Verily I am Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

Verily I am Allah, the Lord of the worlds.” [^6] Then Allah made him nigh to Himself and spoke with him. Ibn-i-‘Abbas says: “Allah made him a near-stationed one and spoke with him.” The purpose of this ‘nearness’ is that He caused His word to reach him. In other words, Allah promoted his rank and gave him glory. It is like a servant who approaches his master and sits with him.

Thus, the objective meaning of nearness, here, is respect and glorification, not in the sense that he has become nigh to Allah from the point of distance and place, because Allah has no place so that a person approaches that place or gets distance from it, or another person becomes nearer to that place.

The verse says: “And We called him from the right side of (the Mount) Sinai and made him draw nigh (unto Us) for a converse in secret.” However, Moses (as) prayed to Allah, saying: “And give me an aider from my family.” [^7] Then Allah accepted his prayer and bestowed on him gracefully his brother Aaron and gave him the rank of prophethood to be an aid for his brother.

The verse says: “And We granted unto him, out of Our Mercy, his brother Aaron a prophet.” Explanations The debate and communication of Moses with Allah has been referred to in the Qur’an both by the sense of ‘speaking’, where it says: “…and Allah spoke directly unto Moses a (peculiar) speech.” [^8] , and by the sense of ‘calling’, used in the abovementioned verse: “And We called him…”, and by the sense of ‘a secret converse’.

Step by step, Allah makes prophets nigh to Himself by His Grace and affection. Allah has whispered some matters secretly with the prophets. Therefore, the rank of nearness of ‘a secret converse’ is the highest rank.

That is why Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (as) says: “When the people of Heaven are enjoying the (bounties of) the Heaven, the people of Allah are busy with Allah (and are prattling to Him).” [^9] The Arabic word /najiyy/ is used in the sense of its subjective case which means ‘the person who whispers secretly with another one’. Here, at first Allah called Moses from a long distance, and when he came near, He began whispering with him.

(It is evident that Allah has neither, tongue nor a place, but He creates waves in the atmosphere and speaks with a mortal such as Moses). However, the call of Allah was an endowment unto Moses (as), and His speaking with him was another bounty, which was counted the greatest honour for Moses and the sweetest moment in his life.