Surah Ghafir (40) — Ayah 26

(Ayah 26) ➊ { وَ قَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ ذَرُوْنِيْۤ اَقْتُلْ مُوْسٰى:} By saying this, Pharaoh wanted to make it appear that the reason he had not yet killed Musa (peace be upon him) was not because his courtiers and chiefs had stopped him. He said this merely to intimidate or to encourage himself, because inwardly he was extremely afraid, and Allah had granted Musa and Harun (peace be upon them) such dominance and awe with His statement: {’’ وَ نَجْعَلُ لَكُمَا سُلْطٰنًا فَلَا يَصِلُوْنَ اِلَيْكُمَا ‘‘} (“We shall strengthen you both, so they will not reach you.” Al-Qasas: 35), that he did not have the courage to kill them or cause them any harm. As for the courtiers, they neither stopped Pharaoh from killing Musa (peace be upon him) nor did Pharaoh give any weight to their opinions. (See Al-Mu’min: 29) He had made his entire nation so insignificant that they agreed with him in everything, no matter how irrational it was, as He said: «فَاسْتَخَفَّ قَوْمَهٗ فَاَطَاعُوْهُ اِنَّهُمْ كَانُوْا قَوْمًا فٰسِقِيْنَ» [ الزخرف : ۵۴ ] “So he made his people seem insignificant, and they obeyed him; indeed, they were defiantly disobedient people.”

➋ { وَ لْيَدْعُ رَبَّهٗ:} This too was his cowardly threat, otherwise, after seeing the miracles of Musa (peace be upon him), he and his people were convinced that he was a true messenger of Allah and that Allah would not leave him helpless. If he had not been convinced of this, then despite possessing such a mighty army, what had stopped his hand from killing Musa (peace be upon him)?

➌ { اِنِّيْۤ اَخَافُ اَنْ يُّبَدِّلَ دِيْنَكُمْ:} By “religion” is meant their belief and the system of government based on it, in which Pharaoh was considered the Most High Lord and his command was deemed obligatory to obey. That is, I fear that he will make you deny your religion and belief, under which you consider me your Lord and are content with my subjugation and obedience, and thus bring about a revolution in the country. In other words, I want to kill him for your sake.

➍ { اَوْ اَنْ يُّظْهِرَ فِي الْاَرْضِ الْفَسَادَ:} That is, if he cannot make all the people of Egypt deny their ancestral religion, then at least there is the danger that he will convince some of them of monotheism, while others will continue to believe in my lordship and authority, and this will cause constant disorder in the country. This is the same approach that every absolute ruler adopts to maintain his power by creating the specter of internal or external threats. Look at this tyrant, who calls the invitation of Musa (peace be upon him), by which people are coming to the right path, “corruption,” whereas the real corrupter is he himself, as mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah: « اَلَاۤ اِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُوْنَ وَ لٰكِنْ لَّا يَشْعُرُوْنَ » [البقرۃ : ۱۲ ] “Behold! It is they who are the corrupters, but they do not perceive.”

26. 1. This was probably said by Pharaoh to those people who were preventing him from killing Musa (عليه السلام).

26. 2. This expresses Pharaoh's audacity: "Let me see how his Lord saves him, let him call upon his Lord and see." Or it is a denial of the Lord altogether: "Which Lord does he have who will save him?"—because he used to call himself the Lord.

26. 3. That is, "lest he turn people away from the worship of others besides Allah and direct them to the worship of only one Allah, or lest discord arise because of him." The meaning was that if some people from my nation accept his call, they will argue and dispute with those who do not accept it, which will lead to fighting and conflict among them, becoming a source of discord. In this way, he declared the call to Tawheed as the cause of discord and the people of Tawheed as troublemakers, whereas in reality, he himself was the troublemaker, and the worship of others besides Allah is the root of all discord.

26. And Pharaoh said, "Let me [34] kill Moses, and let him call upon his Lord. I fear that he may change your religion [35] or cause corruption [36] to appear in the land."

[34]
Pharaoh’s Empty Threat:

One meaning of this is that when, instead of decreasing, the number of those who believed in Sayyiduna Musa ؑ kept increasing, Pharaoh thought that now there was only one solution to this problem, and that was to kill Sayyiduna Musa ؑ. But his courtiers, who had become aware of the real situation, forbade him from doing this, fearing that a major rebellion might break out in the country. So Pharaoh may have replied to these courtiers that now there was no other option left except to do this. Therefore, do not stop me from doing this. And another meaning could be that no one stopped him, but he was saying this merely to show off his bravery. However, since he himself was frightened and anxious in his heart, he was speaking in this manner. Otherwise, if he himself had not been afraid and had decided to do this, who was there to stop him?

[35]
By “Deen” is Meant Civilization and the State System:

Here, by “deen” is not meant only the worship of the sun god or Hubal, but the entire system of government and civilization. That is, Pharaoh’s real fear was that the rule of this country might be snatched away from him. But he presented this matter in the style of cunning political leaders, saying that your “deen,” which you love, might be changed. Just as political leaders here keep making statements that the public wants new elections to be held as soon as possible, whereas the poor public is already fed up with frequent elections.

[36] That is, even if he cannot change this system, there is still the danger that civil war will break out in the country. Therefore, for the protection of public order, it is necessary that, by whatever means possible, Musa should be killed to put an end to these impending troubles.