which he tends his flock, until he is commanded to cast it down and sees it come alive as a serpent before being restored again (20:18-22). Later the same staff becomes the means of overpowering Pharaoh’s sorcerers (20:70-74), striking the rock to bring forth water for the Israelites (2:61), and parting the sea at Allah’s command (26:64), so that a simple, familiar object of daily labour turns into a comprehensive sign: whatever lies in one’s hand, identity, influence, wealth, knowledge , can, when surrendered to Allah, be transformed and multiplied far beyond its apparent capacity, provided one is willing to “throw it down” and let it become a vehicle of service.
The transformation of the staff into a serpent is described with three distinct Qur’anic terms, each carefully chosen to reflect a particular aspect of meaning and a particular stage of historical impact. The word Hayyah, used in 20:21, is general and refers to serpents of all kinds; Jann, used in 27:11 and 28:32, denotes a small, agile serpent; while Thu‘ban, used in 26:33 and 7:108, signifies a large, bulky serpent. When the rod becomes a serpent in Moses’s (a.s) private experience the term Jann captures its quick, almost subtle movement, but when the same sign appears before Pharaoh, the magicians and the public, the term Thu‘ban highlights its overwhelming, majestic scale; and when the simple fact of transformation is mentioned without these contextual nuances the more general Hayyah suffices.
Interpreters have seen in this triple vocabulary a map of communal destiny as well as a description of a physical sign: since ‘Asā (rod) can symbolise a community, a dead and downtrodden people like the Israelites receive new life through Moses (a.s) (Hayyah), then grow from a small, fast-moving group (Jann) into a powerful force (Thu‘ban) that ultimately becomes the cause of Pharaoh’s downfall.
Crucially, this and other prophetic miracles are not a violation of nature’s true order but a challenge to the limits of human understanding; if an event is authentically established it must be accepted, even if it cannot yet be explained within the framework of current knowledge, for human awareness of natural law is partial at best and divine signs are never mere hand-tricks but are always oriented towards engendering certainty, piety and reverent awe.
The Qur’an also gathers these manifestations under the phrase “nine manifest Signs” given to Moses: “And of a truth We gave Moses nine manifest Signs, so ask then the children of Israel. When he came to them, Pharaoh said to him, ‘I do think thee, O Moses, to be a victim of deception’” (17:102). Elsewhere these nine are detailed as the rod (7:108); the white hand (7:109); drought and scarcity of fruits, interpreted as hard times including the death of first-born children (7:131); the storm; the locusts; the lice; the frogs; and the punishment of blood (7:134), some of which are pure miracles while others combine the role of sign and punishment, described as ( Ayat mufassalat) “distinct signs” sent at intervals, hinting that a similar pattern of staged signs and ignored warnings would later appear in the ministry of the Holy Prophet(sa) among his own opponents.
Perhaps the most tender dimension of Moses’s (a.s) story, and one which is the way his entire life is wrapped in a secret current of divine love, beginning with his vulnerability as a newborn placed in an ark upon the Nile.
“When We revealed to thy mother what was an important revelation, saying, ‘Put him in the ark, and throw it into the river, then the river will cast it on to the bank, and one who is an enemy to Me and also an enemy to him will take him up.’ And I wrapped thee with love from Me (Wa alqito alaika muhabbatun minni) ; and this I did that thou mightest be reared before My eye” (20:39-40)
and again,
“And We revealed to the mother of Moses saying, ‘Suckle him; and when thou fearest for him, then cast him into the river and fear not, nor grieve; for We shall restore him to thee, and shall make him one of the Messengers’” (28:8).
Every apparent calamity hides a mercy: he is raised in Pharaoh’s very household as “a joy of the eye” to Pharaoh’s wife (28:9-10), restored to his own mother as a suckling child so that her heart is cooled (20:41; 28:11-12), saved after killing a man and led through years of exile in Midian, all before reaching the “standard” of prophetic readiness
“Then We tried thee with various trials. And thou didst tarry several years among the people of Midian. Then thou camest up to the standard, O Moses” (20:41)
and being told,
“And I have chosen thee for Myself” (20:40-42).
From all this the deepest realization is seeing that love is the true meaning behind all events, even those that seem harsh or tragic. Loss and hardship contain spiritual lessons; even destruction or sorrow can point to transformation and salvation. These teachings show that the journey of awakening moves from feeling lost in limitations to discovering one’s eternal connection to the Divine, guided by inner intuition and signs along the way. just as Moses’s mother is torn between fear and trust until unfolding events confirm the promise that “We shall restore him to thee”.
Seen together, Moses’s shoes, hand, staff, serpent and cradle are not isolated marvels but a coherent grammar of divine pedagogy, teaching that guidance comes in stages, miracles shift our perception without violating true order, and every apparent loss can conceal a greater nearness to Allah for those who, like Moses, are willing to remove their “shoes”, surrender what is in their hands and discover in the river of events that they have been wrapped in divine love from the very beginning.