or by praising Him for sending it down, as in His words:
“All praise is for Allah, who has sent down the Book to His servant and has placed no crookedness in it.”
“Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion to His servant”—to the end of the verse.
Within the surahs, such passages are very numerous. He repeatedly recounts the story of Moses and Pharaoh because they stand at opposite extremes of truth and falsehood. Pharaoh represents the utmost in unbelief and falsehood, having denied both divine lordship and messengership. Moses represents the utmost in truth and faith, in that Allah spoke to him directly, placing no created intermediary between Himself and him. Thus, Moses affirms the perfection of messengership and divine speech, and affirms the Lord of the worlds together with the attributes that rightfully belong to Him.
This differs from the situation of most prophets with the unbelievers they faced: most unbelievers do not deny Allah’s existence, nor were the messengers granted the same measure of direct speech from Allah as Moses. The story of Moses and Pharaoh is therefore the greatest of narratives and the richest in lessons for believers and unbelievers alike. For this reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would spend most of his night relating accounts of the Children of Israel to his community, and he followed Moses’ example in many matters. When he received the good news that Abū Jahl had been killed on the day of Badr, he said, “This is the Pharaoh of this community.”
Pharaoh and his people were polytheistic, unbelieving Sabians. Hence, he worshipped gods besides Allah, as Allah tells us in His words:
“and leave you and your gods.”
Although he knew what Moses had brought and was certain of its truth, he was a defiant denier, doomed to destruction, as Allah tells us in His words:
“But when Our clear signs came to them, they said, ‘This is obvious magic.’”
“And they rejected them out of injustice and arrogance, though their souls were convinced of them”—to the end of the verse.
And He Most High said: