Surah Ta Ha (Ta Ha) 20 : 78

Explanatory Note

All we have here is the inspiration given to Moses to depart from Egypt at night with the Children of Israel, and to strike out for them a dry path across the sea. We see Moses with complete reassurance as he and his followers receive God’s care. Thus, he has no fear of his people being overtaken by Pharaoh or of being overwhelmed by the parted sea. God’s will which made the sea such a great volume of water with all its characteristics is able to part it for a while to give those believers a dry path through so as to continue their journey.

Thus the sūrah sums up how Pharaoh and his host were overwhelmed by the sea. It gives no further details. In this way, it retains its total effect. We realize that Pharaoh had led his people into error in their way of life in the same way as he led them into error by pursuing the believers into the sea. In both cases, he led them to utter ruin. We prefer not to dwell on the details of what happened to Pharaoh and his people, so that we move on with the sūrah as it relates the story. We will, however, reflect for a moment on the lessons that we can derive from this scene.