Surah al-A`raf (The Elevated Places) 7 : 123

Overview (Verses 123 - 126)

No Permission to Believe in God

No tyrant enjoying absolute power can ever understand how light penetrates human hearts, or how people can enjoy the reassurance of faith and experience the happiness it imparts. Tyrants continue to exercise power for a long time, seeing that people accept whatever they say. With the passage of time they come to believe that their authority extends over people’s minds, hearts and souls, when these actually submit only to God. Hence, Pharaoh was totally surprised to see the sorcerers accept the faith so quickly, especially as he could not see the faith penetrating into their hearts and could not realize how their minds worked. But he was quick to recognize how serious this development was and that it threatened his very authority. Those sorcerers, who were actually the attendants in temples throughout Egypt, were gathered in order to prove Moses’s and Aaron’s message as false. It was those same sorcerers who accepted that message and declared their submission to God, the Lord of the universe and of Moses and Aaron.

Pharaoh felt his throne shake, and it is well known that the throne and the crown represent all that is in the life of a tyrant. Tyrants are always ready to commit any crime, without hesitation, in order to retain power: “Pharaoh said: ‘You believe in Him even before I have given you permission! This is indeed a plot you have contrived in this city in order to drive out its people, but you shall soon come to know [the consequences]. I shall have your hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, and then I shall crucify you all.’” (Verses 123-124)

He haughtily exclaims: “You believe in Him even before I have given you permission!” (Verse 123) He really expects them to seek his permission before their hearts, consciences and souls open up to receive the truth, when they themselves have no control over these and cannot prevent anything from touching or penetrating them. Perhaps Pharaoh wanted them to repel the truth as it penetrated their souls, or to stifle their faith as its shoots began to spring up and blossom inside their souls, or to cover their eyes so that they could not see the light. That is tyranny: ignorant and stupid, but at the same time arrogant and conceited.

There is another element which influences Pharaoh’s attitude: namely, fear that his power is threatened. “This is indeed a plot you have contrived in this city in order to drive out its people.” (Verse 123) Elsewhere in the Qur’ān where the history of Moses and Pharaoh is related, Pharaoh is quoted as saying to the sorcerers in reference to Moses: “He is your chief who has taught you sorcery.” (20: 71)

The whole question is absolutely clear. It is the fact that Moses calls on people to believe in `God, the Lord of all the worlds’ that causes all this worry and fear. The tyrants realize that they can have no peace of mind if they allow that message to be preached. Their power relies on dismissing God’s Lordship of mankind through ignoring His law. Instead, they appoint themselves as deities enacting legislation for human society and forcing people to submit to the laws they enact. These two methods can have no meeting point, because they move in opposite directions. They are two contradictory religions addressing worship to different lords. Pharaoh and the elders among his people were aware of this, and they were frightened when they realized that Moses and Aaron advocated submission to the Lord of the universe. Now that the sorcerers prostrated themselves in submission to God, Pharaoh and his elders were increasingly alarmed. Those sorcerers were the clergy in a pagan faith that attributed Godhead to Pharaoh himself. They were the ones who ensured that he exercised absolute power in the name of religion.

Hence, it was only expected that Pharaoh should issue his fearful warning: “You shall soon come to know [the consequences]. I shall have your hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, and then I shall crucify you all.” (Verses 123-124) Torture, disfigurement and unabating persecution: these are the methods to which tyranny resorts when it finds itself in confrontation with the truth. The tyrants realize that they cannot refute the argument of the truth, therefore they have to suppress it by force.

But when the truth of faith takes hold of a human being, he looks with contempt at the tyrants and their power. Faith takes over as the top priority, even ahead of life itself. A firm believer feels this life contemptible when it is compared to the eternal life of the hereafter. A human being who believes in the message of the truth does not stop to inquire: “What shall I gain and how much will I benefit?” He will not even think of what cost he will have to incur or what sacrifices he is called upon to give. The bright horizon opens up for him right in front of his eyes, so he does not look to anything along the way: “They replied: ‘To our Lord we shall indeed return. You want to take vengeance on us only because we have believed in the signs of our Lord when they were shown to us.’” (Verses 125-126) It is the unshakeable faith that will not submit to any worldly power. It is the faith which is reassured about the future, in the knowledge that all human beings will return to their Lord. With faith, people have the reassurance of being close to Him: “To our Lord we shall indeed return.” (Verse 125)

When a person realizes the nature of the battle against tyranny, and that it is a battle over the central issues, he takes his stand firmly, without hesitation. He would never seek the clemency of an enemy who is not prepared to accept anything from him short of abandoning his faith altogether, because, after all, that is the issue over which the fight takes place: “You want to take vengeance on us only because we have believed in the signs of our Lord when they were shown to us.” (Verse 126) When anyone realizes what the battle is all about and to whom he should turn for help, he will not ask his enemy to ensure his own safety. He will only pray to his Lord to give him patience and perseverance in times of adversity, and to help him to continue in an attitude of submission to God until he dies: “Our Lord, grant us abundance of patience in adversity, and let us die as people who have surrendered themselves to You.” (Verse 126)

Tyranny stands helpless as it finds itself in confrontation with faith based on clear understanding. Tyranny realizes that it can do nothing to human hearts although it used to think that even hearts and consciences were subject to its power as human bodies are. Now it discovers that only God can have power over people’s hearts and consciences. What can human power do to any heart or soul that seeks God’s protection and prefers to wait for God’s reward?

As attitudes were shaping up between Pharaoh and his elders on the one side and Moses and those who believed with him on the other, human history was witnessing one of its most decisive moments. It was a moment when faith triumphed over life and when souls became stronger than pain, and man overpowered Satan. It was a moment when true freedom was born. What does freedom mean if not defeating tyranny with the power of faith? When a person is free, he thinks very lightly of a brute force that cannot subjugate his heart and soul, although it can inflict physical pain and cause death. When brute force is unable to subjugate hearts, true freedom is actually born.