Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:127
And the eminent among the people of Pharaoh said," Will you leave Moses and his people to cause corruption in the land and abandon you and your gods?" [Pharaoh] said, "We will kill their sons and keep their women alive; and indeed, we are subjugators over them."
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 His saying: وَقَالَ الْمَلأُ مِنْ قَوْمِ فِرْعَوْنَ أَتَذَرُ مُوسَى وَقَوْمَهُ لِيُفْسِدُوا فِي الأَرْضِ وَيَذَرَكَ وَآلِهَتَكَ قَالَ سَنُقَتِّلُ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ وَنَسْتَحْيِي نِسَاءَهُمْ وَإِنَّا فَوْقَهُمْ قَاهِرُونَ (7:127) (And the notables of the people of Firʿawn said: "Will you leave Mūsā and his people to spread corruption in the land and to forsake you and your gods?" He said: "We will kill their sons and let their women live, and we have the upper hand over them, dominant.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: And a group of men from the people of Firʿawn said to Firʿawn: will you leave Mūsā and his people of the Children of Israel "to spread corruption in the land," that is to say: so that they incite your servants and slaves (ʿabīd) against you in your land of Egypt, "and to forsake you and your gods" — that is, "and to forsake you" and to abandon serving you, namely Mūsā, and the worshipping of you and the worshipping of your gods.
In His saying "and to forsake you and your gods" there are two modes of interpretation.
The first: will you leave Mūsā and his people to spread corruption in the land, while he has already forsaken you and the worship of you and the worship of your gods? When the words are directed according to this mode of interpretation, then the naṣb (accusative ending) in His saying "wa-yadharaka" (and to forsake you) is on the basis of ṣarf (the turning of the verb away from what precedes it), not on the basis of conjoining it (ʿaṭf) with His saying "to spread corruption."
The second: will you leave Mūsā and his people to spread corruption in the land, and so that he forsakes you and your gods — as a reproach from them to Firʿawn because he let Mūsā perform both actions. When the words are directed according to this mode, then the naṣb of "wa-yadharaka" is on the basis of conjunction (ʿaṭf) with "to spread corruption." Abū Jaʿfar said: The first mode is, of the two modes, the most correct, namely that the naṣb of "wa-yadharaka" is on the basis of ṣarf, because the interpretation of the exegetes has come with that.
And furthermore: in the reading of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb there is the following:
14961 - Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related to us, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us on the authority of Hārūn, saying: in the reading of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb it stands: "wa-qad tarakūka an yaʿbudūka wa-ālihataka" (and they have already forsaken you, that they should worship you and your gods).
In that there is clear evidence that its naṣb is on the basis of ṣarf.
And it has been transmitted from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī that he read it as: "wa-yadharaka wa-ālihataka," by conjunction (ʿaṭf) of His saying "wa-yadharaka" with His saying "will you leave Mūsā" — as if he directed its interpretation toward: will you leave Mūsā and his people, and will you let him forsake you and your gods, to spread corruption in the land? This reading of al-Ḥasan could also have the meaning: will you leave Mūsā and his people to spread corruption in the land, while he forsakes you and your gods? — so that "yadharuka" stands in the rafʿ (nominative) through the beginning of a new sentence and free from grammatical influences.
As for His saying "wa-ālihataka": the readers of the regions read it with fatḥa on the "alif" and lengthening of it, with the meaning: and Mūsā has already forsaken the worship of you and the worship of your gods whom you worship.
And it has been mentioned from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said: He [Firʿawn] had a cow which he worshipped.
And it has been transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās and Mujāhid that they both read it as: "wa-yadharaka wa-ilāhataka" with kasra on the "alif," with the meaning: and to forsake you and your worship (ʿubūda).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The reading of which we accept no other reading is the reading upon which the readers of the regions stand, because of the consensus of the authoritative evidence of the readers upon it.
* Mention of who said: Firʿawn worshipped gods — according to the reading of him who read: "wa-yadharaka wa-ālihataka."
14962 - Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "and to forsake you and your gods" — and his gods were, according to what Ibn ʿAbbās claimed, the cows. When they saw a beautiful cow, he commanded them to worship it. For this reason he brought forth for them a calf and a cow.
14963 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, saying: Firʿawn had a pearl which hung around his neck, which he worshipped and to which he prostrated himself.
14964 - Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī related to us, saying: Abān ibn Khālid related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḥasan say: It has reached me that Firʿawn secretly worshipped a god, and he read: "and to forsake you and your gods."
14965 - Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of Abū Bakr, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, saying: Firʿawn had a god whom he secretly worshipped.
* Mention of who said: the meaning of it is: and to forsake you and your worship — according to the reading of him who read: "wa-ilāhataka."
14966 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥasan, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "wa-yadharaka wa-ilāhataka," he said: Firʿawn was indeed worshipped and did not himself worship.
14967 - ... he said: my father related to us, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that he read: "wa-yadharaka wa-ilāhataka," he said: and your worship, and he says: he was worshipped and did not himself worship.
14968 - Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His saying: "wa-yadharaka wa-ilāhataka," he said: that he abandons the worship of you.
14969 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that he read: "wa-ilāhataka," he says: and your worship.
14970 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "wa-yadharaka wa-ilāhataka," he said: your worship.
14971 - Saʿīd ibn al-Rabīʿ al-Rāzī related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥusayn, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that he read: "wa-yadharaka wa-ilāhataka," and he said: Firʿawn was indeed worshipped and did not himself worship.
