Ghafir · Makki · ayah 37 of 85

Ghafir 40:37

أَسْبَـٰبَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ فَأَطَّلِعَ إِلَىٰٓ إِلَـٰهِ مُوسَىٰ وَإِنِّى لَأَظُنُّهُۥ كَـٰذِبًا ۚ وَكَذَٰلِكَ زُيِّنَ لِفِرْعَوْنَ سُوٓءُ عَمَلِهِۦ وَصُدَّ عَنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ ۚ وَمَا كَيْدُ فِرْعَوْنَ إِلَّا فِى تَبَابٍ

“The ways into the heavens - so that I may look at the deity of Moses; but indeed, I think he is a liar." And thus was made attractive to Pharaoh the evil of his deed, and he was averted from the [right] way. And the plan of Pharaoh was not except in ruin.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Pharaoh reached for ropes into the sky and called the truthful man a liar, while his own ugly work looked beautiful to him.

A reflection

He thought it was beautiful

Most of us carry a simple picture of villains. They know they are doing wrong; they enjoy it; they rub their hands. This ayah breaks that picture. Zuyyina li-firʿawna sūʾu ʿamalihi: the evil of Pharaoh's deed was made to look beautiful to him.

The root of zuyyina has a picture the first hearers would have known. The earth after rain, decked in new grass. Adornment that makes a thing look fair, for a season. Pharaoh's cruelty did not look like cruelty to him. It looked like order, wisdom, firm government. It was dressed in green.

The commentaries differ over who did the adorning. One says Satan, through his whispering. Another says Allah, by letting the man's own choices run their course, once he had rebelled. One commentary explains it as Allah leaving his evil deed attractive to him after he had defied and resisted. In the end his own soul tempted him to try to climb the sky. The ayah's plain sense is enough. By the end, he could not see what he was doing.

A manager has shouted at his staff for twenty years. He calls it high standards. He is genuinely puzzled when people leave, and tells his family that young people today cannot take pressure. The habit has been adorned until it looks like a virtue.

That is the frightening thing about this ayah. The worst wrong is rarely the one we know we are doing. It is the one that has started to look beautiful. The only defence is to keep asking others, and Allah, to show us what we have stopped being able to see.

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.