Tafheem-ul-Quran - Abul Ala Maududi

Ayah by Ayah

Tags

Download Links

Tafheem-ul-Quran - Abul Ala Maududi translation for Surah Ghafir — Ayah 26

40:26
وَقَالَ فِرۡعَوۡنُ ذَرُونِيٓ أَقۡتُلۡ مُوسَىٰ وَلۡيَدۡعُ رَبَّهُۥٓۖ إِنِّيٓ أَخَافُ أَن يُبَدِّلَ دِينَكُمۡ أَوۡ أَن يُظۡهِرَ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ ٱلۡفَسَادَ ٢٦
One day1 Pharaoh said: “Let me go and kill Moses;2 then let him invoke his Lord. I fear that he will change your religion or cause disruption in the land.”3
Footnotes
  • [1] Qira’at: Hafs, Hamza, Al-Kesa’i, Yaʻqub and Khalaf read it as: “. . . the best of creators. 126Allah is your Lord and the Lord . . .”
  • [2] The event which is being related here is a very important event of the Israelite history, which the Israelites themselves have totally forgotten. Both the Bible and the Talmud are without it, and no mention of it is found in the other Israelite traditions either. Only through the Quran has the world come to know that during the conflict between Pharaoh and the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) this event had taken place at some time. Anybody who reads this story, provided that he has not been blinded by prejudice against Islam and the Quran, cannot but realize that from the viewpoint of the invitation to the truth this story is very valuable, and this thing by itself also is in no way against reason that a person from among the nobles of the kingdom of Pharaoh himself might have quietly believed in his heart, having been influenced by the personality of the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him), his preaching and the wonderful miracles shown by him, and might not have been able to restrain himself when he saw that Pharaoh was planning to kill him. But the way the Western orientalists, in spite of their tall claims to knowledge and research, try to repudiate the self-evident truths of the Quran, on account of prejudice, can be judged from this that the author of the article "Musa" in the Encyclopaedia of Islam writes in respect of this story:
  • [3] “The Kuranic story of a believer at the court of Pharaoh who wants to save Musa is not quite clear (xl, 28). Ought we to compare Jethro in the Haggada who advises clemency at Pharaoh’s court?
  • [4] In other words, these so called researchers have one thing settled with them: They must find fault with everything that the Quran presents. Now, if they do not find any ground for criticizing a statement of it, they should at least say this much out of mischief that the story is not entirely clear, and also should incidentally create this doubt in the reader’s mind that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) might have heard from somewhere the story of Jethro mentioned in the Haggada taking place even before the birth of Prophet Moses (peace be upon him), and inserted it here in this form. This is the type of literary research which these people have adopted with regard to Islam and the Quran and the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
  • [5] The name of an idol.
  • [6] Qira’at: Ibn Kathir, Abu ʻAmr, Ibn ʻAmer and Yaʻqub read it as: “. . . except for Allah’s sincere servants.”