And some have claimed: that he who read "wa-ilāhataka" in fact intends roughly the meaning of the reading of him who read "wa-ālihataka," except that he made it feminine while intending a single god — as if he means: and you and your god — and then made "the god" (al-ilāh) feminine and said: "wa-ilāhataka."
And one of the grammarians of Basra mentioned that a bedouin was asked about "al-ilāha," and he said: "it is an ʿalama," by which he meant a landmark (ʿalam), and he made "al-ʿalam" feminine; it is as if it were something erected for worship and worshipped. And the daughter of ʿUtayba ibn al-Ḥārith al-Yarbūʿī has said:
We returned in the evening from al-Laʿbāʾ in the late afternoon, and we hastened al-ilāha [the sun] to set.
She means by "al-ilāha" in this place the sun. It is as if the one who gave this interpretation directed "al-ilāha" — when one adds to it the tāʾ of the feminine, while intending the singular of "the gods" (al-āliha) — toward the manner in which they add the "hāʾ" to "wildatī" and "kawkabatī" and "māʾatī," which is "the kind of that"; and as the rajaz-poet said:
O Muḍar the Red, you are my tribe, and you are my refuge and you are my back (ẓahratī).
He means: my back (ẓahrī).
And Ibn ʿAbbās and Mujāhid have already made clear what they meant by the meaning in their reading of it, in accordance with what they read. So there is no ground for the statement of this speaker, given their clarification about themselves of the meaning which they had in view by it.
And His saying: "He said: we will kill their sons," that is to say: Firʿawn said: we will kill their sons, the male children of the Children of Israel, "and let their women live," that is to say: and we will spare their women, "and we have the upper hand over them, dominant," that is to say: and we stand above them through dominance — he means through the dominance of kingship and rule.
And we have already set forth that the Arabs, of everything that is raised above something through dominance and victory, say: it is "above" (fawqa) it.
[Footnotes:] (13) See the explanation of "al-malaʾ" (the notables) in what preceded, p. 18, note 1, and the references there. (14) See the explanation of "yadharu" in what preceded, 12:136, note 3, and the references there. (15) See the explanation of "spreading corruption in the land" in what preceded, p. 13, note 1, and the references there. (16) "al-ṣarf" — its explanation already passed in 7:247, note 2, and the references there. See also Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ, 1:391. (17) See also Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ, 1:391. (18) In the printed edition His saying "and free from grammatical influences" has been omitted, as if it was not understood; what was meant was only its freedom from the factors that place it in the rafʿ, naṣb, or jarr. In the manuscript it stands "toward the beginning of the sentence," and in the printed edition "upon the beginning of the sentence," and the best is what has been established. (19) See what preceded 1:123, 124, in the explanation of "al-ilāha," and the two transmissions of Ibn ʿAbbās and Mujāhid with their isnād, and those follow under numbers 14966-14971. (20) The transmission 14966 - "Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib," a trustworthy tābiʿī, passed under numbers 2892, 2892m. In the manuscript and the printed edition it stood here "Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of al-Ḥasan," and that is an error. The transmission passed correctly with this isnād under number 143, and will follow correctly under number 19471. (21) The transmission 14967 - "Nāfiʿ ibn ʿUmar" passed repeatedly; in the manuscript and the printed edition it stood "on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar," and that is an error; the correct is as it passed under number 142. (22) The transmission 14971 - "Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib," see the note at number 14966. (23) In the manuscript it stands "and ʿUtayba ibn Shihāb al-Yarbūʿī has said," and that is undoubtedly an error; in the printed edition it stands "and the daughter of ʿUtayba ibn al-Ḥārith al-Yarbūʿī has said," and that is correct, a correction by the editor of the first printing. The true lineage has been established, combining what is in the manuscript and the printed edition. It is said that she is "Amna bint ʿUtayba," and it is said that her name is "Mayya," and she is "Umm al-Banīn." And it is said: it is from the lamenting woman of ʿUtayba. (24) Balāghāt al-nisāʾ: 189, Muʿjam mā staʿjam: 1156, Muʿjam al-buldān ("al-Laʿbāʾ"), al-Lisān (laʿiba) (alaha), and many others. She said it as a lament for her father, who was killed on the day of Khaww; the Banū Asad killed him. And after the verse: "Over someone like the son of Mayya — so weep for him — the tender [women] of fair skin tear open their bosoms. My father ʿUtayba was a resolute, decisive man; you would not find him hoarding a portion. Striking with both hands when the war blazed, not weak, not fearful." And "al-Laʿbāʾ" lies between al-Rabadha and the land of the Banū Sulaym, and it belongs to Fazāra; and it is said otherwise. And "qaṣran" means: in the evening. In the printed edition it stands "ʿaṣran," and that is one of the transmission variants of the verse; what has been established is what is in the manuscript. (25) In the printed edition it stands "amātī," and that is an error; the correct is what is in the manuscript. (26) I have not been able to ascertain the poet. (27) His saying "maljātī" with softening of the hamza, and its origin is "maljaʾatī"; the tāʾ is also added here, by analogy with their pronunciation "maljaʾ"; both forms are an evidence for what Abū Jaʿfar said. (28) See the explanation of "al-istiḥyāʾ" in what preceded, 2:41-48. (29) See the explanation of "al-qahr" in what preceded, 11:284, 408. (30) See the explanation of "fawq" in what preceded, 11:284, and the language registers ("fawq").
