Surah Al-Qasas (28) — Ayah 4

(Ayah 4) ➊ By { اِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ عَلَا فِي الْاَرْضِ: ’’ الْاَرْضِ ‘‘} is meant the land of Egypt, as indicated by the mention of Pharaoh, because his rule was only in Egypt. Those who consider him the king of the entire earth are not correct, because after migration, when Musa (peace be upon him) reached Madyan near Egypt, he was free from his grasp. The literal meaning of {’’ عَلَا ‘‘} is "he raised his head, became exalted," meaning he rose above his original position of servitude and claimed divinity, forgetting his reality. In the word {’’ عَلَا فِي الْاَرْضِ ‘‘}, there is also an indication that loftiness and grandeur are the attire of the One who is exalted above the Throne; the right of one living on earth is humility and submission before the One above the Throne, not to rebel and humiliate Allah's servants and inflict mountains of oppression and tyranny upon them.

➋ {وَ جَعَلَ اَهْلَهَا شِيَعًا:} means he divided the inhabitants of the land of Egypt into different classes. It should be noted that the civilization and beliefs of Pharaoh's era were very similar to those of the Hindus. Hindus are also divided into four classes: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra, in which Brahmins are placed above all and Shudras are degraded below the level of humanity. The Egyptian civilization, along with the king's divinity, was also devoted to the worship of the cow; the same is the case with Hindus. Pharaoh of Egypt also divided the residents of Egypt into different groups and kept them embroiled with each other, and by granting various privileges or by oppressing them, he made them so insignificant and helpless that they could not dare to disagree with him in any matter, to the extent that they even accepted his claim of being the supreme lord. (See Zukhruf: 51–54) Even today, the method of the great powers to keep countries and nations subjugated is the same: divide and rule.

➌ The meaning of { يَسْتَضْعِفُ طَآىِٕفَةً مِّنْهُمْ: ’’ أَضْعَفَ يُضْعِفُ‘‘} (af‘ala) is to weaken, and in the form of istif‘al, due to the addition of letters, the meaning is intensified, i.e., he was greatly weakening one group among them. By this is meant the Children of Israel, who came to Egypt during the time of Yusuf (peace be upon him) and lived for a long time with great dignity and respect, but due to disobedience to Allah and their evil deeds, Allah imposed upon them the original inhabitants of Egypt, who were the Copts, and this Pharaoh took their weakening and helplessness to the extreme. He arranged matters so that the Copts remained masters and the Children of Israel became slaves and servants. Thus, every laborious task was forcibly taken from them, such as farming, building constructions, digging canals, and household chores were taken from their women. In addition, their boys were slaughtered and their women were kept alive to be subjected to their lust.

➍ { يُذَبِّحُ اَبْنَآءَهُمْ وَ يَسْتَحْيٖ نِسَآءَهُمْ:} For the reason for this command and the manner of slaughter, see Surah Al-Baqarah (49).

➎ { اِنَّهٗ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُفْسِدِيْنَ: ’’ إِنَّ ‘‘} is generally used to state the reason for the preceding statement, i.e., the reason for his oppression and rebellion was that he was among those whose very occupation was corruption and whose identity was known as the corrupters.