Revered Women in Islam: Asiya, Wife of Pharoah

“My Lord! Build for me a house with Thee in the Garden; and deliver me from Pharaoh and his work, and deliver me from the wrongdoing people” (Quran, 66:12). This was the prayer that came out of the mouth of the second most revered woman in Islam, only second to Mary, while she was being tortured by her husband for her faith. She was from a privileged family, very beautiful, and very generous. She was as righteous as her husband was evil; she was Asiya, the wife of Pharaoh and the adoptive mother of who would later be known as Moses to the world.

Moses’ birth and eventual prophethood, Pharaoh’s divinely decided ruin, and Asiya’s acceptance of faith and torture are well documented events in history, even by those who are not of the Abrahamic faiths. She gave up enormous wealth, power, and luxury only to accept the truth that she saw in the signs and countenance of Moses. At the time that she discovered Moses in the bucket, it was already evident that she would not be able to have Pharaoh’s children, a fact that he used to have multiple children with other women. This too was divinely decided as she was considered too righteous to have the children of a man as wicked as Pharaoh. Her living in a palace with him was actually a jail in guise. She had secretly accepted the fact of there being one God, but when Pharaoh found out about this indirectly he burned to death those who associated with Asiya in front of her eyes. This was a man who had no problem killing thousands of children to reaffirm his power. As a result of this cruelty God eventually brought an end to his kingdom.

As Asiya was tortured and tied up in the sun, kept without food and water and shade, the daughters of Pharaoh’s concubines would come daily to further torture her and ridicule her. It is under these and these circumstances alone, that she uttered this prayer from her lips. Her prayer and her devotion were immediately accepted by God, and she was shown the status of faith and her place in Paradise. Hers is a story of forsaking the most powerful man on Earth, not for another powerful man in the guise of Moses, but rather for the simple and undeniable fact that she could not accept such tyranny and accepted faith at very high personal costs. The fact that Asiya chose to bow to only One King at a time when her own status could have easily made millions bow to her, is what has made this woman legendary in the sight of Muslims everywhere.