وَأَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَىٰٓ أُمِّ مُوسَىٰٓ أَنْ أَرْضِعِيهِ فَإِذَا خِفْتِ عَلَيْهِ فَأَلْقِيهِ فِى ٱلْيَمِّ وَلَا تَخَافِى وَلَا تَحْزَنِىٓ … وَأَصْبَحَ فُؤَادُ أُمِّ مُوسَىٰ فَٰرِغًا إِن كَادَتْ لَتُبْدِى بِهِۦ لَوْلَآ أَن رَّبَطْنَا عَلَىٰ قَلْبِهَا
"We made this known to the mother of Moses: 'Suckle him. When you fear for him, cast him into the water. Do not fear and do not grieve; We shall return him to you.'… And the heart of Moses' mother was left quite empty; had We not steadied her heart, she would almost have disclosed him."
| Order | Expression | What |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arḍiʿīh | Suckle him — the ordinary act |
| 2 | Fa-idhā khifti ʿalayh | If you fear — the condition |
| 3 | Fa-alqīhi fi'l-yamm | Cast him into the water — the act that looks most dangerous |
| 4 | Wa lā takhāfī wa lā taḥzanī | Two prohibitions |
| 5 | Innā rāddūhu ilayk | The promise |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order: the riskiest command — casting the child into the water — stands in the middle, and before it comes the condition, after it the consolation and the promise. That is, the command is not left bare.
وَلَا تَخَافِى وَلَا تَحْزَنِى — the two verbs look to two different times: khawf to what is coming, ḥuzn to what has passed. This pair was treated in al-Aḥqāf at 46/13 and in Fuṣṣilat at 41/30; I rely on that treatment.
فُؤَاد — root ف-ء-د: the burning of embers; the kindled, moving side of the heart. The root was treated in al-Wāqiʿa, al-Najm and in al-Aḥqāf at 46/26.
فَارِغ — empty. The lexicographers give differing explanations for this construction: emptied of everything so as to hold nothing but the child, or left without the strength to bear it.
رَبَطْنَا عَلَىٰ قَلْبِهَا — rabṭ: to bind, to fasten tight. The idiom means holding the heart in its place, keeping it from scattering.
I record this as an observation: the two words together build one picture — a vessel that empties and a heart that is bound fast. And fuʾād and qalb occur in the same verse as two distinct words: the one empties, the other is bound.
And the knot of the story is here: that the child would take no wet-nurse becomes the cause that carries him back to his mother. That is, the promise (innā rāddūhu ilayk) comes about through an ordinary chain of causes. I record this as my own reading.