28. Surah Al-Qasas, (The Story)

Mecca Period 49

The Quranic text and Ali’s version

نَتْلُوا عَلَيْكَ مِن نَّبَإِ مُوسَى وَفِرْعَوْنَ بِالْحَقِّ لِقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿٣﴾

28: 3. We rehearse to thee some of the story of Moses and Pharaoh in Truth, for people who believe.

C3328. The part of the story of Moses told here is how Moses and his mother were guided in the child's infancy, that even as he grew up, he might be prepared for his high destiny; how in youth he trusted Allah in the most awkward situations and sought His help; how he fled into exile, and yet found love and support because of his well-doing: and how, when he was called to his mission, he received Allah's favour, which defeated all the plots of his enemies.

Thus Allah's Plan works continuously in the web of events. Those who have faith will thus see the hand of Allah in everything and welcome the light that comes to them by Revelation. With such a Faith there is no room for Chance or blind Fate. (R).

إِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ عَلَا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَجَعَلَ أَهْلَهَا شِيَعًا...

28: 4. Truly Pharaoh elated himself in the land and broke up its people into sections,

C3329. For a king or ruler to make invidious distinctions between his subjects, and specially to depress or oppress any particular class of his subjects, is a dereliction of his kingly duties, for which he is responsible to Allah.

Pharaoh and his clique were intoxicated with pride of race and pride of material civilization, and grievously oppressed the Israelites.

Pharaoh decreed that all male sons born to his Israelite subjects should be killed, and the females kept alive for the pleasure of the Egyptians. Moses was saved in a wonderful way, as related further.

...يَسْتَضْعِفُ طَائِفَةً مِّنْهُمْ يُذَبِّحُ أَبْنَاءهُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيِي نِسَاءهُمْ...

depressing a small group among them:

طسم

وَنُرِيدُ أَن نَّمُنَّ عَلَى الَّذِينَ اسْتُضْعِفُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ...

28: 5. And We wished to be gracious to those who were being depressed in the land,

C3330. What Pharaoh wished was to crush them. But Allah's Plan was to protect them as they were weak, and indeed to make them custodians and leaders in His Faith, and to give them in inheritance a land "flowing with milk and honey".

Here they were established in authority for such time as they followed Allah's Law. As regards Pharaoh and his ministers and hosts, they were to be shown that they would suffer, at the hands of the Israelites, the very calamities against which they were so confidently taking precautions for themselves.

...وَنَجْعَلَهُمْ أَئِمَّةً وَنَجْعَلَهُمُ الْوَارِثِينَ ﴿٥﴾

to make them leaders (in faith) and make them heirs,

وَنُمَكِّنَ لَهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ...

28: 6. To establish a firm place for them in the land,

...وَنُرِي فِرْعَوْنَ وَهَامَانَ ...

and to show Pharaoh, Haman,

C3331. Haman was evidently Pharaoh's minister, not to be confounded with a Haman who is mentioned in the Old Testament (Esther 3:1), as a minister of Ahasuerus (Xerxes) King of Persia, the same who invaded Greece, and ruled from B.C. 485 to 464.

... وَجُنُودَهُمَا مِنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا يَحْذَرُونَ ﴿٦﴾

and their hosts, at their hands, the very things against which they were taking precautions.

C3332. Pharaoh was trying to kill the Israelites. Instead, the Plagues of Egypt, invoked by Moses, killed thousands of Egyptians (7:133, and notes 1091-92), because "they were steeped in arrogance,-a people given to sin."

In pursuing the Israelites in their flight, Pharaoh and his army were themselves overwhelmed in the sea.

Asad’s version

(28:3) We [now] convey unto thee some of the story of Moses and Pharaoh, setting forth the truth for [the benefit of] people who will believe.

28:4 Behold, Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and divided its people into castes. 3 One group of them he deemed utterly low; he would slaughter their sons and spare [only] their women: 4 for, behold, he was one of those who spread corruption [on earth].

(28:5) But it was Our will to bestow Our favour upon those [very people] who were deemed [so] utterly low in the land, and to make them forerunners in faith, 5 and to make them heirs [to Pharaoh's glory],

(28:6) and to establish them securely on earth, and to let Pharaoh and Haman 6 and their hosts experience through those [children of Israel] the very thing against which they sought to protect themselves. 7

[[ Asad’s notes : -

1 See Appendix II.

2 For an explanation of the above rendering of the adjective mubin, see note 2 on 12:1.

3 Lit,, "parties" or "sects" - here undoubtedly referring to the division of people into "high" and "low-born" : a division which the Qur'an utterly condemns. The group which, as mentioned in the next sentence, Pharaoh "deemed utterly low" were the Israelites, who had been placed on the lowest rung of the Egyptian social scale and were deprived of almost all human rights.

4 See note 7.

5 Lit., "leaders" or "exemplars" (a'immah, sing, imam) - an allusion to the historical fact that the Hebrews were the first to accept a monotheistic creed in a clear, unequivocal formulation, and thus became the forerunners of both Christianity and Islam.

6 This Haman, who is mentioned several times in the Qur'an as Pharaoh's chief adviser, is not to be confused with the Persian Haman of the Old Testament (The Book of Esther iii ff). Most probably, the word "Haman" as used in the Qur'an is not a proper name at all but the Arabicized echo of the compound designation Ha- Amen given to every high priest of the Egyptian god Amon. Since at the time in question the cult of Amon was paramount in Egypt, his high priest held a rank second only to that of the reigning Pharaoh. The assumption that the person spoken of in the Qur'an as Haman was indeed

the high priest of the cult of Amon is strengthened by Pharaoh's demand (mentioned in verse 38 of this surah as well as in 40:36-37) that Haman erect for him "a lofty tower" from which he could "have a look at [or "ascend to"] the god of Moses": which may be, among other things, an allusion to the hieratic purpose of the great pyramids of Egypt and to the function of the high priest as their chief architect. (But see also note 37.)

7 The Egyptians - obviously remembering the earlier, alien Hyksos dynasty that had invaded Egypt and subsequently allied itself with the Hebrews (see surah 12, note 44) - feared that the latter might in the future, too, make common cause with foreign invaders (cf. Exodus i, 10): and to protect themselves against this danger, they decided - as mentioned in several places in the Qur'an as well as in the Bible - to have every male Hebrew child killed.]]