Surah Ash-Shu'araa (26) — Ayah 54

(Ayah 54) {اِنَّ هٰۤؤُلَآءِ لَشِرْذِمَةٌ قَلِيْلُوْنَ : ’’شِرْ ذِمَةٌ ‘‘} A small group, he further emphasized their insignificance and worthlessness with {’’ قَلِيْلُوْنَ ‘‘}, which is a plural of paucity. The indication with {’’ هٰۤؤُلَآءِ ‘‘} is also for the expression of contempt, that these people are a small group and only a few people, why should we care about them, we can easily annihilate them and if we wish, we can bring them back with minimal resources. With these words, he was giving courage to himself and his people, whereas from this his intense fear is apparent, that if indeed they are so few and insignificant, then what is the need to gather such large armies? Here, the commentators, influenced by the Bible, have written that at that time the number of Bani Israel, excluding children and the elderly, was six hundred thousand, but this is not rationally possible. Hafiz Ibn Kathir (may Allah have mercy on him) has considered these to be exaggerations. If such a large number of young men were with Musa (peace be upon him), they would never have chosen the path of migration, and even six hundred thousand cannot be called {’’لَشِرْذِمَةٌ قَلِيْلُوْنَ ‘‘}. The commentator Maraghi writes: "What can be said with certainty is that Bani Israel were much fewer than Pharaoh's army, but we cannot be certain of any specific number. The exaggerated statements in the Torah and historical books are very difficult to verify, and should not be relied upon. It is better for us not to get involved in their details. Ibn Khaldun, in the introduction to his history, has declared these narrations to be false and has explained the exaggeration present in them, which neither reason accepts nor can they stand before sound scholarly discussion."