The Most Important Reasons for This Refusal

1. The weakness of their faith in the prophethood of Musa pbuh and his message, as many of them saw him as a leader, not as a great prophet; moreover some of them even rebelled against his leadership pbuh . 2. Weakness of piety and weakness of fear of Allah, such that it led them into rebelling and disobeying carelessly . 3. Weakness of the souls, fear of the tyrants, submission and surrender to them and enjoyment of injustice, hence abandoning jihad in the way of Allah . 4. The concern for this worldly life more than the hereafter, and hence the love of this world was entrenched in their souls, along with the attachment to life in an unnatural way, as is the case of many Muslims today . 5. The spread of self-love among them such that some of them saw themselves as better than Moses and Aaron pbut and they did not accept their leadership over them!! As stated in the Torah, Book of Numbers Chapter 16: [1 Now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men . 2 And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men . 3 They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them . Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord ?” 4 When Moses heard it, he fell on his face … 12 And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and they said, “We will not come up . 13 Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also make yourself a prince over us?]

And In the Quran came that which is close to this meaning . And it is worthy for us to remember that self-love and arrogance are a moral disease that doomed the children of Adam and cast many of them into the abyss of hell, and how much did Satan fulfill his promise by tempting the son of Adam through arrogance? How much has arrogance been the main obstacle which prevents people from obeying and believing the prophets pbut ? And the most arrogant people over the prophets and the successors pbut are the wealthy and the affluent and the leaders of the people, the Almighty said, ﴾And We did not send into a village any warner except that its affluent said, “Indeed we, in that with which you were sent, are disbelievers .”﴿^[1] As they see themselves better than the prophets and the successors pbut , and better than every religious or worldly leader that is assigned by Allah, and they envy them for what Allah gave them, the Almighty says, ﴾54 Or do they envy people for what Allah has given them of His favor? But We had already given the family of Abraham the Scripture and the Wisdom and conferred upon them a great sovereignty . 55 And some among them believed in it, and some among them were averse to it . And sufficient is hell as a blaze .﴿^[2] And from that which has passed, we know that the hearts of the Children of Israel who set out with Moses pbuh contained a lot of moral corruption . Therefore, the wilderness with which Allah punished them for refusing to enter the Holy Land was necessary to purify their souls and bring them back to the sound nature of monotheism and goodness . Also, during the forty years in the wilderness a generation from the Children of Israel was raised in the desert, and they were the sons and the grandchildren of those who set out with Moses pbuh . And they did not have a home to settle in nor much from the ornaments of this world which would draw them toward it and tie them to its people, and they were not under the authority of any tyrant who would inflict them with the worst of torture and instill fear and weakness in their souls . Therefore they were raised to be free and lovers of freedom . And prob-

ably the miracles which they saw in the wilderness had a great impact in their upbringing of high faith and spirituality . So in the wilderness a generation grew which was faithful, strong, brave and qualified to carry and spread the divine message, qualified to fight the darkness and qualified for jihad in the way of Allah and entering into the Holy Land . And from here, the reason is made clear behind the divine care for these parents and sending them a great prophet from Uli al-Azem^[3] who is Moses pbuh , even though the majority of them were corrupt and were not fit to carry the divine message . Moreover, all of those who set out with Moses pbuh died in the wilderness, and none of them remained except Caleb and Joshua pbut , so that Joshua pbuh would later lead the children and grandchildren to the entrance of the Holy Land and victory over the tyrants . And in conclusion, the benefit from the wilderness is that it was a reformatory process as well as a punishment, and its main goal was the reformation of the souls of the Children of Israel and raising them on the refusal of injustice and corruption and the refusal of rulers of oppression and tyranny after they inclined toward this injustice and surrendered to it, and after they did not move a muscle to change their bad situation in Egypt . And the location of the wilderness had a major influence, being that it is a wilderness; therefore a person would take refuge in Allah in it and rely upon Him and fortify himself by the allegiance of Allah and remembrance of Him . Also, the character of Moses pbuh had a major influence on the reformation of the Children of Israel and qualifying them to carry the divine message . So this divine existence, which Allah swt had made for Himself and for the support of His religion, as mentioned in the Quran,^[4] fought in the way of Allah alone when he was in the palace of Pharaoh, so he helped the oppressed ones and he stood in the face of the arrogant ones, and when there was no option but to use force, he killed one of those oppressors as mentioned in the Quran . The Almighty said, ﴾And he entered the city at a time when its people were unaware and he found therein two men fighting, one of his own followers and

the other of his enemies . And his follower asked for his support against he who was of his enemies . So Moses struck him with his fist and killed him . He said, “This is of Satan’s work . Verily, he is an obvious misleading enemy .”﴿^[5] As for his saying pbuh , ﴾This is of Satan’s work”﴿he perhaps said this and meant by it the matter which resulted in the killing, or he probably meant by it the killed person himself, for he is a work of Satan considering that whoever taints the nature within him of monotheism and good is Satan .^[6] And Moses pbuh left Egypt after that incident, afraid for his religion and vigilant for the mercy of Allah, vowing to Allah upon what He has given him from strength, faith and guidance, that he will never be of support to the oppressor, not even with silence regarding his oppression . So he migrated to Allah leaving behind the despicable materialistic world and the extravagance of Pharaoh’s palace, satisfied and content with the provision of Allah’s sustenance, so Allah bestowed upon him [the blessing] to follow a great prophet, who is Jethro (Shoayb) pbuh , and to marry one of his daughters . And he stayed with him for ten years, herding livestock, and may it be that is from the arrangement of Allah for Moses pbuh . Then Allah wished to bring him back to his people in Egypt after this absence from them to take them out of the darkness into the light and out of slavery into freedom . So he brought out of them a good and divine generation who are qualified to carry the divine message as previously mentioned, and he would not have been able to bring out these free children who are submissive to Allah from those slaves who are rebellious against the command of Allah, if it was not for the mercy of Allah and His favor upon them, and if it was not for this sacred existence, Moses pbuh , whom Allah has made and purified . •