That is, although all are lords in some respect, I am the highest among them by virtue of the outward authority I have been granted over them. When the sorcerers recognized that Pharaoh spoke truthfully, they did not reject his claim. Rather, they acknowledged it and said to him:

‘So decree whatever you will decree.’

For power is yours. Thus Pharaoh’s statement, ‘I am your most exalted lord,’ was correct, and he was identical with the Real.”

It is enough to show you their unbelief that among their least extreme claims is that Pharaoh died a believer, free of sins. As he said:

“Moses was a delight to Pharaoh through the faith Allah granted him as he drowned. He therefore took him in death pure and purified, with no trace of impurity, for He took him at the moment he believed, before he could commit any sins; and Islam wipes out what came before it.”

Yet it is a matter of indisputable religious knowledge among Muslims, Jews, and Christians that Pharaoh was one of the greatest disbelievers in Allah among all creation. Indeed, no account Allah has given in the Quran of a disbeliever mentioned by his own name surpasses the account of Pharaoh; nor has He related greater unbelief, tyranny, or arrogance on the part of any disbeliever than He has related of Pharaoh.

He has also stated that Pharaoh and his people will enter the severest punishment. For the expression “the people of Pharaoh” is like the expressions “the family of Abraham,” “the family of Lot,” “the family of David,” and “the family of Abū Awfā”: by unanimous agreement, the person to whom the group is ascribed is himself included.

Thus, when they take the greatest human enemy of Allah—or one of His greatest enemies—and declare him correct and justified in the very thing for which Allah declared him an unbeliever, it becomes clear that what they have said is greater unbelief than that of the Jews and Christians. What, then, of their other doctrines?