—twelve tribes, twelve sibṭs, for in Arabic a sibṭ is simply a tribe.

He struck, and in an instant a dry passage appeared: “So strike for them a dry path through the sea; you will have no fear of pursuit and no dread” (Ṭā Hā 20:77). Moses therefore led his people across in perfect security. The water between those lanes towered like mountains, standing motionless. Though water is by nature fluid, at Allah’s command it stood firm like solid rock.

Some scholars have said that Allah, exalted is He, opened windows in each of those watery cliffs so the Children of Israel could look across and see one another, lest anyone imagine that his companions had drowned; this was to put their hearts at ease.

When Moses and his people had safely emerged, Pharaoh and his hosts entered. Once they were all inside, Allah ordered the sea to return to its former state, and it closed over them. Because the Israelites still dreaded Pharaoh, they suspected he might have survived, so Allah displayed his corpse on the surface of the water: “Today We shall preserve your body that you may be a sign for those who come after you” (Yūnus 10:92). They saw him with their own eyes and knew with certainty that the man had perished.

Consider, then, these three peoples whose tyranny knew no bounds—how Allah lay in wait for them and destroyed them by the very things in which they took pride.

The people of ʿĀd boasted, “Who is mightier than us in strength?” and were destroyed by the wind, a force normally gentle and subtle.

The people of Ṣāliḥ were destroyed by the earthquake and the deafening cry.

And Pharaoh was destroyed by water and drowning, even though he used to vaunt his control over water, saying to his people, “Do I not possess the kingdom of Egypt, and these rivers flow beneath me? Can you not see?”