O one who has overcome us by his magic. Al-Zajjaj said: They addressed him thus because they had previously called him a magician.

“Pray to your Lord for us by virtue of what He has pledged to you”: that is, by what you told us of His covenant with you—that if we believed, He would remove the punishment from us. So ask Him to remove the punishment from us. “Indeed, we will be rightly guided”: that is, believers. Moses then prayed, and He removed it from them, yet they did not believe. This is His saying, exalted is He:

“But when We removed from them the punishment, at once they broke their word. (50) And Pharaoh called out among his people, saying, ‘O my people! Does not the kingdom of Egypt belong to me, with these rivers flowing beneath me? Do you not see? (51) Or am I not better than this one, who is insignificant and can hardly make himself clear? (52) Why, then, have bracelets of gold not been placed upon him, or why have the angels not come with him in succession?’ (53) Thus he swayed his people, and they obeyed him. Indeed, they were a defiantly disobedient people. (54)”

“But when We removed from them the punishment, at once they broke their word”: they violated their covenant and persisted in their disbelief.

“And Pharaoh called out among his people, saying, ‘O my people! Does not the kingdom of Egypt belong to me, with these rivers’”: that is, the rivers of the Nile, “flowing beneath me”—beneath my palaces. Qatadah said: They flow before me through my gardens and orchards. Al-Hasan said: By my command. “Do you not see?”: that is, my greatness and the might of my dominion.

“Or am I better”: rather, I am better. Here, “or” has the sense of “rather”; according to most commentators, it is not a coordinating conjunction. Al-Farra’ said: One should pause at the words “or,” for there is an implied phrase. Its sense is: “Do you not see—or do you see? (1)” Then he begins anew, saying: “I am better than this one, who is insignificant”—weak and contemptible, referring to Moses—“and can hardly make himself clear”: that is, speak distinctly because of the speech impediment in his tongue.

“Why, then, have bracelets of gold not been placed upon him,” if he is truthful? Hafs and Ya‘qub read “aswirah” (“bracelets”), the plural of siwar (“bracelet”); the others read “asawirah,” the plural of aswirah, which is itself a plural. Mujahid said: Whenever they made a man a chief, they adorned him with bracelets and a gold collar as a sign of his leadership. Pharaoh thus said: Why has Moses’ Lord not placed bracelets of gold upon him, if he is a leader whose obedience is binding upon us? “Or why have the angels not come with him in succession”: following one another, each accompanying the next, testifying to his truthfulness and assisting him in his mission.

Allah, exalted is He, said: “Thus he swayed his people”: that is, Pharaoh found his people, the Copts, to be ignorant. It was also said: He induced them to behave frivolously and ignorantly. One says that a man has been led away from his judgment when he is driven into ignorance and turned away from what is right,