Open My Chest for Me

So he said to Allah (swt): rabbi ishraḥ lī ṣadrī. Look at this wonderful duʿāʾ of Mūsā, and what he is asking from Allah. Number one: O Allah, open up my heart and my chest; open my chest for me. Grant me self-confidence, contentment and boldness. This mission of facing Firʿawn needs a very strong heart, so open my heart for me. Give me strength. Give me confidence. Wa yassir lī amrī — and make my mission easy, because Allah (swt) can make the difficult easy. Waḥlul ʿuqdatan min lisānī — and loosen the knot, the defect, from my tongue.

Mūsā had a problem with his speech. We do not know exactly what it was. There is that story of the charcoal and all that, but there is no evidence for it. In any case, we know from the naṣṣ of the Qur'an, from the text of the Qur'an, that Mūsā had a problem with the way he used to speak. Either it was difficulty in pronouncing letters, or difficulty in expressing himself, or he stuttered — Allah knows best. It was a certain defect in the way he used to speak. So he asked Allah (swt) to release a knot from his tongue. He did not ask Allah to make him the most fluent. He asked Allah (swt) to release that knot as much as he would need.