Tafseer of Ornaments of gold · Az-Zukhruf · 43:51
And Pharaoh called out among his people; he said, "O my people, does not the kingdom of Egypt belong to me, and these rivers flowing beneath me; then do you not see?
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَنَادَى فِرْعَوْنُ فِي قَوْمِهِ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ أَلَيْسَ لِي مُلْكُ مِصْرَ وَهَذِهِ الأَنْهَارُ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِي أَفَلا تُبْصِرُونَ (And Pharaoh proclaimed among his people, saying: O my people, does not the kingship over Egypt belong to me, and these rivers that flow beneath me? Do you then not see?) (43:51).
The Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says: ( وَنَادَى فِرْعَوْنُ فِي قَوْمِهِ ) (And Pharaoh proclaimed among his people) — among the Copts, and he ( قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ أَلَيْسَ لِي مُلْكُ مِصْرَ وَهَذِهِ الأنْهَارُ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِي أَفَلا تُبْصِرُونَ ) (said: O my people, does not the kingship over Egypt belong to me, and these rivers that flow beneath me? Do you then not see?). By His words ( مِنْ تَحْتِي ) (beneath me) He means: before me, between my hands, in the gardens.
As Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: ( وَهَذِهِ الأنْهَارُ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِي ) (and these rivers that flow beneath me) — he said: they had gardens and rivers with water.
And His saying: ( أَفَلا تُبْصِرُونَ ) (Do you then not see?) means: do you then not see, O people, in what affluence and what good fortune I am, and in what poverty and impediment of speech Moses is? The enemy of Allah boasted of his kingship over Egypt and of what had been allotted to him of worldly things — as a gradual enticement from the side of Allah toward him — and he supposed that what he was in of all that he had acquired by his own hand and strength, and that Moses had merely failed to attain what he described. Therefore he reckoned him among the lowly, and he advanced as an argument before the ignorant among his people that Moses, peace be upon him, had he been truthful in the signs and lessons he brought, and had that not been sorcery, would have acquired for himself of kingship and affluence the like of what he himself was in — out of ignorance of Allah and out of his being deluded by the respite that Allah granted him.
