I was doing live streaming with my friend yesterday and she asked me a question I didn’t really expect:
,, What’s your daughter’s name ??? ,,
I was a little puzzled that she was asking, but I replied to her, “Asiya”.
Suddenly she realized the story I told her a month ago and immediately translated it into Spanish for her people …
As I listened to her translating this story, I realized I never actually wrote about it. And it’s a pity because it’s really a wonderful story and I think everyone should know it. Maybe we all know it in the end, but we listened to it as little children, so it’s likely that most of us have forgotten the story long time ago …
So, have a cup of coffee or tea, sit comfortable on the chair and listen to one of most beautiful Egyptian stories …
***
Asiya bint Muzahim came from a very wealthy family, was young and her beauty was spoken throughout Egypt. So it is no wonder that Pharaoh himself heard about her and immediately got the idea to marry her as his wife. No one could oppose Pharaoh, and so her future was decided. Even Pharaoh already had many previous wives and her own marriage had been agreed, Pharaoh really fell in love with her.
Asiya had everything she could wish: dress, jewelry, gold, palace, garden, servant, maid … she didn’t have to do anything, it was like living in paradise … but she had only one defect. She couldn’t have children. Pharaoh had plenty of children with other wives but he desired to have a baby with Asiya the most, but that never happened.
Of course, Asiya was very desperate and unhappy. And in that time Pharaoh had a very special dream: He saw fire coming from the city of Jerusalem, which burnt everything in his kingdom except the land of the Israelites. Pharaoh called his mages to tell him the meaning of his dream. When the Pharaoh was informed that one of the children of Israelites would grow up to overthrow him, he ordered the killing of all newborn Israelite males in order to prevent the prediction from occurring.
All the newborn male children were killed except One. One Israeli mother managed to hide her son, but she knew she couldn’t keep him, so she had the idea of sending her son in a wicker basket along the Nile. “Whatever happens,” but she hoped fate would give him a chance and her son would survive.
And it really did happened. In the morning Asiya and her servants bathed in the Nile and she saw the basket in the distance. she ordered her servant to bring the basket, because she thought there was a hidden treasure. But when the servant brought her the basket and she saw the baby in it, she fell in love with him immediately and decided to keep him. The servants warned her about the Pharaoh because they saw that it was an Israeli child and a baby boy, but Asiya already made her decision.
When Asiya came to Pharaoh, she told him:
,,A refreshment of the eye to me and to thee – slay him not; maybe he will be useful to us, or we may take him for a son. And they perceived not.,,
Quran: Surah-Al Oasas, verse 9
Pharaoh could not refuse anything to Asia. So he agreed, because he saw her really happy.
Asiya named baby boy Moses and she was looking for wet-nurse. but Moses rejected all women who could breastfeed him. They were worried that the boy would die of hunger when the girl (Moses’s sister) came to the palace and told them she knew a wet-nurse who could breastfeed him. And she brought his own mother to become his nanny.
Moses grew up, and of course there was always a plenty disagreement between him and the Faraoh, and Asiya was always supporting Moses. Because She really considered him to be her own son.
And when Mosa became a prophet, Asiya was the first to hear his prophecy and was the first to believe in him and in one god. So we consider her to be absolutely the first Muslim woman.
Asiya hid her faith from Pharaoh but eventually she made a mistake. One morning she brushed her hair when her comb broke and called, “In the name of God,” but unfortunately Pharaoh’s daughter from ,another wife, heard it and she asked her ,,The God – Do you mean my dad?,, And Asiya responded her: ,,No, I mean the Only God.,, The daughter immediately told Pharaoh and he was so angry that he decided to punish Asiya this time.
He led her into the desert where he tied her to a stake and tortured her.
He tortured her really cruelly to subdue to him as to the ONLY Pharaoh and God and forget her god and the teachings of Moses. But Asiya could not, she could not renounce the god she believed in. and so before she died, she begged God for help.
,,O my Lord! Build for me, in nearness to Thee, a mansion in the Garden, and save me from Pharaoh and his doings, and save me from those that do wrong’,,
— Quran, chapter 66- At Tahrim, verse 11
God answered her prayer and opened the heavens and showed her the gardens and rewards awaiting her in paradise. Asiya started to laugh so badly …
Pharaoh just added, see how she’s gone mad by torture? this is how the madmen laugh …
A few minutes later, Asiya died. Asiya is considered the first woman ever to enter paradise.
Thank you for reading
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