Al-Qasas · Makki · ayah 35 of 88

Al-Qasas 28:35

قَالَ سَنَشُدُّ عَضُدَكَ بِأَخِيكَ وَنَجْعَلُ لَكُمَا سُلْطَـٰنًا فَلَا يَصِلُونَ إِلَيْكُمَا ۚ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ أَنتُمَا وَمَنِ ٱتَّبَعَكُمَا ٱلْغَـٰلِبُونَ

“[Allāh] said, "We will strengthen your arm through your brother and grant you both supremacy so they will not reach you. [It will be] through Our signs; you and those who follow you will be the predominant."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah answers a frightened man with a certainty only He can give: an arm made strong, a proof granted, both brothers kept safe.

A reflection

A promise no one else could make

At a school gate on the first morning of term, a father kneels in front of his anxious son. 'Nothing bad will happen today,' he says. 'I promise.' He means it with all his heart. He also has no power to keep it. He will not be in the classroom, the playground or the corridor. His promise is love dressed as certainty.

Now listen to the answer Musa receives. Sa-nashuddu ʿaḍudaka: We will strengthen your arm. Wa-najʿalu lakumā sulṭānan: and We will give you both authority. Fa-lā yaṣilūna ilaykumā: so they will not reach you. Every verb is in the future. Every one is stated as if it had already happened. The small prefix sa- is the grammar of something settled.

No king could say this to an envoy. A king can send soldiers and letters. He cannot promise that a rival court will not lay hands on his messenger. Only One holds every hand in Pharaoh's palace, including Pharaoh's. Only He can say 'they will not reach you' and mean it as fact.

Some hear a ruler boasting in such a sentence. But look at who it is spoken to, and why. Allah needs no admiration from Musa. The power is declared for the frightened man's sake, so he can walk into that palace steady. Power spoken to comfort the weak is mercy, not vanity.

This is where the ego should grow small. Every authority any of us holds is, in the words of this ayah, something made for us. Najʿalu: We make, We place. The manager's power, the parent's, the influencer's reach, the speaker's platform: all of it is placed in our hands for a time. It is not grown from inside us. The arrogant person forgets the verb. He talks as if his strength were his own arm, unborrowed.

Musa had just confessed that his tongue was weak and that he was afraid. He was not rebuked for it. He was answered with power that was not his, and he went to Pharaoh carrying it. There is a quiet humility in that. The strongest man in the story is the one who knew where his strength came from.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.