Do Not Prefer Me Over Mūsā

We have finished the story of Mūsā (peace be upon him), and we would like to end his story by mentioning a few of his faḍāʾil, his manāqib — not all of them; we will just mention a few.

Mūsā (peace be upon him) was the most frequently mentioned nabī in the Qur'an; he is mentioned more than any other nabī. And Allah (swt) praised Mūsā and said: wa kāna ʿinda Allāhi wajīhā — he was distinguished; he was noble; he was honoured. Allah (swt) is the One who gave him that title. And Allah (swt) says:

And mention in the Book, Mūsā: he was chosen, and he was a messenger and a prophet. Allah (swt) chose him out of mankind.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: lā tufaḍḍilūnī ʿalā Mūsā, fa-inna al-nāsa yaṣʿaqūna yawma al-qiyāmah, fa-akūnu awwala man yufīq — narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: do not prefer me over Mūsā. And we talked about what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) means by this. It is our belief, and we know, that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the best of mankind. But we know what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) means by this: his humbleness (peace be upon him). Do not prefer me over Mūsā.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) does not want us to go to the non-believers and start saying: we have Muhammad, you have Mūsā, and Muhammad is better than Mūsā. No. Because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) does not want us to fight with the non-believers and end up taking a stance against the anbiyāʾ of Allah (swt) — because Mūsā is a Muslim, and ʿĪsā is a Muslim. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) does not want us to get into that. He said: do not say that I am better than Mūsā.

Because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says that on the Day of Judgement everybody will go through a ṣaʿqah, a shock. Everyone will go through that shock, and everyone will be unconscious, as if dead. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: and I will be the first one to rise up — but I will find that Mūsā is already grabbing the Throne of Allah (swt). And I do not know whether he was exempted from the shock, or whether he did not go through the shock because he had already gone through it when he asked to see Allah. You remember when we talked about Mūsā asking to see Allah: wa kharra Mūsā ṣaʿiqā — he went through a shock and fell unconscious. So Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that perhaps Allah did not put him through the shock on the Day of Judgement because he had already been through a shock in the dunyā — that is enough; once is enough. So Mūsā (peace be upon him) will be exempted from that shock on the Day of Judgement.