The surah includes a very brief account of Moses and his advocacy of the divine message. We commented last week on its first part, with Moses making strenuous efforts to make people see the truth of his message. When he gave up on them, he cried out that they were lost in sin. At this point Moses received an endorsement from God with regard to his evaluation of his peoples’ status: they were truly guilty: “Set forth with My servants by night, for you will surely be pursued; and leave the sea calm behind you; for their host are destined to be drowned.” That their flight was to occur at night comes in for stronger emphasis in the Arabic text: the verb asri, translated as ‘set forth’, implies that the march must be under cover of darkness, then the verse adds the word laylan, meaning ‘by night’. Thus they set forth stealthily, at night, unseen by Pharaoh and his watchmen. Furthermore, they were instructed not to make any disturbance in the parted sea as they crossed through it. Thus, Pharaoh and his host would be tempted to pursue them and God’s will would then be as He had determined: “Their host are destined to be drowned.” Thus, God’s will is done through apparent causes, but these causes are part and parcel of His will and how it is accomplished.
The surah sums up the scene of this mass drowning in words that express God’s will, which inevitably comes to pass: “Their host are destined to be drowned.” This is followed with a comment highlighting Pharaoh’s humiliation as also of those who supported his arrogant tyranny. They are utterly humiliated in a world where they behaved with all arrogance. How fitting! Those very people bowed their heads before Pharaoh, bewitched by his power, yet he is of no significance in this world. When his power is withdrawn, there is nothing he can do to regain it. No one mourns his loss.
“How many gardens did they leave behind, and how many fountains, and fields of grain, and noble dwellings, and good things in which they used to delight! Thus it was. And We made other people inherit it all. Neither heaven nor earth shed tears over them, nor were they allowed a respite.” The scene begins with an image of the splendid comfort in which they dwelled: gardens, fountains, plants, high position, honor and blessings in which they reveled. Yet all this is taken away from them, or they are removed from it, so as to give it to others. In another surah, the Qur’an says: “We bequeathed it all to the children of Israel.” (26: 59)
Whilst the children of Israel did not inherit Pharaoh’s kingdom per se, they were nonetheless given a similar kingdom in another land. What is meant, then, is that the same kind of kingdom and blessings that were taken away from Pharaoh and his people were given to the children of Israel.
What happened next? Those same tyrants, who had gloried in their power and who were held in awe by people, were removed altogether. None grieved for them. Neither earth nor heaven felt their loss. Nor were they given any reprieve: “Neither heaven nor earth shed tears over them, nor were they allowed a respite.” The statement carries connotations of humiliation and total disregard. No one on earth or in heaven was sorry about how these tyrants met their end. They were crushed like ants under foot. The whole universe hated them because they had split themselves away from it. This is a universe that believes in its Lord while they denied Him. Theirs were evil souls, untouchable by the universe in which they lived. Had these tyrants felt what these words imply, they would have foreseen their own humiliation and known that the universe looks upon them as creatures apart.
This is then contrasted with an image of those who are saved and blessed with honor: “We saved the Children of Israel from humiliating suffering, from Pharaoh, who was arrogant and a transgressor. We chose them knowingly above all other people. And We gave them signs in which there was a clear test.”
It was from ‘humiliating suffering’ that the children of Israel were saved. This contrasts with the humiliation that the Egyptian tyrants and transgressors found themselves in. They were saved “from Pharaoh, who was arrogant and a transgressor.”
