Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 56 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:56

فَجَعَلْنَـٰهُمْ سَلَفًا وَمَثَلًا لِّلْـَٔاخِرِينَ

“And We made them a precedent and an example for the later peoples.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Pharaoh's people became forerunners and a byword for all who came after: everyone goes ahead of someone, and the only question is where.

A reflection

Made into a lesson

Fa-jaʿalnāhum: so We made them. The verb is Allah's. Pharaoh spent his life making things: monuments, armies, a reputation. In one ayah, Allah makes something of him that he never intended. An example.

One commentary says mathal here can mean a wondrous story that travels as proverbs travel. When later peoples act as Pharaoh's people did, it will be said to them: your example is the example of Pharaoh's people.

That is the final reversal of the story. The king who asked, do you not see, is now seen by every later generation. But not as he wished. His name has become a warning. His rivers, a lesson. His army, a byword for drowning arrogance.

This is where the ego, however large, meets its true size. We think we write our own stories. Allah holds the pen. He can turn the most carefully built legacy into a sentence in someone else's lesson.

Allah gains nothing from this. He does not need Pharaoh as an example to secure His own throne. The example is for the later peoples, for us. It is there so that we may see and turn before our own story is written in the same ink.

A businessman builds a tower with his name in huge letters across the top. After his company collapses in scandal, the building is sold. For years, local teachers use it as an example in lessons about honesty. The letters stay up until the new owners finally remove them.

Ask Allah, humbly, that your story be written as an example of mercy received, not of warning ignored.

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.