Bilal Assad: Mashitat of Fir'aun

As-Salaamu Alaikum,

Beautiful Lecture

It is narrated that Ibn `Abbas (may God be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of God, Muhammad, (may God bless and grant him peace) said, On the night in which I was taken by a night Journey, a pleasant fragrance came my way, and so I said, O Gabriel! What is this pleasant fragrance? He said, This is the fragrance of the hairdresser of Pharaohs daughter, and [of the hairdresser]s children.

This is her story as narrated in a lecture by Bilal Assad based on a hadith found in Ahmad and Ibn Majah:

There was a women called Mashit of Firoun (Pharaoh), she was the hairdresser of Firouns daughterthe same Pharaoh who said, I do not know any god but me. Mashit of Firoun had embraced Islam in secret and when she was combing the hair of the pharaohs daughter, the comb fell to the ground and Mashit automatically and subconsciously picked up the comb and said, Bismillah, (in the name of God). This Mashit of Firoun also had five children and one of them was still being breast fed. After Mashit said Bismillah, the daughter of Firoun said, Allah Abi, are you saying God my father?

And Mashit said, No! God, the God of your father and yourself and me. The pharaohs daughter became angry and went to her father and said to him: Father, this woman worships another god besides you.

He said: What? She knows another god besides me, who is that? Call her to me. They called her to him, and she came and stood, a woman, a woman in front of this great Pharaoh. And he said to her, Who is your God?

She said, God is my lord.

He said, Who is God?

God is my God and yours.

What? Bring the chains!

They brought the chains, they begun to punish her and whip her. They asked her Who is your lord, and she would say God is my lord and yours. And so Pharaoh ordered for them to bring a large container and he spilt boiling oil into this container, a large container like a swimming pool, and then he said, Bring me all her children! They brought them one by one and he said Worship me, I am your lord. She said, never! So he brought her first son and threw him into the oil. In front of her eyes his meat and flesh fell of his body and his bone disintegrated. Then they brought her next son and she was firm, Allahu Akbar! They burnt him; she could not stop them, and then her third and her fourth and finally her fifth, he was on her arm and she was about to pull back, she was about to pull back in front of the eyes of all the people and then all of a sudden God (Glory and High is He) from above seven skies made her child speak while he was in the cradle. He said: Be patient my mother, you are in the truth, God has promised you with a great heaven, keep going mother. And then they threw her son into the boiling oil. Mashit knew that she was going to die, and then she began to cry and Pharaoh said, Why are you crying? Stop! And she said, I was crying because I wanted to ask you to do something for me, and I dont know if youre going to do it. He said, Ask me for whatever you like. She said, Once you throw me into the oil, then I want you to gather whatever is remaining of our bodies and I want you to bury us together in the same grave, because I want to be resurrected with my children and I want to go to Jannah (Paradise) with my children.