Question 528: Has Pharaoh stitched nails on fingers of his wife Hazrat Asiya Bint Muzahim and has he ordered to remove her skin before her death.
Answer 528: When Asiya, Pharaoh’s wife, witnessed Moses’ miracle in front of the sorcerers, her heart was lit with the light of Iman (belief in the One God). She started to believe in Moses. She was trying to hide her faith from Pharaoh but faith and love of God is not something to be concealed. When Pharaoh learned about her faith, he forbade her times and again from believing in Moses; he pressured on her to give up his religion and abandon his God but she never surrendered herself to Pharaoh’s demand.
Finally, Pharaoh ordered his men to tie her up under the scorching sun and put a heavy stone on her chest and let her die there. Pharaoh ordered Asiya Bint Muzahim to be nailed to the floor. He put nails through her body to affix her to the floor under the scorching sun.
Again, the Pharaoh has ordered his courtiers to remove the skin of the queen. Due to the kind help of Allah, she still hasn’t died upon removing of the skin from her body, but they’re full of blood on her body. Still the Pharaoh was not satisfied by his severe punishment in this matter, so he ordered his courtier to put a heavy stone on her chest and let her die there.
When she was breathing the last moments of her life, she prayed to God as such: “O my Lord! Build for me, in nearness to Thee, a mansion in the Garden, and save me from Pharaoh and his doings, and save me from those that do wrong.”[1] God, the Exalted, accepted the prayer of this faithful, chaste and devoted woman and put her beside some of the best women of the world like Maryam.[2]
Lady Asiya’s grave is in Egypt.[3] As for the age at which she died, there is no precise information available. We referred to historical sources to find information in this regard but to no avail[4].
For further information in this regards, please refer to the following answer:
Index: Four Women Chosen as the Best above the Women of the World, answer 542.
Index: Good women are for good men / Types of Family in Quran, answer 512.
[1] – Tahrim: verse 11.
[2] – Behar al-Anwar, Vol.13, pg.164 and 165; Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, vol.1, Pg. 183 – 185.
[3] – Yaqut Hamvi, Shahabuddin Abu Abdullah Yaqut bin Abdullah, Mu’jam al-Buldan, Vol.5, Pg.142.
[4] – Adopted from answer 14785 (Index: Deaths of Asiya and Maryam and Their Burial Places).