Al-Qasas · Makki · ayah 4 of 88

Al-Qasas 28:4

إِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ عَلَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَجَعَلَ أَهْلَهَا شِيَعًا يَسْتَضْعِفُ طَآئِفَةً مِّنْهُمْ يُذَبِّحُ أَبْنَآءَهُمْ وَيَسْتَحْىِۦ نِسَآءَهُمْ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ مِنَ ٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ

“Indeed, Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and made its people into factions, oppressing a sector among them, slaughtering their [newborn] sons and keeping their females alive. Indeed, he was of the corrupters.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Pharaoh raised himself above the land, split its people, crushed one group, killed their sons and kept their women: the anatomy of a corrupter.

A reflection

Making yourself a summit

The first verb in Pharaoh's portrait is ʿalā. The lexicons say its root means height, and nothing in it strays from that. The top of a mountain is named from it, and the upper part of a spear. Pharaoh made himself a summit, with everyone else as the slope beneath him.

The commentaries fill the picture in. He was arrogant and tyrannical. He crushed the people of the land until they acknowledged themselves his servants. One early reading goes deeper: he raised himself above the worship of his Lord, and claimed lordship himself.

Now hold that word against the surah's ending. Near its close comes a promise. The home of the Hereafter is for those who do not want ʿuluww in the land, nor corruption (28:83). Ayah 4 ends by calling Pharaoh one of the corrupters. So the surah opens with a man who sought both, and closes by naming both as what bars the way to that home.

Notice the verb at the end: 'do not want'. Pharaoh's exaltation did not begin with a palace. It began with a wanting.

That is where the mirror turns towards us. Few of us will rule a country. Many of us will chair a residents' committee. Picture the chair who, in her second year, starts deciding which neighbours' complaints get heard. The ones who flatter her are 'reasonable'. The ones who question her are 'difficult'. Nobody calls her a tyrant. She would be appalled at the comparison. But the wanting is the same shape, at a smaller height.

Arrogance rarely announces itself. It feels like being right, or being needed, or being the only one who understands. The humble test is simple. When someone below you disagrees, do you feel curious, or do you feel insulted?

Read Pharaoh's story as a warning about a direction, not only about a man. Then ask Allah to keep you from wanting to be anyone's summit.

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.