Freedom Has a Price

Keep in mind that the issue here is not the particular types of food. The issue here is not garlic and onions and cucumbers and herbs — even though their particular choice of these foods is amazing, because how could you replace the meat, and al-mann and al-salwā, with garlic and onions? I mean, this shows you their taste. But the issue is not the particular types of food they were requesting. What we need to keep in mind is that Banū Isrāʾīl were refusing to sacrifice. They were not even willing to give up the types of food they had grown up with. They grew up in Egypt eating onions and garlic and cucumbers and these herbs. If they had grown up in Egypt eating Big Macs or Whoppers, they would have asked for the same thing. So the issue here is not particularly the garlic and the onions and the lentils. The issue here is that they were not willing to give up even their daily habits for the sake of Allah.

Why did they leave Egypt? Allah (swt) brought them out of Egypt to free them, and to honour them, and to give them the Holy Land they had been promised. But freedom has a price, and entering the Holy Land needs some work. Banū Isrāʾīl were not willing to give up even the particular types of food they had been eating — let alone work, and sacrifice, and pay for their freedom.

So Mūsā told them: ihbiṭū Miṣran fa-inna lakum mā saʾaltum — go back to Egypt; you will find what you want. If you do not want the freedom, if you do not want the honour, if you do not want the Holy Land, go back to Egypt — go back to the life of slavery, to the life of servitude, to the life of humiliation, to the life of oppression — and you will find all the lentils, garlic and onions that you want.

If you are not even willing to give up a small portion of your lifestyle — if you are not willing to give up a habit you grew up with — how can you pay the price for freedom? You do not deserve freedom. If you are not even willing to change the menu, if you are not willing to change the types of food that you eat, then you do not deserve the freedom and the honour. They wanted the Holy Land, they wanted freedom, they wanted Firʿawn to be destroyed, they wanted establishment — tamkīn — on the earth; but they did not want to do anything, they did not want to sacrifice anything, they did not even want to give up their daily habits.

It may sound very strange: how could such a people do this? How could they go and ask Mūsā for lentils and onions and garlic, when Allah (swt) was providing them with al-mann and al-salwā? It sounds very strange. But remember: always, when we are talking about these stories of Banū Isrāʾīl and Mūsā, relate them to our situation. You are going to find that it is not very different.