Taha · Makki · ayah 56 of 135

Taha 20:56

وَلَقَدْ أَرَيْنَـٰهُ ءَايَـٰتِنَا كُلَّهَا فَكَذَّبَ وَأَبَىٰ

“And We certainly showed him [i.e., Pharaoh] Our signs - all of them - but he denied and refused.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Pharaoh was not short of evidence: he was shown every sign, saw them with his own eyes, and still called them lies and refused.

A reflection

Whose signs they were

A hospital porter wheels a cool box down a long corridor at two in the morning. Inside is a donor heart. Doctors step aside. A security guard holds a door. Nobody is making way for the porter. They are making way for what he carries.

This ayah is careful about ownership. It does not say Musa showed Pharaoh his signs. It says We showed him Our signs. One commentator notes that the showing is attributed to the "We" of majesty, looking to the reality, rather than to Musa, who performed them outwardly. The purpose, he says, is to show how immense the signs were, and how shocking the refusal.

The staff turning into a serpent, the hand coming out white: these happened through Musa's hand. But they were never his. He was the porter. The cargo belonged to Someone else.

That is humbling for anyone who carries a gift. A teacher who explains well, a reciter with a moving voice, a writer whose words land. It is very easy to start believing the effect is ours. People step aside, and we think it is for us.

It is humbling for Pharaoh too, in a sharper way. He claimed to be a lord. Now he is shown things no lord of his kind could make. His quarrel was never really with a man from the tribe he had enslaved. It was with the Owner of the signs.

The ayah also opens with an oath, wa-laqad: and most certainly. One commentator explains the oath as signalling how much weight rests on what follows. Allah is putting His own word behind the record: the evidence was given.

So shrink the ego in both directions. If you carry something good, set the box down gently and remember whose it is. If you are resisting something true, ask whose sign you are really arguing with.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.