43/46-50 — Moses and Pharaoh: the setting of the scene
وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا مُوسَىٰ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَآ إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ وَمَلَإِي۟هِۦ فَقَالَ إِنِّى رَسُولُ رَبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ · فَلَمَّا جَآءَهُم بِـَٔايَٰتِنَآ إِذَا هُم مِّنْهَا يَضْحَكُونَ · وَمَا نُرِيهِم مِّنْ ءَايَةٍ إِلَّا هِىَ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ أُخْتِهَا ۖ وَأَخَذْنَٰهُم بِٱلْعَذَابِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ · وَقَالُوا۟ يَٰٓأَيُّهَ ٱلسَّاحِرُ ٱدْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ بِمَا عَهِدَ عِندَكَ إِنَّنَا لَمُهْتَدُونَ · فَلَمَّا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمُ ٱلْعَذَابَ إِذَا هُمْ يَنكُثُونَ
Wa laqad arsalnā Mūsā bi-āyātinā ilā Firʿawna wa malaʾihi fa-qāla innī rasūlu rabbi'l-ʿālamīn · Fa-lammā jāʾahum bi-āyātinā idhā hum minhā yaḍḥakūn · Wa mā nurīhim min āyatin illā hiya akbaru min ukhtihā · Wa akhadhnāhum bi'l-ʿadhābi laʿallahum yarjiʿūn · Wa qālū yā ayyuha's-sāḥiru'dʿu lanā rabbaka bimā ʿahida ʿindaka innanā la-muhtadūn · Fa-lammā kashafnā ʿanhumu'l-ʿadhāba idhā hum yankuthūn
"We sent Moses (Mūsā) with Our signs to Pharaoh and his chiefs. He said: 'I am a messenger of the Lord of all the worlds.' And when he came to them with Our signs, there they were laughing at them. Every sign We showed them was greater than the one before it. And We seized them with punishment, that they might return. They said: 'Sorcerer! Call upon your Lord for us by the covenant He has made with you; we shall certainly be guided.' But when We lifted the punishment from them, there they were breaking their word."
The Qurʾān tells the story of Moses in many places, and in each sūra a different section is brought forward. The section al-Zukhruf chooses is this, and the choice does not look accidental:
| Verse | Scene | Its link to the sūra's question |
|---|---|---|
| 47 | Laughter | Measure: counting the other light |
| 51 | "Is the kingdom of Egypt not mine?" | Measure: superiority through dominion |
| 52 | "He cannot make his meaning plain" | Measure: the capacity to express |
| 53 | "If only gold bracelets had been put on him" | Measure: visible splendour |
| 54 | Fa'stakhaffa qawmahu | Measure: finding one's own people light |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is what these five scenes have in common: the sūra has cut out of the story of Moses exactly its own subject. What is recounted is not a series of miracles; it is a question of the scale.
Idhā here is not the particle of condition but the particle of suddenness (fujāʾiyya): "and there they were".
| Verse | Sentence | What would be expected | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 47 | idhā hum minhā yaḍḥakūn | To be shaken before a sign | Laughter |
| 50 | idhā hum yankuthūn | To keep their word | Breaking their word |
The same particle, the same structure, twice. This is a verifiable datum of arrangement, and I record it as a pattern: the block is built upon two scenes of suddenness.
The root ض-ح-ك: to laugh. The lexicographers record one further branch of the root: ḍaḥika'r-rāʾiʿ — the crop blossomed, the bud split open. And ḍaḥk — opening, coming out. I transmit this relation as it has been transmitted.
The word's work here must be recorded, and it is bound up with the seventh verse of the sūra: there was yastahziʾūn (they were mocking). Here it is yaḍḥakūn (they are laughing). Both belong to the same family: lowering the weight of the one in front of them.
In Arabic this is a known usage and the lexicographers record it: like things are counted one another's akh / ukht.
That the word comes in the feminine (ukht, sister) is because the word āya is feminine — it is a requirement of grammar, not an emphasis on gender. I record this plainly.
And what the expression describes is a series: each sign greater than the one before. The evidence, that is, comes not diminishing but increasing.
I record this as an observation and link it with the fifty-third verse: despite this whole increasing series, the proof Pharaoh will ask for is a gold bracelet. The verse says first that the signs were increasing, in order to show that a shortage of evidence was not the problem.
| Reading | What sāḥir is here | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A belittling — they still count him a sorcerer | The known sense of the word; consistent with the laughter in the forty-seventh verse |
| 2 | A title in that society meaning a learned or wise man | Some exegetes transmit that siḥr was used in that age for advanced knowledge as well |
If the first reading is taken, what the verse shows is plain, and I record it as my own reading: the one asking for help calls the one he asks by a name that still belittles him. Need, that is, does not change the verdict.
In the muṣḥaf this word is written without the final alif: أَيُّهَ. This was recorded in al-Raḥmān:
"In the muṣḥaf this word is written in the form أَيُّهَ, without the final alif (normally ayyuhā). The same spelling is found in two other places in the Qurʾān: al-Nūr 24/31 and al-Zukhruf 43/49."
I complete that link here. This is a fact of orthography (the rasm of the muṣḥaf); it produces no difference in meaning and I draw no conclusion from it.
Here the mood of the word must be recorded: a nominal sentence plus two emphases (inna + lām). The promise, that is, is given in the strongest possible pattern.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the two verses come one after the other: the sūra shows, within the space of two verses, that there is no relation between the force of a promise and the keeping of it.
The concrete sense of the root: to untwist a twisted rope or unpick spun wool, to undo it. Nakatha'l-ḥabl — he untwisted the rope, unpicked its plaiting.
The Qurʾān uses this picture explicitly in al-Naḥl 16/92: wa lā takūnū ka'llatī naqaḍat ghazlahā min baʿdi quwwatin ankāthā — "do not be like the woman who unravelled her yarn after spinning it strong." There the root is ن-ق-ض, here ن-ك-ث; both carry the same picture.
I record this as an observation about the word: giving one's word is, in the picture of the root, spinning; going back on it is unpicking. The work done is taken back.