THE STORY【Quran commentary】Surah 28 Al Qasas

Commentary By Maulana Wahiduddin khan

1-6 Pharaoh is mentioned…

Pharaoh is mentioned here as being guilty of creating great unrest in his land. He gave every conceivable advantage to his race (Egyptians) and deprived the Israelites of all facilities. Not only this, he also started having their newborn children killed so that their race should gradually be exterminated. Pharaoh’s unfair discrimination between the two races of Egypt amounted to interference with the system of nature that is, ‘fasad,’ in terms of God’s laws.

Decisions regarding honour and dishonour are made by God. God’s decision was contrary to Pharaoh’s will. God decided to give honour and power to the Children of Israel and to destroy Pharaoh along with his armies. On conclusion of the missionary process through Moses, Pharaoh, though given a last chance to reform, proved himself to be deserving of punishment. Therefore, God ordained that he be drowned in the sea so that nothing should be left of his influence in Egypt. Subsequently, Children of Israel who had left Egypt were made rulers of Syria and Palestine.

7-9 In the period when Moses…

In the period when Moses was born, the children of the Israelites were being killed. Moses’ mother was worried on this account. At that time, probably by means of a dream, she was shown how he could escape if she put him in a small box and floated it down the river Nile. Three months later, she floated Moses in a small boat. While floating, this boat arrived in front of Pharaoh’s palace. Pharaoh’s wife (Aasia) who was a virtuous lady, was filled with pity on seeing the innocent and charming face of Moses. So, on her advice, Moses was kept in Pharaoh’s palace.

Tradition has it that at this juncture, Pharaoh’s wife said that the baby may become a source of happiness for them. Pharaoh replied saying, ‘For you, not for me.’ Pharaoh might have said so because of being emotionally unattached but it later turned out to be true.

10-14 The process of the protec…

The process of the protection of Moses is attributed entirely to God, though thesequence of events seems to have taken place as per the ‘cause and effect’ principle.One can gather from this, that in the present world of trial, God’s will manifestsitself in terms of the ‘cause and effect’ chain and not in the form of supernaturalwonders or magical feats.

Moses was set afloat in the river in a state of helplessness, but he reached the bank safe and sound. The king ruling at the time planned to kill him, but God ordained that he be brought up by that very king. He was born in an ordinary family, but God so arranged matters that he became connected with the royal palace and became acquainted with the learning and etiquette of the highest standard. This is an example which shows that Almighty God’s powers are unlimited and there is nobody who can prevent His plans from coming into effect.

15-17 This incident happened…

This incident happened in the capital of Egypt before Moses received prophethood.One day, he saw an Egyptian and an Israelite fighting with each other. The Israelite called upon Moses (who was an Israelite himself) to help him. Moses wanted to separate them, but the Egyptian turned on Moses who in self-defence, gave him a blow. Accidentally, the blow led to the death of the Egyptian.

The Egyptians at that time were committing atrocities on the Israelites on a large scale. In this context, had Moses viewed the matter from the communal point of view, he would have treated it as a heroic feat and boasted about it. But, on the contrary, he was very sorry about the Egyptian’s death. He immediately turned towards God and prayed for His forgiveness.

‘I will never be a helper of the guilty’ means, ‘I will not support anybody without investigating the matter.’ A person’s apparently belonging to an oppressed community and his soliciting support by accusing another person of oppression are not enough to prove that the latter is really an oppressor and that the former (the complainant) is really the oppressed person. Therefore, the right approach on such occasions is for the matter to be properly investigated and support should be extended to a complainant only when, on impartial investigation, his being oppressed has been established.

18-21 The next day Moses found…

The next day Moses found that the same Israelite was fighting with another Egyptian. This gave a clear indication that he was a quarrelsome person and was in the habit of picking quarrels with someone or the other every day. So, inspite of his being an Israelite, Moses held him guilty. The proof of the Israelite’s being guilty was further strengthened by the fact that, when the Israelite found that Moses was not supporting him on that day and was on the contrary blaming him, he stooped to meanness. In an irresponsible manner, he revealed the secret of the previous day’s killing, which till then had not come to anybody’s knowledge. When the killer’s name was made public by the Israelite, many people heard about it. In a few days the news spread everywhere. Ultimately, there was a discussion among the rulers about killing Moses. One virtuous man who came to know about it, met Moses secretly and advised him that it would be better if he went away. So, he left Egypt and set forth for Midian (Madyan). Midian was situated on the west coast of the Gulf of Aqaba and outside the limits of Pharaoh’s empire.

22-24 Moses’s departure took…

Moses’s departure took him on a journey towards an unknown destination. Moses had the same intense feelings as a believer’s heart experiences under such circumstances. Proceeding on the strength of prayers, he reached Midian after a ten day journey.

Following his urge to help the weak, Moses helped the two girls of Madyan. The father of the girls was an elderly gentleman who belonged to the progeny of Abraham through his son Midyaan. Incidentally, Moses also belonged to the progeny of Abraham through his son Isaac (Ishaq), which made them blood relations.

At that time, this prayer spontaneously fell from Moses’s lips, ‘Lord, I am truly in need of whatever blessing You may send down for me.’ This prayer shows the condition of a believer in such circumstances. He entrusts all his affairs to the care of God. He has the firm belief that whatever a man receives comes from God, and that whatever is received from God is ‘good’.

25-28 That day, the girls re…

That day, the girls returned home earlier than usual. When their father asked the reason, they told him that a traveller had arranged for their cattle to be watered early. The girl’s father asked them why they had not brought him home so that he could partake of their meal. So, one of the girls went back to the well and brought Moses along with her.

It took only a few days to show that Moses was hard working as well as honest. So, the old gentleman, agreeing with his daughter’s opinion, kept Moses in his service permanently. The fact is that, honesty and hard work embrace all the necessary qualities. If any candidate has to be chosen, there is no better standard than these two qualities by which to judge him.

At a later stage, the old gentleman gave one of his daughters in marriage to Moses. However, as he was in dire need of a young man to look after his household and property, he made Moses agree to reside with him for eight years or ten years, thereafter he could go anywhere he liked.

29-31 Moses was in Midian prob…

Moses was in Midian probably for ten years. During this period the former Pharaoh died and another member of the Pharaoh dynasty ascended the throne of Egypt. Then, Moses along with his wife (and, according to the Torah, with two children) left again for Egypt. On the way, he underwent the divine test on Mount Tur (Mount Sinai).

God, who directly talked to a man on Mount Sinai, can also directly address all other human beings and apprise them of His will. But this is not the way of God. Direct address means removal of the curtain, while the considerations of human trial demand that the curtain should remain in place. So God reveals His message only to a selected person and causes this message to be delivered indirectly through him to others.

32-35 When God appoints some…

When God appoints somebody as His missionary, He provides him with all that is essential for the performance of the task. Similarly, provision was made for Moses according to his special circumstances. By way of authority for his appointment, he was blessed with the ability to perform certain miracles and he was to be aided by his brother. Moses was endowed with an impressive personality so that Pharaoh’s community may not dare to mishandle him. And it was ordained by God that Moses and his companions should finally be supreme.

36 If an individual thinks…

If an individual thinks highly of himself, and if someone of apparently ordinary status comes before him and voices outright criticism of him, he immediately flares up. He ridicules his critic and makes different types of derogatory statements with a view to undermining him. This is what Pharaoh did in the case of Moses.

38 Literally, ‘I do not…

Literally, ‘I do not know any being other than myself who is worth worshipping.’ This was not a serious statement. In uttering these words Pharaoh did not intend to state any fact. He only wanted to denigrate Moses. Similarly, when Pharaoh ordered his minister Haman to prepare fired bricks and construct a high tower so that he could peep into the sky and see Moses’s God, this was not a genuine order. Its sole purpose was to make a mockery of Moses.

39-43 Moses’ mission was to br…

Moses’ mission was to bring about a godly revolution in the human individual. His aim was that man should develop fear of God. This was aimed at all individuals, including the individual who occupied the throne of the country.

It is common for one who attains to power and authority to develop a false sense of pride. This was equally true of Pharaoh. Moses warned Pharaoh that if he conducted himself arrogantly, he would be seized upon by God. But Pharaoh refused to accept his advice. The result was that he was drowned.

44-46 With the help of the Q…

With the help of the Quran, the Prophet Muhammad described the events of Moses’ life in full detail, as if he were standing there on the spot at that very time and seeing and hearing everything, though the fact is that he was born in Makkah two thousand years after Moses. This is clear proof that the contents of the Quran are the words of God, because no human being can have the ability to make such statements on his own.

In the times of the Prophet Muhammad there were no books such as we have today. At that time an account of Moses’ achievements were to be found in some non-Arabic books of the Jews, a few copies of which were preserved in Jewish temples, these were definitely beyond the reach of the Prophet Muhammad. Moreover, there are significant differences in many statements contained in the Quran and the Jewish books and academic assessment shows that the Quranic version is the more accurate. For example, according to the Quran, the Egyptian’s death at the hands of Moses had occurred accidentally, whereas the Bible says of Moses:

‘And he looked this way and that way and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.’ (Exodus: 2:12.)

It is very obvious that it is the Quranic statement, and not the statement of the Torah, which is in consonance with the holy and righteous personality of Moses. Then, how is it that the Prophet Muhammad was able to present in the Quran the incidents of Moses’ life so correctly without any apparent help? There could be no reply to this question except that the All Knowing God (He, who knows the past and the unseen future) had revealed these facts to him through His divine revelation.

47-48 At the time when Moses…

At the time when Moses conveyed his message as a prophet to the ancient Egyptians, he also performed miracles. But, they did not accept the miracles as such and said that it was magic. When the Prophet Muhammad gave the call for the Truth in ancient Arabia on the basis of arguments, people said that if he was a prophet, why did he not perform miracles like Moses?

All these objections are the products of non-serious minds. In the present world the most important condition necessary for someone to accept the Truth is that he should be earnest and serious. One who is not serious in matters of Truth and Untruth, nothing can force him to admit the Truth. On each occasion, he will seek fresh excuses for not doing so and will find new words to refute all arguments.

49-51 The real criterion for…

The real criterion for the acceptance or rejection of the message of Truth is its assessment on the basis of its inherent worth. If the message itself establishes that it is inherently a greater Truth, then that is sufficient to warrant its acceptance.

Only Truth can answer Truth. If a man denies a truth and is unable to produce any other superior truth in its place, it indicates that he is denying the Truth as a result of following the dictates of his base desires. Those who behave in this way, have gone astray and are the worst of people. Such people will be treated as transgressors by God.

54-56 There are two types of…

There are two types of acceptance of any proposition. One is by virtue of it being the Truth. The other by reason of it being current in one’s own circle. It is those who accept the Truth for the sake of Truth who are guided by God: it was people of this kind who placed their faith in the Quran and the Prophet in the earlier period of Islam.

A number of Christians and Jews embraced the faith as soon as they heard the Quran. These were such as had been steadfast in their acceptance of the true teachings of previous prophets. They had, therefore, quickly recognised the last of the Prophets, just as they had recognised the previous prophets. But, in order to maintain their ability to do so, they had to go through various stages of ‘patience.’

They kept their minds free of those influences which render a man incapable of recognising the Truth, these being historical and social factors which create that frame of mind which causes a man to change the religion of God into the religion of a group. Man reaches the stage when he is able to recognise only the religion which he inherits from his group. He fails to recognise the religion which comes to him from outside. To keep oneself free of these influences, one has to make great psychological sacrifices. That is why this process has been called ‘patience’. Those who exercise patience will be given a double reward: one because of their sacrifice in not allowing their erstwhile faith to become a group faith, and the other because of their capacity to recognise truth on merit, in the sense that when the new prophet came before them, they recognised him and rallied to his support.

It is in those who have the ability to recognise the Truth that high moral qualities develop. They are good even to those who harm them. They help others so that God may help them. They pursue a course of turning away from useless discussions, so that they may not become involved in futile debates.

57 When a man’s interests a…

When a man’s interests are linked with a system, he starts thinking that whatever benefits he receives are derived solely from that system. Man generally looks to his immediate gains of the present and is unmindful of potential gains in the future.

This was the time of the ancient polytheists of Makkah. They had installed in the Ka‘bah deities worshipped by all the tribes of Arabia. In this way, they had captured the religious leadership of the whole country. Moreover, the offerings to these deities constituted their main source of income. But it was a system marked by narrow-mindedness. Now the Prophet Muhammad was inviting them to accept a religion which was to bestow upon them the leadership of the whole world, yet these polytheists ignored it in favour of a religion which had nothing to offer except mere tribal leadership of the country.

59 In the world, if anyone…

In the world, if anyone achieves material stability, he develops a superiority complex, though history has repeatedly taught that the material stability of any person or any community (nation) is not permanent. Whenever a community (nation) ignored the Truth, it was destroyed, despite all its pomp and glory.

In the peninsula of Arabia, various communities or nations had come into prominence before Islam, for example, the ‘Ad, Thamud, Saba’, Madyan, and Lot’s people, etc. Everyone of them indulged in ill-founded pride, but their pride was nullified by the times, and finally they became nothing but stories of the past. The ruins of these communities spreading far and wide diminished the glory of human beings. In spite of this, in the times of the Prophet Muhammad, the great ones among his contemporaries rejected him, as if the events of the past had no lesson of interest to them.

60-61 At the time of death…

At the time of death, a man, however great, finally parts with his possessions. After death, the things which go along with him are his righteous deeds and not his worldly honours or his material possessions.

In these circumstances, wise counsel demands that a man give preference to eternal success over temporary worldly success – he should take care to build up his Hereafter rather than build up his worldly position.

62-63 On Judgement Day, the…

On Judgement Day, the adherents of misguided leaders (sharik), whose word they accepted as if it were the word of God, will find themselves in a strange predicament. They will find that those great ones, whom they had been so proud to follow, have led them straight to Hell. They will then, in disgust, blame their leaders for their plight. But their leaders will retort that they have nobody to blame but themselves. They will allege that if their followers obtensibly bowed to their will, it was only because it was in accordance with their own desires. They will further accuse their followers of being slaves to their own desires. But they will then admit that they too had given in to temptation and that since leaders and followers had to face the same fate, there was no point in blaming each other.

68-70 When a man denies the…

When a man denies the Truth in this life, he does so after placing his reliance on something or someone. In the Hereafter he will be asked to invoke those on whom he relied, so that they may save him from the consequences of his denial. But this will be the Day of God’s appearance and who can help anybody against God?

In the world, man does not just silently accept defeat. Here he finds words to counter any argument. But all these words will prove false on the Day of Judgement. Then he will regret that, for the sake of small gains, he gave up a very great blessing. Almighty God creates human beings. Then He selects some individuals from among them for some particular work. This selection is not made on the basis of any mysterious reason, but depends on God’s own decision. Therefore, to treat such persons as holy and to give them the status of God is absolutely baseless. There is no scope for this in this world of God.

Man denies the Truth on the basis of some personal (selfish) considerations, but talks as if his arguments were based on rationality. In the Hereafter this veil of pretence will be removed. At that time it will be known clearly that what he had in his heart, was very different from what he was saying – purely to maintain his prestige.

71-73 The earth, which is inha…

The earth, which is inhabited by human beings, has innumerable wonderful aspects. One of these is that it is constantly revolving around the Sun. Its axial rotation as it passes around the sun is such that it completes one full circle in twenty four hours. This is what produces the phenomenon of the repeated alternation of day and night. Had it not been for this axial rotation of the earth, there would have been perpetual night in half portion of the earth and perpetual day in the other half. The result of this would have been that the comfortable earth we know would have become a punishment chamber horrible beyond expression.

The constant rotation of the earth in space with perfect precision is so great a phenomenon that even the combined efforts of all men and all jinn could never have sufficed to bring it into existence. Nobody except the All Powerful God is capable of setting in motion such a great event. In view of this, it would be most misguided of man, to experience feelings of fear and love for anybody other than the One and Only God.

74-75 The Prophet and the Pro…

The Prophet and the Prophet’s true missionaries will, on the Day of Judgement, be asked to act as witnesses of God. They will describe the reaction of the communities to whom it had been their duty to convey God’s message. On that Day, all the false props of these communities will collapse. Those who denied the Truth, while relying on others except God, will try to put up a defence, but they will not find the words to defend themselves.

76-77 Korah or Qarun was one…

Korah or Qarun was one of the Children of Israel, but he cut off his relations with his community and shifted his loyalties towards Pharaoh, as a result of which he became Pharaoh’s courtier. On account of his worldly wisdom, he accumulated great wealth, so much so that he became the richest man in Egypt. Having acquired wealth, he should have been duly grateful, but, instead he allowed his wealth to give him a sense of false pride. With the help of his resources, he should have earned the reward of goodness, but he did not do so.

What is meant by creating ‘evil in the land?’ According to verse 77, one of the ways of creating a disturbance on earth is for a man acquiring a lot of wealth, to spend it only on himself. Water from various parts of land gathers in a sea. The sea again scatters the water back over the whole land after turning it into vapour. This is an example of peaceful activity (islah) which is the opposite of creating discord (fasad) in this world of God. The very same approach is required of man. If, for any reason, wealth is accumulated by someone, he should by different methods, return it to those less favoured in the distribution of wealth. In other words, circulating accumulated wealth promotes islah, while hoarding accumulated wealth brings about fasad.

78 The character of Korah…

The character of Korah described here is the same as is invariably found in men of wealth. A wealthy man thinks that whatever he has acquired is thanks to his own talents. But with all his knowledge, the rich man never stops to wonder how his wealth is going to save him in this ephemeral world from the same fate as all his rich predecessors met with – namely death and destruction.

79-80 All the glamour of the…

All the glamour of the world gathers around a person who possesses wealth. Seeing this, many foolish persons envy his lot. But those who possess real knowledge are quick to realize that this glamour is ephemeral, and that something so unenduring has no value.

Knowledge of reality is the most valuable thing in this world. But to acquire this knowledge, one must have the patience to mould one’s mind without being influenced by external pressures, and while forming one’s opinion to ignore things of temporary charm. This is of course the most difficult type of patience to exercise, but after passing this crucial test, man is rewarded with the precious attributes of knowledge and wisdom.

81-82 According to the Bible…

According to the Bible, Moses cursed Korah for his evil deeds, and God caused him, his companions and his treasure to be swallowed up by the earth. This was visibly demonstrated by God as an example to clarify what the final result would be of leaving off the worship of God and adopting the worship of wealth.

The amenities of the world are in fact given as a trial of human beings. These are provided to man, by the will of God in greater or lesser quantities. It is the duty of man to be patient if he receives fewer amenities and to be grateful if he receives more. This is the only way to the salvation and success of man.

83-84 Those whose hearts are…

Those whose hearts are free of false pride are the ones eligible to be settled in paradise. They are so imbued with a sense of God’s greatness that everything else seems insignificant.

If a man does not act in consonance with God’s scheme, i.e. he acts against God’s will in God’s world, it creates discord (fasad). Those who are free of false pride are the truly virtuous. They will be settled in the eternal gardens of God.

85-88 The Prophet’s cause is…

The Prophet’s cause is in every way God’s cause. Prophethood is voluntarily given to him by God without any request on his part. Throughout his entire existence he remains steadfast in adhering to the Truth. He is appointed to announce the plain, unvarnished Truth, even if it is unpleasant to people. He is destined to reach his appointed goal and no impediment shall bar his path.

After the Prophet, the same will hold true for those who rise, in conformity with the Prophet, as missionaries of Truth. To the extent that they resemble the Prophet in conduct, they will go on being entitled to succour promised by God to His prophets in His Book.