పవిత్ర ఖురాన్ యొక్క భావార్థాల అనువాదం - ఇంగ్లీషు అనువాదం - డా. వలీద్ బలీహష్ అల్ ఉమ్రి - అనువాదం జరుగుతున్నది.
حَقِيقٌ عَلَىٰٓ أَن لَّآ أَقُولَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ إِلَّا ٱلۡحَقَّۚ قَدۡ جِئۡتُكُم بِبَيِّنَةٖ مِّن رَّبِّكُمۡ فَأَرۡسِلۡ مَعِيَ بَنِيٓ إِسۡرَٰٓءِيلَ
[1712] At this point, Moses’ (عليه السلام) mission was mainly to deliver his brethren, the offspring of Jacob, from the oppression of Pharaoh and his people who subjected them to the “worst of suffering” (cf. 2: 49, 7: 141, 14: 6) so that they may find themselves a place to worship Almighty God alone (al-Wāḥidī, al-Wasīṭ, Ibn Kathīr, Ibn ʿĀshūr): “Go ˹the both of you, Moses and Aaron˺ to him and say: “We are both Messengers from your Lord. Send the Children of Israel ˹away˺ with us and do not torment them. We have brought you a Sign from your Lord, and may peace be upon whoever follows guidance”” (20: 47). He underlined his truthfulness and mentioned the Sign he had, knowing all too well that he would be denied, so he wanted to forestall it (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr).
قَالَ إِن كُنتَ جِئۡتَ بِـَٔايَةٖ فَأۡتِ بِهَآ إِن كُنتَ مِنَ ٱلصَّٰدِقِينَ
فَأَلۡقَىٰ عَصَاهُ فَإِذَا هِيَ ثُعۡبَانٞ مُّبِينٞ
وَنَزَعَ يَدَهُۥ فَإِذَا هِيَ بَيۡضَآءُ لِلنَّٰظِرِينَ
[1713] Pharaoh, who out of his bloated egotism claimed that he was no less than Almighty God, the Most High Lord (79: 24 and 28: 38), was dismissive at first and challenged Moses toyingly seeing Moses as nothing more than a fugitive slave or, at best, a disobedient fosterling he had brought up under his own roof. But the two Signs that Moses managed to produce with such ease, had a remarkable unsettling effect on him and drove him to the edge of hysteria as evidenced by how manically he managed the whole encounter. Once the significance of these two very potent Signs is explained, one clearly sees ample justification for Pharaoh’s erratic, out of hand behaviour.
Firstly, the staff, a humble shepherd’s staff, was thrown down only to momentarily and readily turn into a great snake, about which there is no mistake (the vigour of this creature is variably described and stressed in the Qur’an as in, for instance, here and: 20: 20, 27: 10). In ancient Egypt, the cobra snake, known as the uraeus, was used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority emblematically worn on the headdresses and crowns of ancient Egyptian deities and sovereigns. It stood for the goddess Wadjet who was often depicted as a cobra. The Pharaohs wore the uraeus on their heads either with the body of Wadjet atop the head, or as a crown encircling the head; this indicated Wadjet’s protection and reinforced the Pharaoh’s claim over the land. It was in effect the Pharaoh’s crown; a pharaoh was recognized only by wearing the uraeus, which conveyed legitimacy to his rule. The uraeus, then, was nothing more than a ‘symbolic’ sign of rightful kingship, which is nothing compared with the living, moving creature after which it was modelled; in it, we see how the image of a thing fades out in comparison to the real thing. The legitimacy and effectively the supremacy of Pharaoh was proven to be a mere charade compared to that of Moses.
The second Sign, being the white hand, was equally symbolic. The Children of Israel amounted to nothing but mere bondsmen and slaves whose will had long ago been broken and whose lives were domineered by their masters of old, the Egyptians. The sign of their servitude was the extra dark skin that they came to assume after years and years of hard, gruelling labour under a scorching, unforgiving sun. Moses (عليه السلام) himself was of a dark hue (cf. al-Bukhārī: 245 and 3207) which, in the pharaonic psyche, carried the insignia of his own people, namely, slavery. That he was so easily able to shed such a tell-tale sign and assume the most glaring symbol of nobility, whiteness of the skin, coupled with the gesture in itself, a brawny hand suddenly and decisively raised, is nothing less than an indication that he, and his people by extension, had broken the shackles of slavery and subjugation and were already revolting against Pharaoh’s authority.
That Moses asked for the release of his people was, to Pharaoh’s mind, nothing less than an outright revolution and bare-faced challenge to the throne aiming to destabilize it and depose its occupant. This surely touched a raw nerve and, thus, we find that Pharaoh and his cronies where concerned that Moses would ‘oust’ them from their land. From their perspective, the war they waged was nothing if not justified.
قَالَ ٱلۡمَلَأُ مِن قَوۡمِ فِرۡعَوۡنَ إِنَّ هَٰذَا لَسَٰحِرٌ عَلِيمٞ
يُرِيدُ أَن يُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنۡ أَرۡضِكُمۡۖ فَمَاذَا تَأۡمُرُونَ
[1714] Panic-stricken, Pharaoh lost his pompously self-assured façade and faded into the background letting those around him decide. He even asked them to ‘command’ him to a course of action, blurting out his top-most concern, ‘ousting’ from the land.
قَالُوٓاْ أَرۡجِهۡ وَأَخَاهُ وَأَرۡسِلۡ فِي ٱلۡمَدَآئِنِ حَٰشِرِينَ
[1715] They felt that such a stately matter, a real sudden challenge to the throne, could only be argued after much great deliberation and well thought-out preparation, so they advised him and somehow tried to soothe their master’s worries by accusing Moses (عليه السلام) of magic, a prevalent trade in the provinces of his kingdom, in which there was no scarcity of masters. So basically, they bought time and afforded their master a chance to regain his composure.
يَأۡتُوكَ بِكُلِّ سَٰحِرٍ عَلِيمٖ
وَجَآءَ ٱلسَّحَرَةُ فِرۡعَوۡنَ قَالُوٓاْ إِنَّ لَنَا لَأَجۡرًا إِن كُنَّا نَحۡنُ ٱلۡغَٰلِبِينَ
قَالَ نَعَمۡ وَإِنَّكُمۡ لَمِنَ ٱلۡمُقَرَّبِينَ
[1716] The magicians simply saw this as a great chance and wanted to make the best of it (cf. al-Rāzī). They dictated their own terms, and surely Pharaoh was ripe for it. He offered them way more than they asked for; to be ever close to him as part of his inner court assured of great favours which would last a long while. He succumbed to their demands and bared his heart, out of sheer panic.
قَالُواْ يَٰمُوسَىٰٓ إِمَّآ أَن تُلۡقِيَ وَإِمَّآ أَن نَّكُونَ نَحۡنُ ٱلۡمُلۡقِينَ
قَالَ أَلۡقُواْۖ فَلَمَّآ أَلۡقَوۡاْ سَحَرُوٓاْ أَعۡيُنَ ٱلنَّاسِ وَٱسۡتَرۡهَبُوهُمۡ وَجَآءُو بِسِحۡرٍ عَظِيمٖ
[1717] This one-word reply shows how sure Moses (عليه السلام) was of victory to the extent that he sounded careless (cf. Riḍā).
[1718] They made their staffs and ropes appear to the onlookers as a great many large snakes (cf. al-Ṭabarī, al-Wāḥidī, al-Wajīz, al-Shinqīṭī, al-ʿAdhb al-Namīr): “…and suddenly their ropes and staffs appeared to him – by their magic – to be slithering” (20: 66).
۞ وَأَوۡحَيۡنَآ إِلَىٰ مُوسَىٰٓ أَنۡ أَلۡقِ عَصَاكَۖ فَإِذَا هِيَ تَلۡقَفُ مَا يَأۡفِكُونَ
[1719] “Throw down what is in your right hand so it will swallow up anything they have produced. What they have produced is only some magician’s trick, and no magician succeeds no matter where he goes” (20: 69).
فَوَقَعَ ٱلۡحَقُّ وَبَطَلَ مَا كَانُواْ يَعۡمَلُونَ
[1720] Any false hope that Pharaoh and those around him might have harboured was blown away, by the heavy stamp of Moses’s truthfulness.
فَغُلِبُواْ هُنَالِكَ وَٱنقَلَبُواْ صَٰغِرِينَ
[1721] The result of this encounter came as a particularly heavy blow to Pharaoh and his cronies (cf. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah).
وَأُلۡقِيَ ٱلسَّحَرَةُ سَٰجِدِينَ
[1722] Realizing the magnitude of what they had just witnessed, Almighty God’s Power, the like of which they had never seen before, the magicians were forced to fall down (ulqiya); they could not help doing so (cf. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah, al Biqāʿī, Naẓm al-Durar, al-Shinqīṭī, al-ʿAdhb al Namīr).
