Surah 7. Al-A'raf

Your rage towards us is only because we believed in the signs of our Lord when they came to us. Our Lord! Shower us with perseverance, and let us die while submitting 'to You'.'¹

  - Mustafa Khattab

 lit., as Muslims.

"But thou dost wreak thy vengeance on us simply because we believed in the signs of our Lord when they reached us! Our Lord! pour out on us patience and constancy and take our souls unto thee as Muslims (who bow to thy will)"! ¹⁰⁸³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

These Egyptians, by their patience and constancy, show that their repentance was true. Thus in their case the mission of Moses was fulfilled directly, and their number must have amounted to a considerable figure. They were martyrs to their faith, and their martyrdom affected their nation in two ways. In the first place, as they were the pick of those who practised magic in Egypt, their conversion and disappearance dealt a staggering blow to the whole system. Secondly, the indirect effect of their martyrdom on the commonalty of Egypt must have been far greater than can be measured by numbers. The banner of Allah was planted, and the silent spiritual fight must have gone on ever since, though history, in recording outward events, is silent on the slow and gradual processes of transformation undergone by Egyptian religion. From a chaotic pantheon of animals and animal gods, the worship of the sun and the heavenly bodies, and the worship of the Pharaoh as the embodiment of power, they gradually came to realise the oneness and mercy of the true God. After many glimpses of Monotheism on Egyptian soil itself, the (gospel of Jesus reached them, and eventually Islam.)

The chiefs of Pharaoh's people protested, 'Are you going to leave Moses and his people free to spread corruption in the land and abandon you and your gods?' He responded, 'We will kill their sons and keep their women.¹ We will completely dominate them.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

 As we did before the birth of Moses.

Said the chiefs of Pharaoh's people: "wilt thou leave Moses and his people to spread mischief in the land and to abandon thee and thy gods?" He said: "Their male children will we slay; (only) their females will we save alive; and we have over them (power) irresistible." ¹⁰⁸⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Pharaoh's order against the sorcerers was drastic enough. But his Council is not satisfied. What about Moses and the Israelites? They had a seeming victory, and will now be more mischievous than ever. They appeal to Pharaoh's vanity and his superstition and sense of power. "If you leave them alone," they say, "where will be your authority? You and your gods will be defied!" Pharaoh has a ready answer. He was really inwardly cowed by the apparent power of Moses. He dared not openly act against him. But he had already, before the birth of Moses, passed a cunning order to destroy the whole people of Israel. Through the instrumentality of midwives (Exod. i. 15) all the male children were to be destroyed, and the females would then be for the Egyptians: the race of Israel would thus be at an end. This order was still in force, and would remain in force until the despised race was absorbed. But Egyptian cunning and wickedness had no power against Allah's Plan for those who had faith. See verse 129 below.

Moses reassured his people, 'Seek Allah's help and be patient. Indeed, the earth belongs to Allah 'alone'. He grants it to whoever He chooses of His servants. The ultimate outcome belongs 'only' to the righteous.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

Said Moses to his people: "Pray for help from Allah and (wait) in patience and constancy: for the earth is Allah's to give as a heritage to such of his servants as He pleaseth; and the end is (best) for the righteous. ¹⁰⁸⁵

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Notice the contrast between the arrogant tone of Pharaoh and the humility and faith taught by Moses. In the end the arrogance was humbled, and humility and faith were protected and advanced.

They complained, 'We have always been oppressed- before and after you came to us 'with the message'.' He replied, 'Perhaps your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you successors in the land to see what you will do.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

They said: "We have had (nothing but) trouble both before and after thou comest to us." He said: "It may be that your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you inheritors in the earth; that so He may try you by your deeds." ^{1086 1087}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

There is a slight note of querulousness in the people's answer. But Moses allays it by his own example and courage, and his vision of the future: which was amply fulfilled in time. See verse 137 below.

The Israelites, despised and enslaved, were to be rescued and made rulers in Palestine. David and Solomon were great kings and played a notable part in history. But the greatness of Israel was conditional: they were to be judged by their deeds. When they fell from grace, other people were given honour and power. And so it came to be the turn of the Muslims, and so on. Allah gives His gifts to those who are righteous and obey His Law.

Indeed, We afflicted Pharaoh's people with famine and shortage of crops so they might come back 'to their senses'.

  - Mustafa Khattab

We punished the people of Pharaoh with years (of drought) and shortness of crops; that they might receive admonition.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

In times of prosperity, they said, 'This is what we deserve,' but in adversity, they blamed it on Moses and those with him.¹ Surely all is destined by Allah. Yet most of them did not know.

  - Mustafa Khattab

 In psychology, this is called self-serving bias and scapegoating.

