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Did Hazrat Musa A.S murder a man?

Q:

Is it true that Musa (AS) murdered one of the soldiers of Firun? According to the scripts, Musa (AS) punched the soldier of firun and he died. After that Musa(AS) left  Egypt. Isn’t Musa(AS) a murderer and sinful for that? He killed an innocent person. He made a sin, sin of murder. Please guide me on this..

A:

Salamun Alaykum

Thank you for your query.

 

Question: How can one explain how the killing of the Egyptian man by Prophet Musa (pbuh) isn’t in conflict with his infallibility?

Concise Answer: All divine prophets, regardless of their different degrees and ranks, are infallible and at the peak of nearness to Allah (swt), and all of them have responsibilities that surpass those of normal people to the extent that any attention they give to anything other than Allah (swt) is a great sin for them.

There have been many efforts by different Islamic scholars in explanation of Prophet Musa’s (pbuh) act and how it doesn’t come into conflict with his infallibility, and each has his own explanation.

The best explanation though, is the one that says that he hasn’t committed any sin by doing so, and the only thing that was wrong about what he did was that he could have made a better choice than what he did, yet what he did wasn’t a sin (resulting in him not being infallible). It has been stated that killing the Egyptian man (which was affiliated with the Pharaoh) wasn’t a forbidden act for certain reasons, although it would have been better if Prophet Musa (pbuh) hadn’t killed him because of the negative consequences.

The way the Quran refers to Prophet Musa’s (pbuh) action also in no way discredits his infallibility. For instance, in response to Ma’mun’s (the ruler of Imam Ridha’s (as) time) question about Prophet Musa (pbuh) saying “This is of Satan’s doing. Indeed he is an enemy, manifestly misguiding” or saying “Oh my Lord! I have indeed wronged myself, forgive me!”, Imam Ridha says “What is meant by “This is of Satan’s doing” is the quarrel between the two men, not what Prophet Musa (pbuh) did, and what is meant by “I have wronged myself” is that Musa (pbuh) shouldn’t have entered the city, and “forgive me” is referring to Musa (pbuh) hiding from the Pharaoh’s men.”

https://www.islamquest.net/en/archive/fa1138

 

I would recommend you to read the detailed answer of the above Question from the link given above. The above answer is concise here but you can read the answer in detail from the link.

 

You can also read regarding the same issue on:  https://www.al-islam.org/ismat-infallibility-of-prophets-in-the-quran-sayyid-muhammad-rizvi/case-prophet-musa

 

We conclude that Prophet Musa’s action was not a sin and doesn’t conflict with the infallibility of the Prophets.

 

Wassalam,

Syed Haider