Taha · Makki · ayah 72 of 135

Taha 20:72

قَالُوا۟ لَن نُّؤْثِرَكَ عَلَىٰ مَا جَآءَنَا مِنَ ٱلْبَيِّنَـٰتِ وَٱلَّذِى فَطَرَنَا ۖ فَٱقْضِ مَآ أَنتَ قَاضٍ ۖ إِنَّمَا تَقْضِى هَـٰذِهِ ٱلْحَيَوٰةَ ٱلدُّنْيَآ

“They said, "Never will we prefer you over what has come to us of clear proofs and [over] He who created us.[842] So decree whatever you are to decree. You can only decree for this worldly life.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Believers of one hour tell a threatening king: we will never prefer you to the truth or our Maker; your power ends with this life.

A reflection

Decree whatever you will

A junior official is called into a senior manager's office and handed a report to sign. The figures have been changed. The manager makes it clear: sign, or your career here is finished. The young man reads it twice, puts the pen down and says quietly: you can dismiss me. I will not sign this.

Pharaoh has just promised to cut off the magicians' hands and feet and crucify them on palm trunks. Their answer begins: lan nuʾthiraka, we will never prefer you. And it ends with four words that have echoed through every century since: fa-qḍi mā anta qāḍin. So decree whatever you will decree.

One classical commentator explains carefully that this was not them commanding Pharaoh to torture them. It was a declaration that his threat could not move them from their faith, in knowledge or in action. Another says they spoke without regard for his threat at all.

This is leadership in its purest form, and these men were not even leaders. An hour earlier they were hired performers. But one commentator notes what Pharaoh most feared: that the people would follow the magicians' example. They had become, without intending it, the most influential people in Egypt.

A sceptic might ask whether this is fanaticism. Is there not something extreme in accepting death rather than taking back a sentence? The difference is clear. A fanatic harms others for his belief. These men harmed no one. They simply refused to say that what they had seen was false. Their only weapon was a sentence. The violence in the scene belongs entirely to the tyrant.

Most of us will never face palm trunks. But every one of us will be handed a report to sign. The magicians show what it looks like to put the pen down.

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.