Prophet Mūsā: Part 1 — His Birth, the Palace and the Flight to Madyan
Section 9 of 30 · Lives of the Prophets
We Willed to Favour the Oppressed
وَنُرِيدُ أَن نَّمُنَّ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ ٱسْتُضْعِفُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَنَجْعَلَهُمْ أَئِمَّةً وَنَجْعَلَهُمُ ٱلْوَٰرِثِينَ وَنُمَكِّنَ لَهُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَنُرِىَ فِرْعَوْنَ وَهَـٰمَـٰنَ وَجُنُودَهُمَا مِنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَحْذَرُونَ
“while We intended to favor those who were held as weak in the land, and to make them leaders and make them inheritors, and give them power in the land, and to show Pharaoh, Hāmān and their armies the very thing they were fearing from them.” (28:5–6)
And Allah says: We willed to confer a favour on those who were oppressed in the land, to make them leaders, and to make them the inheritors. Allah (swt) wills, and Firʿawn wills — but whatever Allah wills will come to pass. Allah willed to give His favour to the weak nation. Allah willed to take that weak nation from the bottom and put it at the top — and to establish them in the land, and to show Firʿawn and Hāmān and their soldiers, through them, the very thing they feared.
Some of the Companions said that Firʿawn saw a dream: a light coming out of the Holy Land, Jerusalem, and this light — or fire, Allah knows best — swept through Egypt and destroyed everyone except the houses of the children of Israel. So he asked for the interpretation of the dream, and he was told that it meant a man from the children of Israel would take his kingdom away from him and destroy his army and his people. For Firʿawn, that was easy and simple. He gave his orders to kill every child born in the houses of Banū Isrāʾīl.
It is said that he would send out spies — his security agents — to find any woman of the children of Israel who was pregnant, and they would put her under surveillance before she had even given birth. And as soon as she delivered, if it was a boy, they would slaughter him, and if it was a girl, they would let her live. He killed the males and allowed the females to live.