to worship Him alone. Rise and come with me.’
So they both set out for Pharaoh’s palace and, on arriving, found the gate closed. Moses said to the doorkeepers and chamberlains, ‘Inform him that the Messenger of Allah is at the door.’ They, however, mocked and ridiculed him.
Some have claimed that they were not admitted into his presence until a long time had passed. Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said, ‘They were granted entry only after two years, for no one dared request an audience for them’—and Allah knows best.
It is also said that Moses stepped up to the gate and struck it with his staff. Alarmed, Pharaoh ordered that the two be brought before him. They stood in his presence and summoned him to Allah, exalted is He, just as they had been commanded.
According to the People of the Book, Allah said to Moses—peace be upon him—‘Aaron the Levite, meaning a descendant of Levi son of Jacob, will come out to meet you.’ He instructed him to take with him the elders of the Children of Israel, to go before Pharaoh, and to display the signs that had been granted to him, saying, ‘I shall harden his heart so that he will not release the people, and I shall multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.’
Allah, exalted be He, also revealed to Aaron that he should leave to meet his brother in the wilderness at Mount Horeb. When they met, Moses informed him of what his Lord had commanded. After entering Egypt they gathered the elders of the Children of Israel and went to Pharaoh. When they delivered Allah’s message to him, he said, ‘Who is Allah? I do not know Him, and I shall not release the Children of Israel.’
Allah the Most High relates Pharaoh’s words:
(49) He said, ‘So who is your Lord, O Moses?’
(50) Moses replied, ‘Our Lord is the One who gave every thing its form, then guided it.’
(51) Pharaoh said, ‘And what of the former generations?’
(52) Moses answered, ‘Their knowledge rests with my Lord in a record. My Lord neither errs nor forgets—
(53) He who made the earth for you as a cradle, laid out pathways therein for you, and sent down water from the sky, whereby We bring forth diverse pairs of plants.
(54) Eat thereof and pasture your cattle; surely in that are signs for people of sound intellect.
(55) From it We created you, to it We shall return you, and from it We shall bring you forth once more.’ (Ṭā Hā 20:49–55)
Allah, exalted be He, informs us about Pharaoh: he denied the existence of the Maker, saying, ‘So who is your Lord, O Moses?’ Moses replied, ‘Our Lord is the One who gave everything its form and then guided it’—meaning that He created all beings, allotted for them their deeds, provisions, and life spans, and recorded all of that with Him in the Preserved Tablet. He then guided every creature to what had been decreed for it, so that its actual work accords precisely with what He had measured and known, owing to the perfection of His knowledge, power, and decree.
This verse is akin to His saying, ‘Glorify the Name of your Lord, the Most High, who created and proportioned, and who measured and then guided’ (al-Aʿlà 87:1-3)—that is, He ordained a destiny and guided the creation to it.
Pharaoh then said, ‘So what of the former generations?’ In other words, if your Lord is the Creator who decrees and guides the creatures to what He has ordained, and if He alone deserves worship, why did those earlier peoples worship others besides Him and associate partners with Him