Salaam and welcome to another episode of our weekly series titled “Path towards Enlightenment” which is an endeavour to make you and us familiar with an easy and fluent explanation of God’s Final Scripture to all mankind, the holy Qur’an, which was revealed to the Last and Greatest of all Messengers, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

We start from where we left you last week, and here are Ayahs 46 and 47 of Surah Zukhruf:

وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا مُوسَىٰ بِآيَاتِنَا إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ وَمَلَئِهِ فَقَالَ إِنِّي رَسُولُ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُم بِآيَاتِنَا إِذَا هُم مِّنْهَا يَضْحَكُونَ

“Certainly We sent Moses with Our signs to Pharaoh and his elite. He said, ‘I am indeed a messenger of the Lord of all the worlds.’

“But when he brought them Our signs behold, they laughed at them.”

If you remember, last Friday in our explanation of the preceding Ayahs of this Surah we said the gist of the messages of all the prophets of God was monotheism, with the emphasis that the worship of anything or anybody beside God is outright blasphemy. This means none of the prophets permitted the worship of idols or promoted polytheism.

The Ayahs that we recited to you now mention the account of Prophet Moses, the Pharaoh, and the Israelites, since the mission of Moses resembles that of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). The Pharaoh derided the lack of power of Moses who was clad in simple clothes and possessed no wealth, while he bragged of himself as the Lord of Egypt, similar to the chiefs of the pagan Arabs of Mecca who considered themselves men of substance in contrast to the Prophet of Islam who was raised as an orphan and was seemingly poor. This indicates the disbelievers’ lack of proper thinking when confronted with truth and realities. These two Ayahs were revealed as a consolation to the Prophet of Islam to encourage him to steadfastly proclaim his mission in the face of intense opposition as Moses was commanded to do in Egypt against the Pharaoh.

Ayah 47 says that when by God Almighty’s command Moses demonstrated the Divine signs of his mission, such as the turning of his staff or walking stick into a serpent and the glow in his palm, the whole court instead of using their intellect to distinguish between sorcery and miracle, derided him.

From these Ayahs we learn the following points:

1. The task of the prophets who preached their message to the ordinary people, was also to invite the rulers of that particular place to the message of God in order to better reform the whole community.
2. Arrogance makes the tyrants ignorant of realities and they think that their power and wealth can stop men of God from preaching the truth and reforming the society.
3. Since disbelievers lack logic and rationality they ridicule the believers and indulge in a propaganda tirade against them on the assumption of preventing people from realizing the truth.

Now we listen to Ayah 48, 49 and 50 of Surah Zukhruf:

وَمَا نُرِيهِم مِّنْ آيَةٍ إِلَّا هِيَ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ أُخْتِهَا ۖ وَأَخَذْنَاهُم بِالْعَذَابِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ

وَقَالُوا يَا أَيُّهَ السَّاحِرُ ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ بِمَا عَهِدَ عِندَكَ إِنَّنَا لَمُهْتَدُونَ

فَلَمَّا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمُ الْعَذَابَ إِذَا هُمْ يَنكُثُونَ

“And We did not show them a sign but it was greater than the other, and We seized them with punishment so that they might return (to monotheism).”

“They would say, ‘O magician! Invoke your Lord for us by the covenant He has made with you; we will indeed be guided.’

“But when We lifted the punishment from them, behold, they would break their pledge.”

These Ayahs refer to the fact that Divine signs followed by Divine wrath, if necessary, are a warning for the deviated people to return to the path of monotheism and virtue. When the Pharaoh and his people denied the truth and became proud of their wayward and sinful behaviour, God Almighty commanded Moses to demonstrate to them a greater miracle that the previous one, including the inflicting of torments upon the disbelievers, such as swarms of locusts that destroyed the crops.

At this, the terrified disbelievers pleaded to Moses that if the affliction is removed they will believe. As indicated by Ayah 49 it seems the common people were too ignorant to draw a distinction between miracle and sorcery. They regarded him as a great sorcerer and beseeched him to invoke his Lord to remove the torments, but as Ayah 50 says, after the removal of the affliction, they broke their promise and persisted in their disbelief.

These Ayahs teaches us that:

1. We should take lessons from the account of Prophet Moses, the tyrannical Pharaoh and the ever ungrateful Israelites, who always conspired against truth and the Words of God.
2. These Ayahs also serve as a warning to the obdurate enemies of Islam to reflect on the fate of the disbelievers of the past and take a lesson from their dire fate.
3. Many people at the time of danger become heedful of God and start praying but when the calamity is gone, they again become negligent of Divine Power and the obligations of religion.
4. Once God the All-Merciful seals His argument through revelation of Divine signs and giving of respite, it is the turn for punishment and worldly torture so that people return to the path of truth through warning.

Now let us listen to Ayahs 51, 52 and 53 of this Surah:

وَنَادَىٰ فِرْعَوْنُ فِي قَوْمِهِ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ أَلَيْسَ لِي مُلْكُ مِصْرَ وَهَـٰذِهِ الْأَنْهَارُ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِي ۖ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ

أَمْ أَنَا خَيْرٌ مِّنْ هَـٰذَا الَّذِي هُوَ مَهِينٌ وَلَا يَكَادُ يُبِينُ

فَلَوْلَا أُلْقِيَ عَلَيْهِ أَسْوِرَةٌ مِّن ذَهَبٍ أَوْ جَاءَ مَعَهُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ مُقْتَرِنِينَ

“And Pharaoh proclaimed amongst his people. He said, ‘O my people! Does not the kingdom of Egypt belong to me and these rivers that run at my feet? Do you not perceive?

“Am I not better than this humble one who cannot even speak clearly?

“Why have no bracelets of gold been cast upon him, nor have the angels come with him as escorts?’

These Ayahs clearly reveal fear, vainglory, despotism, vanity, false belief, reliance on worldly possessions, and the use of adornments which are the characteristics of tyrants, who lacking logic resort to propaganda in order to deceive the people. The Pharaoh after bragging about his power intends to remind the people of the past stuttering of Moses, although God Almighty had longed cured the Prophet of this previous defect.

As Ayah 53 says, the ignorantly arrogant Pharaoh utters more baseless words in an attempt to deny the mission of Prophet Moses by saying that if God has really sent him then why is he not wearing golden bracelets, or is accompanied by angels?

These Ayahs teach us the following points:

1. Tyrants and arrogant person do not use their God-given intellect but indulge in illogical behaviour by bragging about their power and wealth.
2. They try to belittle the virtuous people and in vain try to find defects in them.
3. The awakening of nations and their intellectual growth is the biggest danger for despotic rulers, who in the present era try to brainwash people through satellite networks, TV, radio, cyberspace and other means of propaganda.

RM/AS/SS