Verses 46–56
So far, God has described people’s insolence in spite of the blessings He has bestowed upon them, how they imputed the truth brought to them by a manifest messenger, dismissed it as magic, and said: Why was not this Qur’an sent down to some great man from the two cities? () In other words, they gave preference to other men over the Prophet because of their vast wealth. Here, God draws for these people the parable of Moses and Pharaoh, in that God sent Moses to Pharaoh and his clan with wondrous signs, but they mocked and laughed at them. And when Pharaoh addressed his people, he argued that he was better than Moses because he was the ruler of Egypt, and rivers ran at his feet. In this way, he duped them into obeying him until their arrogance became so great that God took revenge on them and drowned them.
Commentary
وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا مُوسَىٰ بِآيَاتِنَا إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ وَمَلَئِهِ فَقَالَ إِنِّي رَسُولُ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ٤٦
(43:46) Certainly We sent Moses with Our signs to Pharaoh and his elite. He said, “I am indeed a Messenger of the Lord of all the worlds.”
The lām in “certainly” (laqad) signifies an oath (qasam), and the bāʾ in with Our signs (bi ayātinā) signifies accompaniment (muṣāḥabah). The rest is clear.
فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ بِآيَاتِنَا إِذَا هُمْ مِنْهَا يَضْحَكُونَ ٤٧
(43:47) But when he brought them Our signs, behold, they laughed at them.
He brought them Our signs means to perform miracles to prove his claim of being a divine messenger. Their laughter means that they derided and disparaged the signs.
وَمَا نُرِيهِمْ مِنْ آيَةٍ إِلَّا هِيَ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ أُخْتِهَا ۖ وَأَخَذْنَاهُمْ بِالْعَذَابِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ ٤٨
(43:48) And We did not show them a sign but it was greater than its sister and We seized them with punishment so that they might come back.
Its sister means “its like.” The phrase but it was greater than its sister refers to the fact that each sign proved irrefutably that Moses was truly a messenger.
The whole sentence of And We did not show them… is a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) for them at the end of the previous verse: …laughed at them.
This renders the meaning: “When he brought them miracles, they laughed at them. Even though each and every one of them was utterly irrefutable and clearly demonstrated the truth of his claims, without any deficiency or shortcoming.”
…and We seized them with punishment so that they might come back: In other words, We punished them that they might give up their arrogance and accept his message. Here, punishment means the plagues (ayāt al-rijz) that were sent down upon them, such as drought, crop failures, floods, locusts, lice, frogs, and blood—each one a distinct sign (as described in Sūrat al-Aʿrāf).
وَقَالُوا يَا أَيُّهَ السَّاحِرُ ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ بِمَا عَهِدَ عِنْدَكَ إِنَّنَا لَمُهْتَدُونَ ٤٩
(43:49) They would say, “O magician! Invoke your Lord for us by the covenant He has made with you. We will indeed be guided.”
The covenant they refer to is the promise to relieve them of punishment if they believe according to some commentators, or to respond to his preaching when he calls on them according to others.
When they say O magician! this is a derisive and arrogant manner of addressing Moses. And when they say invoke your Lord instead of saying “invoke our Lord” or “invoke God”, this too is because of their arrogance. This shows that they only asked him to supplicate to remove the punishment from them and promised to be guided in return.
It is said: Magician (sāḥir) was just a term for “scholar” (ʿālim) in their language and a magician enjoyed high standing in Egyptian society, so this is not a term of disrespect.
But here this is not the case; they were mocking Moses out of arrogance, as demonstrated by their saying: invoke your Lord.
فَلَمَّا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمُ الْعَذَابَ إِذَا هُمْ يَنْكُثُونَ ٥٠
(43:50) But when We lifted the punishment from them, behold, they would infringe.
Infringe (nakth) means to go against a pledge or break a promise. In this case, they had promised We will indeed be guided.
وَنَادَىٰ فِرْعَوْنُ فِي قَوْمِهِ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ أَلَيْسَ لِي مُلْكُ مِصْرَ وَهَٰذِهِ الْأَنْهَارُ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِي ۖ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ ٥١
(43:51) And Pharaoh proclaimed amongst his people. He said, “O my people! Does not the kingdom of Egypt belong to me and these rivers that run at my feet? Do you not perceive?”
Meaning he called out to them while he stood amongst them. He said is used as a divider because it reads as though it is the answer to a question left implicit, as if someone were to ask: “And what did he say?” To which the answer is given: “He said such-and-such.”
And these rivers that run at my feet… means from beneath his palace or from the gardens in which his towering palace stood. The phrase and these rivers…is either a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) or is connected to the kingdom of Egypt. The phrase …that run at my feet is a circumstantial qualifier for rivers, and rivers refers to the rivers of the Nile.
Do you not perceive? serves to recall the question he just asked, Does not the kingdom of Egypt…?
أَمْ أَنَا خَيْرٌ مِنْ هَٰذَا الَّذِي هُوَ مَهِينٌ وَلَا يَكَادُ يُبِينُ ٥٢
(43:52) Or am I better than this humble one who cannot even speak clearly?
A humble one (mahīn) means one who is weak and lowly, and Pharaoh refers to Moses with this term because of his apparent poverty and shabbiness.
Who cannot even speak clearly means that he cannot say what he means. Perhaps he describes Moses like this with regards to the latter’s condition before he was made a divine messenger, but God removed this defect from him, as is stated in the verse: He said, “Moses, your request has been granted” (), after Moses asked: “Remove the hitch from my tongue, that they may understand my speech” ().
