طسٓمٓ … إِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ عَلَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَجَعَلَ أَهْلَهَا شِيَعًا يَسْتَضْعِفُ طَآئِفَةً مِّنْهُمْ يُذَبِّحُ أَبْنَآءَهُمْ وَيَسْتَحْىِۦ نِسَآءَهُمْ · وَنُرِيدُ أَن نَّمُنَّ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ ٱسْتُضْعِفُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَنَجْعَلَهُمْ أَئِمَّةً وَنَجْعَلَهُمُ ٱلْوَٰرِثِينَ
"Ṭā-sīn-mīm… Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and divided its people into factions: he was making one group among them weak, slaughtering their sons and sparing their women. But We were willing to show favour to those made weak in the land, to make them leaders, and to make them the heirs."
The note on the disconnected letters has been entered many times in this series; I do not repeat it here.
The root ش-ي-ع: to spread, to attach oneself to one side. Shīʿa — the body of partisans that gathers around a person. The plural comes here as shiyaʿ: factions, separate groups.
I record this as an observation: the verse describes what Pharaoh did with three verbs, and the first of them is dividing. That is, oppression does not begin with direct force; it begins by breaking the community into pieces — and only in a divided community can one section be set apart and made mustaḍʿaf.
يَسْتَضْعِفُ — root ض-ع-ف, Form X: to reckon someone weak and to make him weak. The pattern matters: weakness is not something that happens of itself but something that is done.
And the verse sets two verbs side by side: yudhabbiḥu abnāʾahum wa yastaḥyī nisāʾahum — to kill the sons, to spare the women. The second looks at first sight like mercy; but within the whole of the sentence it stands as a method for cutting off the continuation of a people.
The fifth verse is set directly opposite the fourth, and the tense must be recorded: wa nurīdu — the imperfect.
That is, the imperfect had been used for Pharaoh's acts as well (yudhabbiḥu, yastaḥyī). Both sides are shown within a work that is still going on. I record this as an observation about the word order: the sūra brings two wills onto the stage at the same time and in the same tense.
أَئِمَّة — the plural of imām; root أ-م-م: to go in front, one who is followed. The root was treated in al-Aḥqāf at 46/12 (kitābu Mūsā imāman).
And the content of the promise is worth recording: those made weak are not merely rescued — they are made leaders and heirs. That is, the promise is a reversal of position.