“Go to Pharaoh. Indeed, he has transgressed.”
The verb is taghâ: he went beyond every limit. The Arabic word for tyranny comes from the same root.
Then he gathered his people and called out,
and said: “I am your lord, the most high.”
How could a whole people accept that? Historians of Egypt offer part of an answer.
They describe the Pharaohs presented as sons of the gods, in charge of keeping order on earth.
In that belief, a flowing Nile and a good harvest were the proof that Pharaoh was blessed.
Pharaoh called out to his people: “My people, is the kingdom of Egypt not mine,
and these rivers flowing beneath me? Do you not see?”
His proof is what the eye can see: a kingdom, rivers. He asks his people to judge by appearances.
“Am I not better than this one, who is insignificant and can hardly speak clearly?”
Then: “Why have no bracelets of gold been placed on him?” Gold again: what shines.
Ibn Kathîr comments that Pharaoh looked only at the outside, and missed what was truer and clearer.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah does not look at your faces and your wealth, but at your hearts and your deeds.”
So he made his people light-minded, and they obeyed him. They were a people who disobeyed Allah.
The verb istakhaffa comes from khiffa, lightness. He made their minds light, easy to lead wherever he wished.
And the verse does not excuse them. It says they obeyed, and calls them a people who disobeyed Allah.
Then came the day his story cracked, in front of all Egypt.
So the magicians fell down in prostration.
They said: “We believe in the Lord of the worlds, the Lord of Mûsâ and Hârûn.”
Historians say Egyptian magic was the work of priests. If so, his own religious elite bowed first.
He said: “You believed him before I gave you permission? He is your chief, who taught you magic.”
Look at his first words: before I gave you permission. Even faith needs his permission.
Then he rewrites the scene in one sentence: not a defeat, but a plot led by their chief.
And when words are not enough, threats: hands and feet cut on opposite sides, and crucifixion.
His name comes back 74 times in the Qur'an. No other tyrant is named so often.
Why does Allah show you the mind of this man in such detail?
Pharaoh did not only want to be obeyed. He wanted to decide what people believed.
Tonight, before you share a post or a rumor, check what it rests on.