Al-Furqan · Makki · ayah 36 of 77

Al-Furqan 25:36

فَقُلْنَا ٱذْهَبَآ إِلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَا فَدَمَّرْنَـٰهُمْ تَدْمِيرًا

“And We said, "Go both of you to the people who have denied Our signs." Then We destroyed them with [complete] destruction.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Two brothers are sent to a people defined by denial, and the years between sending and ruin fold into one word.

A reflection

Half a line for the mightiest court on earth

Pharaoh's court was the strongest power of its age. It had soldiers, magicians and a king who announced, "I am your lord, most high" (79:24). In this ayah the whole regime takes up half a line. "We said: go, both of you… and We destroyed them utterly."

Everything sits between two verbs, and Allah is the subject of both.

Picture an auction house storeroom. A bronze bust of a once-feared ruler stands on a shelf, a paper lot number tied round its neck. People once lowered their eyes in his presence. Now a porter shifts him with one hand to reach the box behind.

The ayah does that to every kind of pride. It does not argue with Pharaoh's strength or list what he built. It reports what was said and what was done, in the voice of the One who said and did both. There is no strain in the sentence and no build-up. A word sent two men; a word ended the empire.

The ego needs that picture more than it needs a lecture. Most of us are not pharaohs, but we keep small courts: a department, a household, a following, a reputation. We guard them as though they hold us up. Here they are weighed against the One who speaks as "We", and they weigh almost nothing.

Is this boasting? A boast wants an audience to be impressed. Allah needs no one's admiration; it is people who are poor before Him (35:15). He tells of His power the way a coastguard tells you the tide times: for your safety, not for His reputation.

Humility, then, is not thinking badly of yourself. It is seeing your size correctly. The same "We" that ended Pharaoh's rule gave Musa the Book in the ayah before. The power that topples is the power that guides, and the signs decide which one meets you.

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.