Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 51 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:51

وَنَادَىٰ فِرْعَوْنُ فِى قَوْمِهِۦ قَالَ يَـٰقَوْمِ أَلَيْسَ لِى مُلْكُ مِصْرَ وَهَـٰذِهِ ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِىٓ ۖ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ

“And Pharaoh called out among his people; he said, "O my people, does not the kingdom of Egypt belong to me, and these rivers flowing beneath me; then do you not see?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Pharaoh points to his kingdom and the rivers running beneath him and asks if they cannot see, not knowing whose water it was.

A reflection

The water beneath him

Wa-hādhihi al-anhāru tajrī min taḥtī: and these rivers flowing beneath me. The commentaries picture it variously. Canals drawn from the Nile flowing beneath his palace, which overlooked them. Or beneath a great raised throne. Or through the gardens laid out before him.

Hold on to that image, because the story will return to it. Four ayat later, the surah says: so We drowned them, all of them (43:55). The water he claimed ran beneath him would close over his head.

The Quran does not need to spell out the irony. It simply lets the two scenes sit a few lines apart. In one, a king stands above the water, pointing at it as proof of his greatness. In the other, the water stands above the king.

Another surah tells the same arc in three short ayat. He gathered his people and proclaimed: I am your lord most high. So Allah seized him, as an example in the next life and the first (79:23-25).

That is the shape of every arrogance that rests on borrowed things. What lifts you up can also bring you down, if you forget Who placed it under you. The rivers were never his. They were lent, and the loan was called in.

A developer builds an expensive riverside apartment block and markets it with the slogan: own the river. Three winters later, the river floods the underground car park. The residents watch from upstairs as it fills.

Whatever flows beneath you today, a salary, a home, good health, a position, remember it is water. It runs. It belongs to its Maker. It can carry you or cover you. The difference lies in whether you know Whose it is.

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.