In the Name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful
“By the Fig and the Olive, and the Mountain Resplendent (with illumination), and this protected/peaceful city (Mecca).”
Allah (swt) locates Twr AsSineen in the Meccan oasis where it was known to Muslims as Jabal AnNur.
The Quran describes this mountain as a real mountain which is located in an area where fig trees and olive trees grew. It is a place where the inhabitants obtained fuel to light their fires from the ‘green tree’. In other words, this mountain is in a valley where there was water and an oasis where grew figs and olives (Q 6:142). It is a place where the inhabitants used the fruit of these trees to sustain themselves on caravan trips.
The mountain was the same mountain to which Moses (Musa) escaped when he was fleeing from Fr3wn; a name which does not mean pharaoh (pr aa or Great House in Egyptian). Fr3wn means House of Wailing in Egyptian, so the fr3wn who ruled at the time of Musa was not a pharaoh. He was an Egyptian king whose house or palace with its occupants Allah (swt) had ruined. This Egyptian king was the 4th Dynasty king Khufu whose son, Kawab, died before he reached the throne, which explains the Quran name Fr3wn. The death of Fr3wn’s first born was expanded by biblical authors to include the first born of every Egyptian including their animals.
During their flight from Fr3wn Khufu, Musa and Haroun (Aaron) were forced into the Arabian Peninsula because the land Allah forbade them to enter after they fled Fr3wn was the Levant. The followers of Musa and Haroun were attempting to return to the land from which they came, the Levantine coast. Yacub (Jacob) and his clans were forced to flee the Levant for Egypt because of a severe drought. The drought had ended and when they returned to reclaim their patriarchal lands, they found the land hand been taken over by ‘jabarin’ or oppressors. The oppressors, who controlled the area, were the very oppressors that they had fled; the Egyptians and their allies. The Egyptians controlled the trade route along which Musa, Haroun and his people fled. This trade route, the Via Maris, was known as the Way of Horus to the Egyptians, who had many trading partners and colonies along this route including Byblos. According to Wikipedia:
“Watson Mills and Roger Bullard suggest that during the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Byblos was virtually an Egyptian colony. The growing city was evidently a wealthy one and seems to have been an ally (among “those who are on his waters”) of Egypt for many centuries.”
To escape Fr3wn and Egyptian control, Musa led his followers to a land not under the control of Egypt or Egypt’s allies. At Gaza, he crossed into the Negev and then headed south into the Arabian Peninsula using the trade rout the King’s Highway, which met the Arabian trade route at Aqaba. From there he headed south to Mecca, the homeland of his ancestor, Ibraheem (as). This was the location where was revealed the Torah at Twr AsSineen aka Jabal AnNur. Musa, Haroun (credited with founding the Levitical priesthood) and their followers lived as bedouin among the people in the Arabian Peninsula, a life to which they were not accustomed as they were villagers and cattle herders in Canaanite territories, which included Byblos, and in the Egyptian delta. So, they made a second try to enter the Levant. The Egyptians were still there and there were other hostile tribes blocking he way, so the attempt failed, and they were forced back into a bedouin lifestyle.
Musa and his clans eventually settled in the lush valley where was located Twur AsSineen (The Resplendent Mountain) which was re-named Jabal AnNur. Currently, the place is known as Mecca. However, it was Musa (as) who named the Valley of Mecca, Tuwa or the place of supplication in Egyptian. Musa’s and Haroon’s descendants may actually be among the ancestors of the Quraysh of Mecca. Haroun, the patriarch of the priesthood, was with Musa on the trek from Egypt to Mecca. After all, Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula was their ancestral homeland before they settled in the Levant. Ibrahim and his son founded Mecca and built the Kaba (Quran 22:26).
Tuwa, the sacred valley where Musa (as) was summoned to the fire burning on holy ground, is the Egyptian word twa X1-V4-G1-A30 (A30 is the man with hands raised in supplication). So Twa is the valley where one supplicates Allah (swt). Musa was born in Egypt and lived there until he was forced to flee after killing an Egyptian. His native language was mixed with Egyptian. Both tuwa and dua (meaning praise, worship in Egyptian), are Egyptian words,, which are also found in Arabic. Musa named this sacred place as the place of supplication. Mecca was known to the Hebrews as Paran or Fwran, the place of the bubbling spring aka Zamzam. The burning fire he saw was a sign that he was about to receive a revelation which would show him how to conquer the Fr3wn’s Canaanite magicians.
It was in the Valley Twa that Allah (swt) taught Musa how to beat the Fr3wn’s magicians or illusionists whom he brought from Byblos. (Byblos was the location from where Fr3wn Khufu brought his Canaanite magicians as well as the cedar he used on his building projects. Canaanite magicians specializing in snake spells were recorded in Egypt during the Old Kingdom (1st thru the 6th Dynasty)). In other words, magic is an illusion and according to the story of Sulayman and Saba (Solomon and Sheba), one must see thru the illusions to understand what is real. The magicians’ snakes were illusions and Musa’s snake was a more powerful illusion created by Allah (swt). In reality, Musa demonstrated that the ‘snake’ was only his shepherd’s staff that Allah (swt) caused them to falsely perceive as a snake. The lesson here is that we often perceive only that which we are conditioned to perceive. We must see thru our perceptions in order to understand what is real.
The biblical story of Musa is a tale, like that of Noah, which was adopted and changed by the cultures which absorbed the tale and adopted Musa into their history. It is very likely, that the original tale began in the Arabian Peninsula and was carried into the southern Levant where it was modified by the Edomites and the Judean tribes in the area. The biblical tale connects Musa with a Midianite/Edomite mining cult. In this tale, Musa is copper smith with magical powers who defeats a Rameside pharaoh. It was the Rameside pharaohs who occupied this area of the southern Levant in order to control the copper mines at Timna and Punon. The Egyptians enslaved the local Bedouin and were justly hated for their oppressive, dictatorial behavior. The Judeans, who claim descent from Arameans, wove this Arabian tale into their history and claimed Musa as one of their own. This appears to be very similar to the story of Noah which very likely originated on the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula.