Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 166 – The Drowning Of Fir`Awn – Pharaoh
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The speakers discuss the devastating impact of drought, famine, and plague on agricultural land, as well as the use of signs and impressed events to turn people away from religion and become evil. They also touch on the devastation caused by flood damage and the use of frogs and blood to kill people and their bodies. The speakers emphasize the importance of not believing in anything and not being a liar or a factory worker. They also discuss the historical impact of Islam and the punishment that is being used. The speakers emphasize the importance of patientity and not giving up until full reward.
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I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed
Satan They
said, We will not believe in you, no
matter what signs you produce to cast a
spell upon us.
This is how they responded.
This is how they spoke to Musa Alayhi
Salaam.
They said to Musa Alayhi Salaam, being steadfast
upon their evil, upon their shirk, upon their
kufr, it doesn't matter what sign you produce,
what thing you bring, what miracle you claim
to have, we will never believe in you,
because this is all magic, it's all spells,
it's all things that you're using to make
us or divert us away from the religion
of our forefathers.
We will never believe in this.
And so this is obstinacy in their kufr,
in their disbelief.
This is them turning away from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, turning away from the religion
that was brought to them, the message that
was brought to them by Musa Alayhi Salaam.
And because of that, they remain firm upon
what they are upon, which is their evil,
their kufr and their shirk.
We don't believe in anything.
And what do they say concerning these signs
and miracles that they see before their eyes?
They say it is magic.
And that's a point that we've mentioned numerous
times now in this tafseer, that even the
greatest of signs of Allah azza wa jal,
if they're presented to a people whose hearts
are closed, they can't accept them.
Why?
Because they would instead do as these people
did in the story of Musa Alayhi Salaam.
And that is that Pharaoh and his people
said that these are signs that are not
signs of Allah, but they're magic tricks.
These are magic tricks.
These are spells that are being cast upon
us.
This is the evil doing of sorcerers.
And that's exactly what the Quraysh said in
the time of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam.
He would bring to them signs and miracles.
And what would they turn around and say?
They would say he's a liar, he's a
magician, he's crazy, he's a poet, he's a
fabricator.
And all of these different things and these
labels that they would use in order for
them not to have to believe and accept
the tawhid of Allah azza wa jal.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in verse
133, he tells us then the different signs
that he sent upon the people of Pharaoh
for them to understand, for them to reflect
upon their evil and what they're upon.
Allah azza wa jal says in verse 133,
And so we let loose upon them the
floods, locusts, lice, frogs, blood, all clear signs.
They were arrogant and wicked amongst the people.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that we
sent upon them these different signs.
Already Allah azza wa jal told us that
he sent upon them drought and famine, but
in addition to that, Allah azza wa jal
sent upon them tufan, floods that would come.
It would wipe away all of their grain,
their produce, their vegetation, their crops.
It would take away all of the good
that they had upon the earth that they
would grow.
And then Allah azza wa jal sent upon
them locusts that would come, a plague of
locusts that would come and it eats what
is left of their food and eats what's
left of their plants and their crops.
And we know what it can do.
These plagues of locusts, when they can come,
within moments or matters of minutes and hours,
they can come and take whole areas that
they devour.
And so Allah azza wa jal sent this
upon them as well.
And then Allah azza wa jal sent upon
them lice that would come and they would
affect them in their bodies.
So it's not just the area that they're
living in, it's not just their food supply
that is being affected or their area that
is being affected by flooding and drought and
famine.
But Allah azza wa jal sent upon them
lice that would affect them and their bodies,
their hair.
They're overcome with lice, them and their families
and their children and so on.
And then Allah azza wa jal sent them
frogs and it is said in some of
the books of Tafsir, in some of the
narrations that we have in the books of
Tafsir that are from the Judeo-Christian traditions
that these frogs would come and they would
find them in all their houses.
They would be literally an infestation of frogs.
They would see them in their pots and
in their pans.
They would see them in their homes and
on their beds.
They would see them wherever they went.
There was a whole infestation of frogs in
addition to the plague of locusts, in addition
to this outbreak of lice upon their bodies
and so on.
And then they would be bleeding.
And some of the scholars said meaning that
they would bleed from their noses, they would
have nosebleeds.
But many of the scholars of Tafsir said
no, actually what it refers to is the
water that they would have for their drinking
and their cooking was turned into blood.
So now not only can they not use
the wider area because the flood is coming
and it is devastating everything around them.
And now they are being affected in terms
of their own bodies and their own homes.
But even their water source is being changed
from water into blood.
So they would have no recourse except to
use that blood to drink from and to
cook in because they had nothing else to
be able to use.
Ayat al-Mufassalat Allah Azza wa Jal says
all of these were clear signs.
You can dismiss one, you can dismiss two,
but how many are you going to dismiss?
And these are from the signs that Allah
Azza wa Jal sent to Pharaoh and his
people.
As Allah Azza wa Jal mentions also in
the Quran في تسعي آيات إلى فرعون وقوم
The nine signs that we sent to Pharaoh
and his people that perhaps they would remember
that they would be reminded that they would
turn back to Allah Azza wa Jal.
These are from those signs, five or six
of them that are mentioned in these verses
that we're covering today.
All of these clear signs from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala فَاسْتَكْبَرُوا But Allah Azza wa
Jal says they continue to remain arrogant.
Despite seeing all of these signs, what did
they say?
Allah Azza wa Jal already told us in
the previous verse the way that they responded.
This is all magic, it's all sorcery, it's
all tricks.
We're not going to stop doing what we're
doing based upon these evil things that you're
bringing on Musa.
فَاسْتَكْبَرُوا So they became arrogant and they remained
upon their way وَكَانُوا قَوْمًا مُجْرِمِينَ And they
were an evil wicked people Upon misguidance, upon
their oppression, upon their obstinacy in turning away
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So Allah Azza wa Jal then tells us
in verse 134 وَلَمَّا وَقَعَ عَلَيْهِمُ الرِّجَزُ قَالُوا
يَا مُوسَىٰ دُعُلَنَا رَبَّكَ بِمَا عَهِدَ عِنْدَكَ لَإِن
كَشَفْتَ عَنَّ الرِّجْزَ لَنُؤْمِنَنَّ لَكَ وَلَنُرْسِلَنَّ مَعَكَ بَنِي
إِسْرَائِيلٍ They would say whenever a plague struck
them, Oh Musa pray to your Lord for
us by virtue of the promise He has
made to you.
If you relieve us of this plague, we
will believe you and let the children of
Israel go with you.
Allah Azza wa Jal says and then when
they came upon them a punishment.
What is that punishment?
Many of the scholars of Tafsir are of
the position that the punishment that is being
referred to here is a plague that then
struck them.
So a plague came upon them as well.
So after seeing all of these hardships, all
of these calamities before them, قَالُوا يَا مُوسَىٰ
دُعُلَنَا رَبَّكَ بِمَا عَهِدَ عِنْدَكَ They said, Oh
Musa call out to your Lord.
You make dua to your Lord and ask
Him to stop all of these signs.
Take them away from us.
If you do so and they are removed
from us, we will believe in you.
And we will set free the children of
Israel that they may travel with you.
This is the covenant that they make, the
pact and the agreement that they make with
Musa Alayhi Salatu Salam.
And it is when they break this as
we know that they will break this command
of Allah Azza wa Jal, this pact that
they made with Musa Alayhi Salam that Allah
Azza wa Jal then destroys them.
So they are remaining upon their kufr and
their disbelief.
Had they been sincere, what would they have
done?
They would have taken iman straight away.
They wouldn't have made a conditional upon some
type of pact with Musa Alayhi Salam knowing
that Allah Azza wa Jal is the one
who is controlling all of this.
He is the one who decrees all of
this.
And by taking iman and turning to Allah
Azza wa Jal and making tawbah, then automatically
Allah Azza wa Jal would have relieved them
from this distress.
Would have made things easy for them.
And this is why it's not the way
of the Muslims that they barter and bargain
with Allah Azza wa Jal.
It is a type of arrogance that a
person comes and tries to barter with Allah
Azza wa Jal.
He says, Oh Allah, if you give me
this, then I will do this for you.
Or if I do this for you, then
I expect this from you.
And this is why in Islam another which
is an oath for a good deed.
When you take an oath by Allah Azza
wa Jal that you will do an act
of worship, even though it is permissible, it
is disliked according to many of the scholars
of Islam.
And that is because the hadith of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in which the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, don't do
this.
Because innama istakhruju bihi minal bakheel.
It is only used to extract good from
the one who is miserly and stingy in
their good deeds.
Why?
Because a person comes and says, Oh Allah,
I take an oath.
That if I pass my exams, then I
will fast one day.
If I pass my driving test, then I
will go for Umrah.
If I get married this year, then I
will do X, Y and Z in terms
of ibadah.
And so what you're doing is you're making
the worship conditional upon some type of blessing
that you receive or some type of achievement
that you may gain or some type of
worldly benefit that you gain.
And then I will do some acts of
worship.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that's
like extracting good from a person who is
miserly in their good deeds.
That you will only do good deeds if
Allah gives you.
So it's like bartering and bargaining with Allah
Azza wa Jal.
This is what Bani Israel are doing.
They're like, we're not going to believe.
But if you remove all of this, then
we will believe and then we will take
Islam.
And that shows that this person doesn't have
the level of sincerity in terms of believing
in the religion and turning to Allah Azza
wa Jal because otherwise they would have accepted
immediately.
They wouldn't like the magicians and sorcerers.
They didn't say to Musa, Oh Musa, if
you can protect us from Pharaoh, from his
evil, from his oppression, you can pay us,
give us gold, we will believe in you.
As soon as they saw the truth, they
fell into frustration.
And that is the juxtaposition, the difference that
we see between, on the one hand, the
true Iman of those sorcerers and on the
other hand, this type of just claiming to
have Iman or wanting to believe that is
seen here by the people of Pharaoh.
But either way, they make this promise.
Remove these punishments from us, we will believe
in you, oh Musa.
And we will accept your God.
And we will free Bani Israel and you
may take them as and where you wish
to go.
So Allah Azza wa Jal then tells us
in verse 135 فَلَمَّا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمُ الرِّجَزَ إِلَىٰ
أَجَلِنْهُمْ بَارِغُوهُ إِذَا هُمْ يَنْكُثُونَ But when We
relieved them of the plague and gave them
a fixed period in which to fulfill their
promise, lo and behold, they broke it.
So Allah Azza wa Jal says that We
removed it from them.
The punishment was taken from them because, and
the translation I have here is We gave
them a fixed period in which to fulfill
their promise.
Other scholars of Tafsir and what seems to
be a more clear Tafsir that Allah Azza
wa Jal knows best is that Allah Azza
wa Jal is saying that We removed from
them these punishments and the plague because they
had already reached the determined period that Allah
Azza wa Jal had decreed for them that
they would suffer these issues, that they would
suffer under these punishments.
Meaning that they lasted for as long as
Allah decreed.
And then Allah Azza wa Jal removed them
because He does as He pleases, subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
And it was never going to be permanent
upon them, it was always going to be
temporary.
Either way, the point is here that once
Allah Azza wa Jal removes from them these
punishments and these plagues and these different types
of ailments that they were suffering from, now
they have to fulfill their portion or their
part of the bargain, and that is to
have Iman and to set free Bani Israel.
What did they do?
إِذَا هُمْ يَنْكُثُونَ They broke it and they
turned away from it.
So Allah Azza wa Jal then tells us
in verse 136 فَانْتَقَمْنَا مِنْهُمْ فَأَغْرَقَنَاهُمْ فِي الْيَمِّ
بِأَنَّهُمْ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا وَكَانُوا عَنْهَا غَافِلِينَ And so
because they rejected our signs and paid them
no heed, we exacted retribution from them and
we drowned them in the sea.
And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells
us what happened then.
And that is that as we know that
Bani Israel and the Pharaoh doesn't accept Islam,
doesn't believe in Musa Alayhi Salam, doesn't set
free Bani Israel.
And even when he sets them free and
he says to Musa just go and leave
me alone, then he changes his mind and
he brings together his armies and he chases
them as if he wants to go and
attack them and kill them and destroy all
of them.
And so Allah Azza wa Jal says فَانْتَقَمْنَا
مِنْهُمْ And because of this we exacted our
retribution upon them.
فَأَغْرَقَنَاهُمْ فِي الْيَمِّ And we drowned them in
the sea.
And we know that story and it will
be mentioned elsewhere in the Quran.
بِأَنَّهُمْ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا وَكَانُوا عَنْهَا غَافِلِينَ Because they
rejected our signs and they were heedless of
them.
So because of the pact that they broke,
because of the promises that they broke with
Allah Azza wa Jal, because of the evil
that they continue to do, because of their
rejection of what are the signs of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah Azza wa Jal
punished them and Allah Azza wa Jal destroyed
all of them.
In the last verse that we will take
today, verse 137, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
then tells us how Bani Israel were the
ones who then inherited the earth.
They were the ones that Allah Azza wa
Jal then favored in this particular story.
وَأَوْرَثْنَا الْقَوْمَ الَّذِينَ كَانُوا يُسْتَنْعَفُونَ مَشَارِقَ الْأَرْضِ
وَمَغَارِبَهَا الَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا وَتَمَّتْ كَرِمَةُ رَبِّكَ الْحُسْنَ
عَلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ بِمَا صَبَرُوا وَدَمَّرْنَا مَا كَانَ
يَصْنَعُ فِجْعُونُ وَقَوْمُهُ وَمَا كَانُوا يَعْرِشُونَ And We
made those who had been oppressed succeed to
both the east and the west of the
land that We had blessed.
Your Lord's good promise to the children of
Israel was fulfilled because of their patience, and
We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people were
making and what they were building.
Allah says that Allah gave to them blessings.
وَأَوْرَثْنَا الْقَوْمَ الَّذِينَ كَانُوا يُسْتَضْعَفُونَ We made the
ones who were oppressed the successors to the
earth.
And that is the rule of Allah.
That Allah always favors the people who are
oppressed.
Allah will help them either in this life
or in the next.
And Allah will be on their side and
Allah will aid them.
Especially if they are believers from amongst them,
Allah azawajal aids them, and He helps them
and He gives them His divine protection and
assistance.
These people of Bani Israel for generations have
been in bondage, in slavery, under hardship and
difficulty, tyranny of rule.
And now Allah azawajal says these people who
are oppressed, they are the ones who become
successors of the earth.
And the ones who are mighty and powerful,
Pharaoh with all of his wealth and armies,
all of his power, they are the ones
who are destroyed.
And so Bani Israel inherit.
مَشَارِقَ الْأَرْضِ وَمَغَارِبَهَا الَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا They succeed
the east and the west of the lands
that we had blessed.
The lands that Allah azawajal had blessed are
the lands of Al-Quds and Baitul Maqdis.
To the east and the west.
So they were people who inherited and they
benefited from the lands of Egypt and the
lands that they then travelled to.
All of those places were made easy for
them and they became successors to it.
وَتَمَّتْ كَلِمَةُ رَبِّكَ الْحُسْنَ عَلَىٰ بَلِي إِسْرَائِيلَ بِمَا
صَبَرُوا And your Lord's good promise, the promise
that Allah azawajal made to them on the
tongue of his Prophet Musa as we mentioned
in the previous episode that he said to
them that you should be patient.
Seek Allah's assistance.
إِنَّ الْأَرْضَ لِلَّهِ يُورِثُهَا مَن يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ
For the earth belongs to Allah, He gives
it to whomever He wills.
وَالْعَقِبَةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ And the good ending, the good
result is always for the people of Taqwa.
So here Allah azawajal is saying that the
good promise that Allah gave to you that
if you're patient, if you're people of seeking
assistance from Allah azawajal of worshipping Allah azawajal,
Allah will help you and aid you.
That's what happened here.
Allah fulfilled that promise بِمَا صَبَرُوا because of
the patience that they displayed.
And that is a general principle for every
Muslim in times of difficulty, in times of
hardship, in times of trial.
If you turn to Allah and you're patient
and you continue to ask of Allah and
worship Allah azawajal and Nabi Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, Allah will fulfill His promise to
you.
Whether it is sooner or later, whether it
is in this life or in the next,
Allah azawajal will give to you your full
reward.
And Allah will honour you in ways that
you can't even imagine.
And that's what happens to Bani Israel.
They never imagined that Pharaoh would be destroyed
in that way, that the people of Pharaoh
would be destroyed in that way, that Bani
Israel would be the ones, would be the
successors and the victorious ones.
But Allah azawajal fulfilled that promise for them.
وَدَمَّرْنَا مَا كَانَ يَصْلَعُ فِرْعَوْنُ وَقَوْمُهُ وَمَا كَانُوا
يَعْرِشُونَ And we destroyed what Pharaoh and his
people were making and what they were building.
All of that wealth that they spent, all
of those palaces that they built, all of
those pyramids that they constructed, everything that they
did, Allah azawajal destroyed those people.
And they were none, or none of that
benefited them, none of that aided them when
they turned away from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
And with that, we come to the end
of today's episode.
بارك الله فيكم وصلاة الله على نبينا محمد
وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله
وبركاته