An-Nazi'at · Makki · ayah 25 of 46

An-Nazi'at 79:25

فَأَخَذَهُ ٱللَّهُ نَكَالَ ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ وَٱلْأُولَىٰٓ

“So Allāh seized him in exemplary punishment for the last and the first [transgression].[1844].”

Saheeh International

Essence

The man who called himself most high was seized by Allah and made a warning for this world and the next.

A reflection

Children eating sandwiches beneath the pharaoh

In the Egyptian gallery of a great museum, a class of nine-year-olds sits on the floor with packed lunches. Above them looms a vast stone head of an ancient king, once worshipped as a god. A girl drops her crisps. A boy asks the teacher whether the king was nice. Nobody in the room is afraid of him.

This ayah is four words of Arabic that end a whole reign. Fa-akhadhahu Allāhu: so Allah seized him. The man who had just announced himself 'your lord, most high' is suddenly the object of a verb, not its subject. He is taken, as a hand takes hold of something. The sources say Allah took vengeance on him in a way that made him an example to others like him.

Elsewhere the Quran describes the end of that seizing. As the sea closed over him, he was told. 'Today We will preserve your body, so that you may be a sign for those after you' (10:92). The god-king became a warning.

That is majesty the ego cannot survive. Every Pharaoh, great or small, assumes that his power is his own and that it will last. The seizing shows otherwise. All the armies, statues, titles and crowds could not delay one verb of Allah.

A doubt rises for thoughtful readers. Is this vindictiveness? A Lord who crushes a rival because His pride was wounded? The sources show the opposite pattern. Before the seizing came an invitation, a gentle word, a guide offered, the greatest sign, and, by one report, decades of respite. The seizing came only after every door had been refused. And it was not for Allah's sake; He needs nothing from anyone. It was, the sources say, a nakāl: a punishment that holds others back. It was mercy for everyone who would ever be tempted to say 'I am most high'.

The children in the museum eat their lunch and move on to the next gallery. The king cannot follow them. That is the whole lesson.

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.