But when good (times) came they said "this is due to us"; when gripped by calamity they ascribed it to evil omens connected with Moses and those with him! Behold! in truth the omens of evil are theirs in Allah's sight but most of them do not understand! ¹⁰⁸⁸

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Their superstition ascribed the punishment of their own wickedness to some evil omen. They thought Moses and his people brought them ill-luck. They did not look within themselves to see the root of evil, and the cause of their punishment! So it happens in all ages. People blame the righteous for something which they do, different from other men, instead of searching out their own lapses from rectitude, which are punished by Allah.

They said, 'No matter what sign you may bring to deceive us, we will never believe in you.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

They said (to Moses): "whatever be the signs thou bringest to work therewith the sorcery on us we shall never believe in thee." ¹⁰⁸⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

A type of obstinacy and resistance to Allah's message. As they believed in sorcery and magic, they thought anything unusual was but sorcery and magic, and hardened their hearts against Truth.

So We plagued them with floods, locusts, lice, frogs, and blood- all as clear signs, but they persisted in arrogance and were a wicked people.

  - Mustafa Khattab

So We sent (plagues) on them wholesale death Locusts Lice Frogs and Blood: signs openly Self-explained; but they were steeped in arrogance a people given to sin. ^{1090 1091}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Tufan = a widespread calamity, causing wholesale death and destruction. It may be a flood, or a typhoon, or an epidemic, among men or cattle. Perhaps the last is meant, if we may interpret by the Old Testament story. See also Exod. ix. 3, 9, 15; xii. 29.

In xvii. 101, the reference is to nine Clear Signs. These are: (1) the Rod (vii. 107), (2) the Radiant Hand (vii. 108), (3) the years of drought or shortage of water (vii, 130), (4) short crops (vii. 130), and the five mentioned in this verse, viz., (5) epidemics among men and beasts, (6) locusts, (7) lice, (8) frogs, and (9) the water turning to blood.

When tormented, they pleaded, 'O Moses! Pray to your Lord on our behalf, by virtue of the covenant He made with you. If you help remove this torment from us, we will certainly believe in you and let the Children of Israel go with you.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

Every time the penalty fell on them they said: "O Moses! on our behalf call on thy Lord in virtue of his promise to thee: if thou wilt remove the penalty from us we shall truly believe in thee and we shall send away the children of Israel with thee." ¹⁰⁹²

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The demand of Moses was two-fold: (1) come to Allah and cease from oppression, and (2) let me take Israel out of Egypt. At first it was laughed at and rejected with scorn. When the Plagues came for punishment, each time the Egyptians suffered, they promised amendment and begged Moses to intercede and cause the plague to cease. But every time it ceased, they went back to their evil attitude, until the final retribution came. This is a type of the sinner's attitude for all times.

But as soon as We removed the torment from them- until they met their inevitable fate¹- they broke their promise.

  - Mustafa Khattab

 i.e., their drowning in the sea.

But every time We removed the penalty from them according to a fixed term which they had to fulfil Behold! they broke their word! ¹⁰⁹³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The intercession of Moses was to pray. Each plague or penalty had its appointed term in Allah's decree. That term was duly fulfilled before the plague ceased. The intercession meant two things: (1) that Allah's name was invoked and His presence duly brought home to the mind and heart of the sinner who promised repentance, and (2) that the sinner was given a further chance when the prayer was accepted. This again is a universal truth.

So We inflicted punishment upon them, drowning them in the sea for denying Our signs and being heedless of them.

  - Mustafa Khattab

So We exacted retribution from them: We drowned them in the sea because they rejected Our signs and failed to take warning from them. ^{1094 1095}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

When at last Pharaoh let Israel go, they selected, not the highway to Canaan, along the Mediterranean and by Gaza, because they were unarmed and would have encountered immediate opposition there, but by way of the wilderness of Sinai. They crossed the Red Sea, while Pharaoh's host which came in pursuit was drowned. Cf. ii. 50.

Where was the Council of Pharaoh held in which Moses addressed Pharoah? Egypt's primary capital in the XVIIIth Dynasty was Thebes (=Not-Ammon), but that was more than 400 miles to the south of the Delta, in whose corner Israel dwelt. Memphis, on the apex of the Delta, a little south of where Cairo is now, was also over 100 miles from Israel's habitations. The interview must have been either in a Palace near Goshen, where the Israelites dwelt, or in Zoan (=Tanis), the Deltaic capital built by a former dynasty, which was of course still available for the reigning dynasty, and which was not far from the Israelite settlement.

And 'so' We made the oppressed people successors of the eastern and western lands, which We had showered with blessings. 'In this way' the noble Word of your Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel for what they had endured. And We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people constructed and what they established.

