Ghafir · Makki · ayah 36 of 85

Ghafir 40:36

وَقَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ يَـٰهَـٰمَـٰنُ ٱبْنِ لِى صَرْحًا لَّعَلِّىٓ أَبْلُغُ ٱلْأَسْبَـٰبَ

“And Pharaoh said, "O Hāmān, construct for me a tower that I might reach the ways[1372] -”

Saheeh International

Essence

Answered with plain truth he could not refute, Pharaoh ordered a tower: something tall enough to look like an answer.

A reflection

Not madness, but a manoeuvre

The usual picture of this ayah is comic. A deluded king orders his minister to build a tower so he can climb up and look at God. It is told as proof that Pharaoh had lost his mind.

The commentaries are less sure, and their readings are more unsettling than the comic one.

One says Pharaoh was afraid. The believer's words were taking root in people's hearts. So Pharaoh made a show of testing Musa's claim. If it proved true, he would not hide it; if not, he would confirm his people in their religion. Another says he wanted his subjects to believe he was doing something to disprove Musa. A third, from a classical theologian, argues that no sane man thinks a building can reach the sky. The tower was a rhetorical move: we cannot climb up to see this God, so we cannot know He is there.

Each reading makes the same point. The tower was not a sincere search. It was a way of changing the subject, of turning an argument he could not answer into a project people could watch.

A town council faces a report showing its main road is unsafe. Everyone already knows why. The council commissions a three-year independent review. For three years, whenever anyone asks, the answer is that it is being looked into.

That is the manoeuvre. When truth arrives that cannot be refuted, announce an investigation. Build something visible. Let the scaffolding stand in for a reply.

The believer had spoken plainly. Pharaoh replied with bricks.

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.