Surah Al-Qasas (28) — Ayah 38

(Ayah 38) ➊ { وَ قَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ يٰۤاَيُّهَا الْمَلَاُ مَا عَلِمْتُ لَكُمْ مِّنْ اِلٰهٍ غَيْرِيْ:} The rebellious and arrogant Pharaoh was not affected at all by the gentle and forbearing words of Musa (peace be upon him); rather, he addressed his chiefs and began boasting: "O chiefs! I have not known any god for you other than myself." This shows the arrogance and foolishness of Pharaoh. It is as if he was saying to them: I do not know that you have any god besides me, and what I do not know does not exist. Tell me, what could be greater foolishness than this? You could not even know who was being raised in your own house! The chiefs of his people also supported him in his nonsense by remaining silent, which was the height of their ignorance and cowardice. Allah Almighty said: «{ فَاسْتَخَفَّ قَوْمَهٗ فَاَطَاعُوْهُ اِنَّهُمْ كَانُوْا قَوْمًا فٰسِقِيْنَ }» [ الزخرف : ۵۴ ] "So he made his people seem insignificant (worthless), and they obeyed him; indeed, they were a rebellious people."

➋ Ustadh Muhammad Abduh (may Allah have mercy on him) writes: "Shah Sahib (may Allah have mercy on him) has translated 'ilah' (god) here as 'ruler,' and this seems to be correct, because Pharaoh did not consider himself the creator and deity of the heavens and the earth, rather, he himself worshipped many deities. Thus, Pharaoh's intent was that I alone am your absolute authority and ruler, and there can be no other whose obedience is followed besides me." (Ashraf al-Hawashi) For details of Pharaoh's claim of being the supreme lord, see the commentary of Surah Al-A'raf (127).

➌ {فَاَوْقِدْ لِيْ يٰهَامٰنُ عَلَى الطِّيْنِ … :} Along with his claim that he knew no god for them except himself, Pharaoh, to show that indeed there was no deity besides him, ordered his minister Haman to prepare baked bricks. Here, pay attention to the choice of words in the Noble Qur'an; in the Arabic language, words like {’’آجُرٌّ، طُوْبٌ ‘‘} and {’’ قَرْمَدٌ ‘‘} are used for baked bricks, but all of them carry a certain heaviness in pronunciation. Allah Almighty, instead, said: «{ فَاَوْقِدْ لِيْ يٰهَامٰنُ عَلَى الطِّيْنِ }» "So O Haman! Kindle a fire for me on clay." In this sentence, the method of making baked bricks is also described, Haman is ordered to prepare them, and there is no heaviness in any word of this sentence; all the letters are harmonious and fluent. It is commonly said that the making of baked bricks began with Haman at Pharaoh's command, but there is no solid evidence that baked bricks were not made before this.

