Former Prophets

The Basket on the Nile

The infant Musa (peace be upon him) cast into the river (Q 28:7-9)

The time of Musa (peace be upon him)

Imagined 360° reconstruction of The Basket on the Nile

Educational historical reconstruction

Where

The Nile, in the eastern Delta of Egypt

30.0000, 31.2000 · View on OpenStreetMap

Background

The Qur'an records the infancy of Musa (peace be upon him) in Surat al-Qasas (Q 28:7-13) and Surat Ta-Ha (Q 20:38-40). Pharaoh had ordered the killing of all male Hebrew infants (Q 28:4); the mother of Musa (peace be upon her) was inspired by Allah to nurse her child and, when she feared for him, to set him adrift in a sealed reed basket on the Nile, with the divine promise that he would be returned to her (Q 28:7, wa-awhayna ila ummi Musa an ardi'ihi fa-idha khifti 'alayhi fa-alqihi fi al-yamm wa-la takhafi wa-la tahzani inna raddunhu ilayki wa-ja'iluhu min al-mursalin). The basket drifted downriver and was retrieved at the water-steps of a royal palace by the attendants of the royal women's household; the wife of Pharaoh, Aasiya (radiyallahu 'anha), named by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) among the four perfect women of all generations in Sahih al-Bukhari 3411, adopted the child against her husband's policy. Musa (peace be upon him) refused to nurse from any wet-nurse the royal household brought to him; his sister, who had followed the basket from a distance (Q 28:11), then approached and offered the infant's own mother as a wet-nurse, so that the mother of Musa (peace be upon him) was returned to him as the Qur'an had promised. The Sunni qisas tradition (Ibn Kathir's Qisas al-Anbiya', al-Tha'labi's 'Ara'is al-Majalis, al-Tabari's opening volumes) preserves the narrative in detail and places the events in the eastern Delta of Egypt. The dating is by anchor (the time of Musa peace be upon him), conventionally placed by Sunni scholarship in the New Kingdom period of Egyptian history (specifically the Nineteenth Dynasty c. 13th century BCE in the modern Sunni academic consensus, though the Sunni qisas tradition does not fix a year). This scene depicts the basket prominent in the papyrus reeds at first light, with the water-steps of the palace and the silhouetted attendants noticing it but not yet acted; the infant Musa (peace be upon him) is not depicted.

What you see

A reach of a great river edged with papyrus thickets and reed beds. The water is brown and slow; the dawn light comes from the east over the Delta. The water-steps of a royal palace descend into the river on the near bank.

Among the papyrus, a small reed basket sealed with pitch, drifting in the current, large and prominent in the foreground, with no detail of what is inside. The Qur'an records the mother of Musa (peace be upon her) was inspired to set her infant adrift in this basket to save him from the order of Pharaoh that all male Hebrew infants be killed (Q 28:7).

At the water-steps, the attendants of the royal women's household notice the basket, figures depicted from behind, in Egyptian linen, with their faces not visible. Q 28:9 records: 'And the wife of Pharaoh said: A delight of the eye for me and for you, do not kill him; perhaps he may benefit us, or we may take him as a son.' She would adopt the infant and raise him in the royal household.

The Qur'anic narrative of the infant Musa (peace be upon him) on the Nile is one of the foundational moments of his prophetic biography: the child of a persecuted people raised in the household of the persecutor by divine providence, the foundational reversal of Q 28:5-6 ('And We desired to confer favour upon those who were oppressed in the land').

The light is the first light of dawn over the Delta; the air is cool, the river slow. The dating is by anchor: the time of Musa (peace be upon him), conventionally placed by the Sunni qisas tradition in the second millennium BCE in Egypt.

The narrative: Q 28:7-13, Q 20:38-40. The Sunni qisas: Ibn Kathir, Qisas al-Anbiya'; al-Tha'labi; al-Tabari.

Primary sources

The Qur'an, Surat al-Qasas 28:7-13, Surat Ta-Ha 20:38-40: The principal Qur'anic narrative of the infant Musa (peace be upon him) on the Nile.

Sahih al-Bukhari 3411: The hadith naming Aasiya (radiyallahu 'anha), the wife of Pharaoh, among the four perfect women of all generations.

Ibn Kathir, Qisas al-Anbiya' (14th c.): Standard Sunni stories of the prophets; the chapter on Musa (peace be upon him).

al-Tabari, Tarikh and Jami' al-Bayan: Standard Sunni history and tafsir.

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