  - Mustafa Khattab

And We made a people considered weak (and of no account) inheritors of lands in both east and west lands whereon We sent down our blessings. The fair promise of the Lord was fulfilled for the children of Israel because they had patience and constancy and We levelled to the ground the great works and fine buildings which Pharaoh and his people erected (with such pride). ¹⁰⁹⁶

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Israel, which was despised, became a great and glorious nation under Solomon. He had goodly territory, and was doubly blest. His land and people were prosperous, and he was blessed with wisdom from Allah. His sway and his fame spread east and west. And thus Allah's promise to Israel was fulfilled. Note that Syria and Palestine had once been under the sway of Egypt. At the same time the proud and rebellious Pharaoh and his people were brought low. The splendid monuments which they had erected with so much skill and pride were mingled with the dust. Their great cities-Thebes (or No-Ammon), Memphis (or Noph, sacred to the Bull of Osiris), and the other splendid cities, became as if they had not existed, and archaeologists have had to dig up their ruins from the sands. The splendid monuments-temples, palaces, tombs, statues, columns, and stately structures of all kinds-were buried in the sands. Even monuments like the Great Sphinx, which seem to defy the ages, were partly buried in the sands, and owe their rescue to the comparatively recent researches of archaeologists. As late as 1743 Richard Pococke in his Travels in Fgypt (p. 41), remarked: "Most of those pyramids are very much ruined."

We brought the Children of Israel across the sea and they came upon a people devoted to idols. They demanded, 'O Moses! Make for us a god like their gods.' He replied, 'Indeed, you are a people acting ignorantly!

  - Mustafa Khattab

We took the children of Israel (with safety) across the sea. They came upon a people devoted entirely to some idols they had. They said: "O Moses! fashion for us a god like unto the gods they have." He said: "surely ye are a people without knowledge. ¹⁰⁹⁷

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Who were these people? We are now in the Sinai Peninsula. Two conjectures are possible. (1) The Amalekites of the Sinai Peninsula were at perpetual war with the Israelites. They were probably an idolatrous nation, but we have very little knowledge of their cult. (2) From Egyptian history we know that Egypt had worked from very ancient times some copper mines in Sinai. An Egyptian settlement may have been here. Like all mining camps it contained from the beginning the dregs of the population. When the mines ceased to be worked, the settlement, or what remained of it, must have degenerated further. Cut off from civilisation, its cult must have become still narrower, without the refining influences which a progressive nation applies even to its idolatry. Perhaps Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis, lost all its allegorical meaning for them, and only gross and superstitious rites remained among them. The text speaks of "some idols they had," implying that they had merely a detached fragment of a completer religion. This was a snare in the path of the Israelites, whom many generations of slavery in Egypt had debased into ignorance and superstition.

What they follow is certainly doomed to destruction and their deeds are in vain.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

"As to these folk the cult they are in is (but) a fragment of a ruin and vain is the (worship) which they practice." ¹⁰⁹⁸

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

If conjecture 2 in the last note is correct, this idolatrous worship was but the fragment of a ruin from Egypt, and Moses's reproach is biting: "You, who have been rescued from the bondage of living Egypt,-do you hanker after the bondage of a dead cult debased even from that from which you have been rescued?" Mutabbar = broken in pieces, smashed into fragments, destroyed.

He added, 'Shall I seek for you a god other than Allah, while He has honoured you above the others?'

  - Mustafa Khattab

He said: "Shall I seek for you a god other than the (true) Allah when it is Allah who hath endowed you with gifts above the nations?"

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

And 'remember' when We rescued you from the people of Pharaoh, who afflicted you with dreadful torment- killing your sons and keeping your women. That was a severe test from your Lord.

  - Mustafa Khattab

And remember We rescued you from Pharaoh's people who afflicted you with the worst of penalties who slew your male children and saved alive your females: in that was a momentous trial from your Lord. ¹⁰⁹⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

This is Allah's reminder to Israel through the mouth of Moses. There was a double trial: (1) while the bondage lasted, the people were to learn patience and constancy in the midst of affliction: (2) when they were rescued, they were to learn humility; justice, and righteous deeds of prosperity.

We appointed for Moses thirty nights then added another ten- completing his Lord's term of forty nights. Moses commanded his brother Aaron, 'Take my place among my people, do what is right, and do not follow the way of the corruptors.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

We appointed for Moses thirty nights and completed (the period) with ten (more): thus was completed the term (of communion) with his Lord forty nights. And Moses had charged his brother Aaron (before he went up): "Act for me amongst my people: do right and follow not the way of those who do mischief." ^{1100 1101}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The forty nights' exclusion of Moses on the Mount may be compared with the forty days fast of Jesus in the wilderness before he took up his ministry (Matt. iv, 2). In each case the Prophets lived alone apart from their people, before they came into the full blaze of the events of their Ministry.

