Pharaoh said, “And what is the Lord of the worlds?”

Moses said, “The Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, if only you had certainty.”

Pharaoh said to those around him, “Do you not hear?”

Moses said, “Your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers of old.”

Pharaoh said, “Indeed, this messenger of yours, who has been sent to you, is surely mad.”

Moses said, “The Lord of the East and the West and all that is between them, if only you would understand.”

Pharaoh said, “If you take a god other than me, I will certainly make you one of the imprisoned.”

Moses said, “Even if I bring you something clear?” (23–30)

His words, “Pharaoh said, ‘And what is the Lord of the worlds?’” mean: “What is this Lord of the worlds whom you claim to have sent you to me as His messenger?” He asked Moses to describe the God who had sent him, using the interrogative “what,” which asks about the genus or category of a thing. But Allah is exalted above having any genus or category. Moses therefore answered him by mentioning His acts, the like of which Pharaoh was incapable of producing.

“Moses said, ‘The Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, if only you had certainty’”—that is, He is their Creator. The scholars of meanings said: Just as you are certain of these things that you behold, then be certain that the God of creation is Allah. When Moses said this, Pharaoh was bewildered by Moses’s reply.

“Pharaoh said to those around him,” meaning the nobles among his people. Ibn Abbas said: They were five hundred men wearing bracelets. Pharaoh said to them, deeming Moses’s words far-fetched, “Do you not hear?” This was because they believed that their gods were their kings. So Moses gave them a further clarification:

“Moses said, ‘Your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers of old.’”

“Pharaoh said”—that is, Pharaoh—“Indeed, this messenger of yours, who has been sent to you, is surely mad”: he speaks words that we neither understand nor recognize as sound. They considered anyone who did not believe as they believed to be lacking in reason. So Moses gave a further clarification: “Moses said, ‘The Lord of the East and the West and all that is between them, if only you would understand.’”

Pharaoh said—when the proof had become binding upon him and he was left without an answer, arrogantly rejecting the truth—“If you take a god other than me, I will certainly make you one of the imprisoned,” that is, those confined in prison. Al-Kalbi said: His prison was harsher than execution, for he would seize a man and cast him alone into a place where he could neither hear nor see anything, deep down in the earth.

Moses said to him, when he threatened him with imprisonment, “Even if I bring you”—that is, even if I bring you—“something clear,” meaning a manifest sign. The meaning of the verse is: “Would you do that even if I brought you a clear proof?” Moses said this because people are naturally inclined to fairness and to accepting the truth once it has been made clear.