Al-Qasas · Makki · ayah 39 of 88

Al-Qasas 28:39

وَٱسْتَكْبَرَ هُوَ وَجُنُودُهُۥ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ ٱلْحَقِّ وَظَنُّوٓا۟ أَنَّهُمْ إِلَيْنَا لَا يُرْجَعُونَ

“And he was arrogant, he and his soldiers, in the land, without right, and they thought that they would not be returned to Us.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Pharaoh and his soldiers swelled with pride on the earth with no right to it, assuming they would never be brought back to Allah.

A reflection

A cloak with only one Owner

Wa-stakbara huwa wa-junūduhu fī al-arḍi bi-ghayri al-ḥaqq: he and his soldiers were arrogant on the earth, without right.

Two words carry a whole theology: without right. They imply that there is a greatness held with right. Two commentaries say it plainly. Pride by right belongs to Allah alone. He is al-Mutakabbir, the One whose greatness is simply His true state. Every other claim to it is pride without right.

The lexicons draw the same line through the root k-b-r, and this is established in them. Its first picture is plain size, the opposite of small. For Allah, greatness is His reality. In a creature, it is raising the self above what it deserves, because a creature's state is small.

Sahih Muslim reports the Prophet ﷺ conveying Allah's words: might is His lower garment and grandeur His cloak. Whoever contends with Him for them will be punished.

A cloak is worn by its owner. Someone else can put it on, but it hangs wrong. An understudy plays the lead for one night while the star is ill. The next morning he asks for the star's dressing room, parking space and billing. The whole company is embarrassed for him. The role was lent, not given.

Is Allah's greatness then a kind of vanity? Vanity is claiming more than you are. Allah's greatness is no claim; it is a description of what is. When He tells us of it, the need is ours, not His. A person who knows the true size of things stops straining to look big.

That is the mercy hidden in this ayah. Pride is exhausting because it is always borrowed. Return the cloak, and the ego can finally rest.

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.