Faqala ana rabbukumu al-aAAla (surah Naziat: 24)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(79:24) 'I am the supreme lord of you all.'

Faqala ana rabbu kumul-a`laa

*11) This proclamation of Pharaoh has been mentioned at several places in the Qur'an. On one occasion he said to the Prophet Moses: "lf you took another one as a deity beside me, I would cast you in the prison." (Ash-Shua`ra': 29). On another occasion he had addressed his courtiers, saying: "O chiefs, I do not know of any other god of yours than myself. (Al-Qasas.: 38). By this Pharaoh did not mean, nor could he ever mean, that he himself was the creator of the universe and he had made the world, nor that he denied the existence of Allah and claimed to be lord of the universe, nor that he regarded only himself as a deity of the people in the religious sense. In the Qur'an itself there is a clear testimony that as regards religion he himself worshipped other gods. Once his courtiers said to him: "Will you leave Moses and his people free to spread chaos in the land, and let them discard you and your deities?" (Al A`raf: 127). And in the Qur'an itself this saying of the Pharaoh also has been cited: "Had Moses been sent by Allah, why were not bracelets of gold sent down to him, or a company of angels as attendants?" (AzZukhruf: 53). Thus, in fact, he called himself a god and supreme deity not in the religious but in the political sense. What he meant was that he possessed the sovereign rights: no one beside him had the right to rule in his kingdom and there was no superior power whose orders could be enforced in the land. (For further explanation. see E.N. 85 of Al-A`raf, E.N. 21 of Ta Ha, E.N.'s 24, 26 of AshShua'ra', E-N.'s 52, 53 of Al-Qasas E.N. 49 of Az-Zukhruf).