➍ { فَاجْعَلْ لِّيْ صَرْحًا … :} To deceive the people, he ordered that baked bricks be prepared and a lofty palace be built for him, so that he could ascend it and see the Lord of Musa, for he considered him to be a liar. This statement of Pharaoh is also mentioned in Surah Al-Mu’min (36, 37). There is no mention in the Noble Qur'an or Hadith whether he actually built that palace or not. Al-Baghawi has mentioned that Haman gathered craftsmen and laborers, until fifty thousand masons were assembled. The laborers and workers were in addition to these. Likewise, those who baked bricks, made lime, and worked with wood and iron were also separate. All of them built that structure, which was so tall that no creature had ever built such a lofty building. When they finished, Pharaoh ascended it and ordered arrows to be shot towards the sky; when they returned, they were covered in blood. He said, "I have killed the god of Musa." Pharaoh had ascended it with a horse. Near sunset, Allah Almighty sent Jibril (peace be upon him), who struck the building with his wing and split it into three pieces. One piece fell on Pharaoh's army, killing a million of them, one piece fell into the sea, and one piece fell in the west, and none of those who worked on the building survived. Al-Tabari narrated this briefly from Al-Suddi. Al-Qurtubi mentioned it and indicated its weakness by saying: {’’وَاللّٰهُ أَعْلَمُ بِصِحَّةِ ذٰلِكَ‘‘} that Allah knows best about the authenticity of this narration. This is the problem with Israelite traditions: they have no chain of transmission, nor do they have any clear origin. Even the mention of a million-strong army in Egypt at that time is noteworthy. The reality, as most commentators have chosen, seems to be that this was merely a bluff by Pharaoh, with which he was deceiving his people. The order to make bricks was also given to delay the matter, otherwise the Egyptians had no need for bricks; those who could build the pyramids from such massive stones, each the size of an entire room, had no need to bake bricks. This was merely a time-wasting tactic; moreover, with such lofty mountains present, ordering a building to be made from bricks, which could never be as tall as mountains, was pure deception. As he had said to his chiefs: «{ ذَرُوْنِيْۤ اَقْتُلْ مُوْسٰى وَ لْيَدْعُ رَبَّهٗ }» [ المؤمن : ۲۶ ] "(And Pharaoh said) Leave me to kill Musa, and let him call upon his Lord." One may ask, who is restraining you, that you are asking to be left? If you have the courage, then try to lay a hand on him.

➎ Commentator Abdul Rahman Kilani (may Allah have mercy on him) writes: "In fact, he said this to make his subjects fools and to nullify the effect of the call to truth, and it was exactly like what Russia, a communist and atheistic country, said a few years ago. They launched a Sputnik aircraft that reached hundreds of thousands of miles in altitude, and upon its return, they claimed that they had reached such heights, but did not find the God of the Muslims anywhere. That is, these fools thought that if the existence of Allah Almighty is real, then it could only be at these few hundred thousand miles of height, and they presented this incident as a scientific proof to fool people, whereas these same people, when describing the vastness of the universe, say that the sun is 93 million miles away from our earth, and the earth revolves around it. This is the third planet from the sun, and the ninth planet, Pluto, revolves around the sun, which is 3680 million miles away from the sun. Also, in this universe, in the solar system, the sun is a star, and thousands of such stars have been observed in the universe, and these stars or suns are much larger in size than our sun. Very far from our sun, at a distance of about 40 trillion kilometers, there is a sun which appears to us as a tiny point of light. Its name is Qalb Aqrab (Antares). If it were placed in our solar system, the entire area from the sun to Mars would fit inside it, while Mars is 141.5 million miles from the sun, meaning the diameter of Qalb Aqrab is about 283 million miles. Then, when the distances between the scattered planets in the universe exceeded even trillions of miles, astronomers invented the term 'light year,' which means that light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. Accordingly, the distance from our earth to the sun, which is actually 93 million miles, is an eight-minute journey for light, meaning the sun is eight light-minutes away from us. Now, there are planets in the universe that are thousands or even hundreds of thousands of light years apart from each other.

This is the study of the vastness of the universe that man has done, and what is still unknown to man, Allah knows best. Now, can the Being who is the Creator of all these things and above all of them, can these fools find Him at a few hundred thousand miles of height? Also, they think as if He is some material body that can be grasped by them. [قٰتَلَھُمُ اللّٰہُ اَنّٰی یُوْفَکُوْنَ] An even greater foolishness was committed by these Russian scholars when they began teaching their scientific research in their schools, and a girl spontaneously said that wherever the Sputnik missile had reached, Allah Almighty was far above that. Pharaoh had also said a similar thing to Haman, to cast doubt in people's minds about the existence of Allah, otherwise, in practice, neither did Haman build such a tall palace or tower, nor was that Pharaoh's real intention."

➏ { وَ اِنِّيْ لَاَظُنُّهٗ مِنَ الْكٰذِبِيْنَ:} That is, Musa, who claims that there is a Lord above the heavens who is the Sustainer of the entire universe, I consider him to be a liar.

