Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “And when We parted the sea for you and saved you, and drowned the family of Pharaoh while you were looking on”

Then Allah the Exalted said: meaning, remember another blessing when He saved you from the family of Pharaoh. Allah parted the sea for them, and *farq* means to separate. This was when the sea split open for them, meaning He separated and split it until they passed through it and were saved. When did this happen? This happened when Musa (peace be upon him) was commanded to proceed with the believers with him out of fear of the family of Pharaoh. For when Pharaoh saw what he saw of the magicians’ deeds, he gathered the people and said: He gathered the people and left Egypt. Allah the Exalted revealed to Musa to proceed with His believing servants at night toward the east. So he left with them, and Pharaoh followed them with his soldiers. When they reached the sea, look at the difference between the strength of Musa’s reliance on Allah and the weakness of the believers, even though they were believers. But in times of hardship, prudence may be lost. It is as if he is saying that Allah did not command me to go out except to guide me. So Allah commanded him to strike the sea with his staff. He struck it, and in an instant the sea split. How many paths were there? There were twelve paths. And in an instant the sea dried up, glory be to Allah, in an instant. The parted sections became like a great mountain, meaning like a huge mountain. Some of them said that Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, intended to reassure the Children of Israel, so He made an opening in each piece of this water that had become like mountains, a gap, so that some of them could see others and reassure one another. The important thing is that when Musa and his people had finished coming out, Pharaoh entered. So Allah the Exalted commanded the sea to close over him, and it closed. For this reason, Allah reminds them of this blessing. meaning, We split it for you so that you could cross it. meaning, We saved you from drowning. And drowning is well known. As for the family of Pharaoh here, the first among them to enter was Pharaoh, but he referred to Pharaoh by “the family” so that no one would think that the drowning or the punishment was specific to Pharaoh alone. So he said: This is more concise than “Pharaoh and his family,” because the phrase could be said as: “and We drowned Pharaoh,” or “We drowned the family of Pharaoh,” or “We drowned Pharaoh and his family.” As for the family of Pharaoh, it is known that they were drowned only because they followed Pharaoh. Is it possible for the branch to be drowned without the root? It is not possible. For this reason, Allah the Exalted said about Pharaoh: Allah drowned the family of Pharaoh until they perished completely. And when drowning overtook Pharaoh, he said: So it was said to him: meaning, for whom will you remain after you? And no one remained except the Children of Israel, because the entire family of Pharaoh was drowned. Allah saved him with his body only to reassure the Children of Israel of his drowning, because the Children of Israel had been greatly afraid of him. So Allah, Mighty and Majestic, showed them his body so that they would be certain that he had drowned. For if they had not seen his body, every possibility would have come to them that he had been saved and would come out. So Allah showed them his body drowning for the sake of reassurance. And His saying: The phrase here is a circumstantial clause, meaning, while you were looking on. And this is among the greatest blessings, that Allah destroys your enemy while you are looking at him, because your joy and happiness will increase when you see your enemy torn to pieces and you have been saved from this. For this reason, Allah reminded them of this blessing, which is that their enemy was drowned while they were looking on.