Surah al-A`raf (The Elevated Places) 7 : 136

Overview (Verses 136 - 137)

Wreaking Vengeance on Hardened Unbelievers

Despite their pagan religion, their total ignorance, and their transgression which enabled Pharaoh to take them as fools, they still rushed to the Prophet Moses, time and again, beseeching him to pray to his Lord on account of the covenant he had with Him. They felt that was the only way for the plague to be lifted. But those in power refused to honour their promises because their whole authority was based on their claim that Pharaoh was the Lord of his people. They feared what would have happened if God’s Lordship was to be recognized. That would have meant that the entire system, which assigned sovereignty and legislative authority to Pharaoh, would collapse, giving way to a system which recognized sovereignty as belonging only to God.

In present-day jāhiliyyah, God may allow pests to threaten harvests, but people do not turn back to God at all. If the farmers experience the natural feeling which occurs to human beings, even unbelievers, in times of hardship, that it is God who sends these plagues, and if they turn to God praying to Him to lift this affliction, the advocates of false `science’ tell them that their action is deeply rooted in superstition and metaphysics. They adopt a very sarcastic attitude in order to turn them back to a state of rejection that is far worse than that of ancient pagans.

The end then takes place in accordance with God’s law of punishing unbelievers after having tested them both with affliction and affluence.

Having given Pharaoh and his people every chance, and assigned for them a term which they were certain to reach, God destroyed Pharaoh and his clique. He also fulfilled His promise to the oppressed who remained patient in adversity: “So We inflicted Our retribution on them, and caused them to drown in the sea, because they denied Our signs and were heedless of them. We caused the people who were persecuted and deemed utterly low to inherit the eastern and western parts of the land which We had blessed. Thus your Lord’s gracious promise to the Children of Israel was fulfilled, because they were patient in adversity; and We destroyed all that Pharaoh and his people had wrought, and all that they had built.” (Verses 136-137)

The sūrah refers very briefly here to the drowning of Pharaoh and his people. The details are not given here in a relaxed pattern as they are given in other sūrahs. What happens here instead is to give an air of swift punishment after the unbelievers have had a long time to reconsider. Hence, the details are overlooked. The swiftness of the punishment has its effect which fills us with awe. “So We inflicted Our retribution on them, and caused them to drown in the sea.” (Verse 136) Just one strike and they are all destroyed. Proud, arrogant and despotic they certainly were, and suddenly they sink right to the bottom of the sea. It is certainly a fitting recompense, “Because they denied Our signs and were heedless of them.” (Verse 136) The compatibility is made clear between their attitude of denying God’s signs, choosing to remain heedless of them and this fitting destiny. We are clearly told that events do not come as a result of coincidence. They do not just happen haphazardly, as simple people tend to think.

To enhance the atmosphere of swiftness and decisiveness, the sūrah also portrays the opposite picture of giving power to the oppressed. This is brought forward because the Children of Israel were not given power in Egypt, where Pharaoh and his people lived. Instead, they were given power when they were at their best in following divine guidance, before they deviated and incurred the punishment of humiliation and dispersal. Their kingdom was in Palestine, several decades after the drowning of Pharaoh, and long after the Prophet Moses had passed away, and indeed after their forty years in the wilderness which is mentioned elsewhere in the Qur’ān. But the sūrah glides over all these events and shifts from one period of time to another in order to highlight the fact that they were established and given power to be free to conduct their own affairs. This provides a clear contrast with their state of weakness when they endured Pharaoh’s persecution: “We caused the people who were persecuted and deemed utterly low to inherit the eastern and western parts of the land which We had blessed. Thus your Lord’s gracious promise to the Children of Israel was fulfilled, because they were patient in adversity; and We destroyed all that Pharaoh and his people had wrought, and all that they had built.” (Verse 137)

Restricted by the limitations of time as we are, we, human beings, speak of a time order because we record events in accordance with their occurrence and the moment when we note their happening. For this reason, we say that the power that was given to those who were oppressed came after the event of Pharaoh’s drowning. That is our own understanding of events. What could “before” and “after” signify to God in His absolute knowledge, we cannot tell. All that takes place clearly appears to Him in full vision, with nothing partially or totally screened by limitations of time and place. To Him everything is known absolutely perfectly, while our knowledge remains scanty indeed.

Thus the curtain falls with the scene of total destruction on the one side and that of a new power to build a new civilization on the other. Pharaoh, yesterday’s tyrant, is drowned with his people. All that they had built in this life, and all the edifices and towers they raised on great pillars, and all their construction, vineyards and riches lie in ruin. All this takes place in a fraction of a moment, and all is portrayed in a few short words.

This is an example given by God to the small band of believers in Makkah who suffered persecution by the pagan Arabs. It also provides a wider perspective to every group of believers suffering persecution at the hands of the new pharaohs of this world. They can always look at the oppression they suffer in the same light as those believers suffered at Pharaoh’s hands. They remained steadfast and showed patience in adversity, so God caused them to inherit the blessed land to see how they would conduct themselves.