38-1. That is, bake the clay in fire to prepare bricks; Haman was Pharaoh's minister, advisor, and the one who managed his affairs.

38-2. That is, prepare a tall and strong palace, upon which I can ascend to the sky and see whether there is any other Lord besides me.

38-3. That is, Musa (علیہ السلام), who claims that there is a Lord in the heavens who is the Sustainer of the entire universe, I consider him to be a liar.

And Pharaoh said: O chiefs! I do not know of any god for you other than myself. So, O Haman! Fire up the clay for me and build me a lofty tower so that I may look at the God of Moses. But I think he is surely a liar.

[49] Pharaoh’s claim to divinity was to such an extent that he had seized control over all the economic resources of the country. Secondly, he did not acknowledge any higher authority in his legal and political powers. Otherwise, like other polytheists, he also believed Allah to be the Creator of the universe and acknowledged other deities besides Allah. Thus, even his own courtiers said to Pharaoh, “Will you let Moses and his followers go free so that they abandon you and your gods?” [7: 127] The Pharaohs of Egypt actually considered themselves incarnations of the sun god. That is why they made their subjects worship their statues. In addition, the worship of cows and bulls was also common among these people.

[50]
Revelations About the Existence of Allah Almighty and Its Response:

In reality, he said this to fool his subjects and to nullify the effect of the call to truth upon them. And this is exactly like what, a few years ago, Russia—a communist and atheistic country—said. When they launched their Sputnik aircraft, which reached hundreds of thousands of miles in altitude, upon its return they claimed, “We have been to such and such hundreds of thousands of miles in height, but we did not find the God of the Muslims anywhere.” That is, these fools thought that if the existence of Allah Almighty is real, then He could only be at these few hundred thousand miles of height. And they presented this argument as a scientific proof only to fool people. Because these same people, when describing the vastness of the universe, say that the sun is 93 million miles away from our earth and the earth revolves around it. This is the third planet from the sun, and the ninth planet, Pluto, revolves around the sun at a distance of 3 billion 680 million miles. Also, in this universe, in our solar system, the sun is a star or a fixed star, and thousands of such fixed stars have been observed in the universe. And these stars or suns, in terms of size, are much larger than our sun. At a distance of about 40 trillion kilometers from our sun, there is a sun that appears to us as just a tiny point of light. Its name is Alpha Centauri. Similarly, there are other suns farther than this. In the same way, there is a star named Antares. If it were placed in our solar system, the entire area from the sun to Mars would fit inside it, while Mars is 141.5 million miles away from the sun. Thus, the diameter of Antares is about 283 million miles. Then, when the distances between the scattered planets in the universe exceeded even trillions of miles, astronomers invented the term “light year.” This means that light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. In this respect, the distance from our earth to the sun, which is actually 93 million miles, is a journey of 8 minutes for light. That is, the sun is 8 light minutes away from us. Now, there are such planets in the universe that are thousands, even hundreds of thousands of light years apart from each other.

Pharaoh Instructing Haman to Build a Tall Palace:

This is the study of the vastness of the universe that man has done, and what is still unknown to man, Allah knows best. Now, can that Being who is the Creator of all these things and above all, can these fools find Him at a height of a few hundred thousand miles? Moreover, they think of Him as if He is some material body that can come within their grasp. ﴿قٰاتَلَهُمُ اللّٰهُ اَنّٰي يُؤْفَكُوْنَ﴾ An even greater folly committed by these Russian scholars was that they began teaching this scientific research in their schools. So, a girl spontaneously uttered, “Wherever this Sputnik missile reached, Allah Almighty was far above that.” Pharaoh also said something similar to Haman, which would cast doubt about the existence of Allah in people’s minds. Otherwise, in practice, neither did Haman build any such tall palace or tower, nor was it Pharaoh’s real intention.