When for any reason the man of God is absent from his people, his duty of leadership (khilafat) should be taken up by his brother,-not necessarily a blood-brother, but one of his society or brotherhood. The deputy should discharge it in all humility, remembering three things: (1) that he is only a deputy, and bound to follow the directions of his Principal, (2) that right and justice are of the essence of power, and (3) that mischief gets its best chance to raise its head in the absence of the Principal, and that the deputy should always guard against the traps laid for him in the Principal's absence.

When Moses came at the appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he asked, 'My Lord! Reveal Yourself to me so I may see You.' Allah answered, 'You cannot see Me! But look at the mountain. If it remains firm in its place, only then will you see Me.' When his Lord appeared to the mountain, He levelled it to dust and Moses collapsed unconscious. When he recovered, he cried, 'Glory be to You! I turn to You in repentance and I am the first of the believers.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

When Moses came to the place appointed by Us and his Lord addressed him He said: "O my Lord! show (Thyself) to me that I may look upon thee." Allah said: "by no means canst thou see Me (direct); but look upon the mount; if it abide in its place then shalt thou see Me." When his Lord manifested his glory on the mount He made it as dust and Moses fell down in a swoon. When he recovered his senses he said: "Glory be to Thee! to thee I turn in repentance and I am the first to believe." (Allah) said: "O Moses! I have chosen thee above (other) men by the mission I (have given thee) and the words I (have spoken to thee): take then the (revelation) which I give thee and be of those who give thanks." ^{1102 1103 1104}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Even the best of us may be betrayed into overweening confidence of spiritual ambition not yet justified by the stage we have reached. Moses had already seen part of the glory of Allah in his Radiant White Hand, that shone with the glory of Divine light (vii. 108, n. 1076). But he was still in the flesh, and the mission to his people was to begin after the Covenant of Sinai.

But Allah-the Cherisher of all His creatures-treats even our improper requests with mercy, compassion, and understanding. Even the reflected glory of Allah is too great for the grosser substance of matter. The peak on which it shone became as powder before the ineffable glory, and Moses could only live by being taken out of his bodily senses. When he recovered from his swoon, he saw the true position, and the distance between our grosser bodily senses and the true splendour of Allah's glory. He at once turned in penitence to Allah, and confessed his faith.

"First to believe." Cf. the expression "first of those who bow to Allah in Islam" in vi. 14 and vi. 163. "First" means here not the first in time, but most zealous in faith. It has the intensive and not the comparative meaning.

Allah said, 'O Moses! I have 'already' elevated you above all others by My messages and speech.¹ So hold firmly to what I have given you and be grateful.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

 Allah reminds Moses that even though his request to see Allah was denied, he has already been favoured by Allah over the people of his time through prophethood and direct communication with the Almighty.

(Allah) said: "O Moses! I have chosen thee Above (other) men By the mission I (have Given thee) and the words I (have spoken to thee): Take then the (revelation) Which I give thee And be of those Who give thanks." ^{1105 1106}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

"Above (other) men": i.e. among his contemporaries. He had a high mission, and he had the honour of speaking to Allah.

Allah's revelation is for the benefit of His creatures, who should receive it with reverence and gratitude. While Moses was having these great spiritual experiences on the Mount, his people below were ungrateful enough to forget Allah and make a golden calf for worship (vii. 147).

We wrote for him on the Tablets 'the fundamentals' of everything; commandments and explanations of all things. 'We commanded,' 'Hold to this firmly and ask your people to take the best of it.¹ I will soon show 'all of' you the home of the rebellious.²

  - Mustafa Khattab

 To follow the commandments that generate more rewards than others, to put grace before justice, etc.

 This could either mean the ruins of destroyed nations or the Hellfire which is the home of the wicked.

And We ordained laws for him in the tablets in all matters both commanding and explaining all things (and said): "take and hold these with firmness and enjoin thy people to hold fast by the best in the precepts: soon shall I show you the homes of the wicked (how they lie desolate)." ^{1107 1108 1109}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Tablets of the Law contained the essential Truth, from which were derived the positive injunctions and prohibitions, explanations and interpretations, which it was the function of the prophetic office to hold up for the people to follow. The precepts would contain, as the Shari'at does, matters absolutely prohibited, matters not prohibited but disapproved, matters about which there was no prohibition or injunction, but in which conduct was to be regulated by circumstances; matters of positive and universal duty, matters recommended for those whose zeal was sufficient to enable them to work on higher than minimum standards. No soul is burdened beyond its capacity; but we are asked to seek the best and highest possible for us in conduct.

Notice the transition from the "We" of authority and honour and impersonal dignity, to the "I" of personal concern in specially guiding the righteous.

Literally, the homes of the wicked, both individuals and nations, lie desolate, as in the case of the ancient Egyptians, the 'Ad, and the Thamud.