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Aasiyah (AS)
According to the Qur’an and Islamic tradition, the wife of the Pharaoh of the Exodus and adoptive mother of Moses, identified as Bithiah in the Jewish tradition.
She is revered by Muslims as one of the four greatest women of all time, and according to a prophetic narration in Sahih al-Bukhari, the second ever.
The light was bright and blinding.
It moved towards the Kingdom of Egypt and engulfed the homes of the Pharoah’s men.
All the houses were destroyed by its power except a few.
Pharoah’s eyes could not bear the blazing brightness of it anymore.
His eyes snapped open as he laid on his bed covered in cold sweat.
He jolted out of his bed and called out loudly to his manservant
“Summon the best dream interpreters of the kingdom to the castle right NOW!”
Many great fortune tellers and interpreters gathered at the castle in a meeting with the Pharaoh and his royal council. They all listened quietly to the Pharaoh narrating his strange dream.
‘Tell me, what is the meaning of this dream, what is the truth behind it?’ the Pharaoh questioned his subjects.
The tense silence was broken by the murmurings and whispers as everyone discussed what they had just heard.
At last a man stood up to speak,
“ Oh Pharaoh, my Lord, we all are the most knowledgeable people of the kingdom gathered here, and we have all derived the same meaning from your dream. I am afraid this is rather grim and I…I.. I cannot..” the man stammered with fear.
“GET TO THE POINT! WHAT DOES IT MEAN?”
The Pharaoh snarled at him.
‘My Lord, a child from Bani Israel is going to be born, who will overthrow your rule over the Kingdom and bring freedom for the people of his tribe”.
Pharaoh’s face turned purple with rage when he heard that.
Bani Israil was a tribe of people who were turned into slaves by the Pharaoh.
The people of Pharaoh would make them work tirelessly and beat them.
‘KILL ALL THE BABY BOYS BORN IN THE FAMILIES OF BANI ISRAEL!”,
Pharaoh commanded his soldiers.
The soldiers walked through the streets, listening for the sound of crying babies and killed any baby boys they could find.
‘No! Have Mercy!’, a mother begged soldiers.
“Kill me! But leave my baby”, a father pleaded.
The Queen was very grieved and saddened by what was happening.
She was a beautiful woman who was known for her generosity.
Her name was Aasiyah (may Allah be pleased with her) and she was the richest woman of that time.
However, she had no power to stop the cruelty of her husband, Pharaoh.
Pharaoh called himself the god of all people and nobody could stand up against him.
One day, Aasiyah was sitting by the river when she heard her maids shouting,
“Look! What’s that in the river?!
“Seems like an old box! Quick grab it! There might be something valuable in it!”
“Oof! It sure is not empty!”,
One of them said as she pulled the box out of the water.
When Aasiyah opened the box, she could not believe her eyes.
Inside it was the most handsome baby boy she had ever seen!
This was no ordinary baby, it was baby Musa, who was to become the Prophet of Allah and save Bani Israel from the Pharaoh.
Aasiyah (may Allah be pleased with her) gently wrapped the baby in her arms and took him to the palace.
The soldiers surrounded her, with knives in their hands, when they saw the baby boy curled up in her arms.
‘Mistress! This baby is a danger to our Kingdom! We have to kill him now!
They cried in panicked voices.
“What?! How can this little weak child ever be so strong to stand up against Pharaoh? No! I will not let you have him until I show him to the King!”
Aasiyah carried the little boy to Pharaoh and said to him,
‘This child makes me happy and he may bring joy to you too. He cannot stand up against you if we raise him like our son’
‘You may keep him if he brings joy to your heart but as for me I don’t need him’,
Pharaoh responded and dismissed her with a wave of his hand.
And so Prophet Musa (upon him be peace) was brought up by Queen Aasiyah with love and kindness in the castle.
As time passed, Musa grew up to be a strong man.
Allah made him his prophet and so Musa called people to worship Allah and stood up to challenge the Pharaoh.
Many people accepted Allah as their true God after seeing the miracles by prophet Musa.
This made the Pharaoh really angry and he ruthlessly killed the followers of Prophet Musa.
Aasiyah had raised Musa like her own son and knew that Musa would not lie.
She had also spent many years with the Pharaoh and had seen that his greed for power had made him very cruel.
So she accepted Musa’s message and worshiped Allah secretly for a long time until one grim day.
‘My Queen!The hairdresser and her kids!” *sobbing voice*
One of the maids rushed inside queen Aasiyah’s room, sobbing.
“What? What happened to them?”
‘The King is going to burn them!
The maid cried.
Aasiyah rushed outside to see what was happening.
The royal hairdresser had accepted the message of Prophet Musa (upon him be peace) and she refused to call Pharaoh as her God.
Aasiyah heard the Pharaoh shout out orders.
The poor hairdresser and her children stood in a line near the pit.
One by one, the Pharaoh’s men pushed her children into the hot burning copper until only she was left with her baby, who was drinking milk in her arms.
Panic gripped her and her heart pounded loudly in her ears, blocking out all the shouts and screams.
She clutched her baby tightly to her chest with shaky hands,not wanting to let go.
And then by the will of Allah, the baby spoke to her!
‘My dear mother, go ahead and jump, you are on the truth, Allah has promised you a great heaven’.
So, she jumped in the pit of boiling copper along with her baby and reached paradise.
Tears of anger and grief rolled down Aasiyah’s cheeks as she watched her cruel husband’s inhumane actions.
She stormed up to Pharaoh and said,
‘I no more believe in you being our god, I believe in Allah, the God of Musa and the God of all the worlds”
The Pharaoh was full of rage at the Queen.
How dare she defy him!
The heinous man did not show a drop of mercy even to his own wife.
He sentenced her to death with punishments so terrifying that it makes my hair stand on ends.
. ‘Oh my God, build for me, near You, a palace in Heaven and save me from Pharaoh and his evil’,
Aasiyah prayed quietly to Allah.
She gazed up at the sky and behold: she could see a magnificent castle up there, the likes of which she had never seen in the world.
Allah opened up the sky for her so that she could see her real home in heaven.
The angels came down and shaded her with their wings and Aasiyah laughed with joy.
Allah saved Aasiyah and took her soul away before Pharaoh could kill her.
“For rising against the most tyrant one,
She was wounded and wilted in a palace of thorns,
Now she blooms, in a castle, near her Lord
Aasiyah, the Queen, with a lion heart”.