When he says Or am I not…, the particle or (am) is either discontinuous, in which case it affirms his previous statement and makes the meaning: “Rather I am better than Moses because…”; or the particle could be continuous, in which case the alternate proposition is left implicit, making the meaning: “Am I not better than Moses…?” In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, we read that Sībuwayh and al-Khalīl argue that or… is connected to the coda of the previous verse Do you not perceive…? so I am better actually means “Or do you perceive?” As if to say: “Do you not perceive, or do you?” So that if they say “Yes, you are better” then, according to him, they are people of insight. In other words, when God says Or am I better…? in place of “Or do you perceive…?”, He is putting the consequent in place of its cause, or you could say vice versa as well.
In any case, Pharaoh refers to Moses without using his name to belittle him. It is for the same reason that he describes him as this humble one who cannot even speak clearly, and to show that Moses cannot be better than he.
فَلَوْلَا أُلْقِيَ عَلَيْهِ أَسْوِرَةٌ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ أَوْ جَاءَ مَعَهُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ مُقْتَرِنِينَ ٥٣
(43:53) Why have no bracelets of gold been cast upon him, nor have the angels come with him as escorts?
In this verse, the word used for bracelets is aswirah, the plural of siwār. Al-Rāghib says that this is the Arabicized form of the Persian dastwārah.
Commentators have said that it was their habit that, when they made a man their leader, they would present him with a golden bracelet and place a golden necklace around his neck. So the verse means: “Were he really a messenger and a leader of men, he would have been given bracelets of gold!”
When Pharaoh says …nor have the angels come with him as escorts, the word used for ‘escort’ is iqtirān but it is used in the sense of taqārun, just as istibāq and istiwāʾ are used in the sense of tasābuq (“to race”) and tasāwī (“to be equal”). So here iqtirān means that the angels should accompany him to confirm his prophethood. And this argument is often repeated by those who deny the Divine Messengers; for example, Quraysh are quoted as saying: Why has not an angel been sent down to him so as to be a warner along with him? ()
فَاسْتَخَفَّ قَوْمَهُ فَأَطَاعُوهُ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَوْمًا فَاسِقِينَ ٥٤
(43:54) So he carried away his people and they obeyed him. Indeed they were a transgressing lot.
In other words, he carried away their intellects and their good sense. The remainder is clear.
فَلَمَّا آسَفُونَا انْتَقَمْنَا مِنْهُمْ فَأَغْرَقْنَاهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ ٥٥
(43:55) So when they roused Our wrath, We took vengeance on them and drowned them all.
“To rouse someone’s wrath” means to anger them. In other words: “When they angered us through their profligacy, we took revenge on them and drowned them all.” And when we speak of God’s anger, this means His desire to punish.
فَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ سَلَفًا وَمَثَلًا لِلْآخِرِينَ ٥٦
(43:56) Thus We made them the vanguard and an example for posterity.
A “vanguard” (salaf) means those who go in front. This appears to mean that they shall be the vanguard for others, namely they shall go in front of them in entering hell. An “example” (mathal) means a well-known proverb that people follow and give credence to. This appears to mean that they serve as a lesson to others who reflect and take a moral from their tale.
Examining Narrations
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, about the words who cannot even speak clearly (), we read:
Meaning he cannot express himself.
- In Tawḥīd, through a chain of narrations going to Aḥmad b. Abī ʿAbd Allāh who narrates marfūʿ from Abū ʿAbd Allāh about the verse So when they roused Our wrath, We took vengeance on them… ():
God does not become angry as we do. Rather he has created friends of his own (awliyāʾ li-nafsih) who become angry or satisfied, and these [friends] are creatures whose affairs are under his control. He made their satisfaction His satisfaction and their anger His anger, and that is because He made them callers to Him and guides towards Him. That is how they received this status.
That does not apply to God as it applies His creatures. Rather this is the sense of what He has said. He has also said that whoever belittles My walī has declared war on Me and challenged Me to fight. And He says: Whoever obeys the Messenger certainly obeys God… (), and Indeed those who swear allegiance to you, swear allegiance only to God (). All of this and the like thereof is as we have said to you. Thusly is satisfaction, anger, and other such things [in relation to God].
And if anger and vexation reached the Maker—while He is the One who created them and brought them forth—then it would be possible for someone to say: the Maker will disappear one day. This is because if He is subject to anger and vexation, then He is subject to change, and if He is subject to change, there is nothing to prevent Him from disappearing. If this is the case, then the Maker cannot be distinguished from what He has made, the Almighty from what He has power over, or the Creator from what he created. Greatly exalted is God above this allegation!
He is the Creator of all things without need. If He has no need, then it is impossible for any limit (ḥadd) or quality (kayf) to inhere in Him. So comprehend this by God’s will.
Author’s comments: A similar tradition is narrated in al-Kāfī, by a chain of narrators going back to Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl b. Bazīʿ, from his uncle, Ḥamza b. Bazīʿ, from the Imām.
See . [Trans.] ↩︎
In which case, it should be rendered “…while these rivers run at my feet….” [Trans.] ↩︎
This would make the meaning: “…and do not these rivers that run at my feet belong to me also?” [Trans.] ↩︎
Meaning that if they are people with insight (cause), they will see he is better (consequent). [Trans.] ↩︎
Meaning that if they see he is better (cause), then they must be people of insight (consequent). [Trans.] ↩︎
This is because the verb iqitrān follows Form VIII of Arabic conjugation patterns (bāb al-iftiʿāl), which conveys a sense of effort, meaning “to do X with effort,” but here the intended meaning is closer to Form VI (bāb al-tafāʿul) which conveys a sense of reciprocity, namely “to do X with someone.” Ṭabāṭabāʾī cites other examples of words derived from verb form VIII with the meaning of verb form VI to support this. ↩︎
A marfūʿ narration is one where the names of one or more narrators have been omitted from the chain. ↩︎