Surah 10. Yunus

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Verses [Section]: 1-10[1], 11-20 [2], 21-30 [3], 31-40 [4], 41-53 [5], 54-60 [6], 61-70 [7], 71-82 [8], 83-92 [9], 93-103 [10], 104-109 [11]

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Quran Text of Verse 83-92فَمَاۤBut noneاٰمَنَbelievedلِمُوْسٰۤیMusaاِلَّاexceptذُرِّیَّةٌ(the) offspringمِّنْamongقَوْمِهٖhis peopleعَلٰیforخَوْفٍfearمِّنْofفِرْعَوْنَFiraunوَ مَلَاۡىِٕهِمْand their chiefsاَنْlestیَّفْتِنَهُمْ ؕthey persecute themوَ اِنَّAnd indeedفِرْعَوْنَFiraunلَعَالٍ(was) a tyrantفِیinالْاَرْضِ ۚthe earthوَ اِنَّهٗand indeed heلَمِنَ(was) ofالْمُسْرِفِیْنَ the ones who commit excesses وَ قَالَAnd Musa saidمُوْسٰیAnd Musa saidیٰقَوْمِO my peopleاِنْIfكُنْتُمْyou haveاٰمَنْتُمْbelievedبِاللّٰهِin Allahفَعَلَیْهِthen on Himتَوَكَّلُوْۤاput your trustاِنْifكُنْتُمْyou areمُّسْلِمِیْنَ Muslims فَقَالُوْاThen they saidعَلَیUponاللّٰهِAllahتَوَكَّلْنَا ۚwe put our trustرَبَّنَاOur Lord!لَا(Do) notتَجْعَلْنَاmake usفِتْنَةًa trialلِّلْقَوْمِfor the peopleالظّٰلِمِیْنَۙthe wrongdoers وَ نَجِّنَاAnd save usبِرَحْمَتِكَby Your Mercyمِنَfromالْقَوْمِthe peopleالْكٰفِرِیْنَ the disbelievers وَ اَوْحَیْنَاۤAnd We inspiredاِلٰیtoمُوْسٰیMusaوَ اَخِیْهِand his brotherاَنْthatتَبَوَّاٰSettleلِقَوْمِكُمَاyour peopleبِمِصْرَin Egyptبُیُوْتًا(in) housesوَّ اجْعَلُوْاand makeبُیُوْتَكُمْyour housesقِبْلَةً(as) places of worshipوَّ اَقِیْمُواand establishالصَّلٰوةَ ؕthe prayerوَ بَشِّرِAnd give glad tidingsالْمُؤْمِنِیْنَ (to) the believers وَ قَالَAnd Musa saidمُوْسٰیAnd Musa saidرَبَّنَاۤOur LordاِنَّكَIndeed, Youاٰتَیْتَhave givenفِرْعَوْنَFiraunوَ مَلَاَهٗand his chiefsزِیْنَةًsplendorوَّ اَمْوَالًاand wealthفِیinالْحَیٰوةِthe lifeالدُّنْیَا ۙ(of) the worldرَبَّنَاOur LordلِیُضِلُّوْاThat they may lead astrayعَنْfromسَبِیْلِكَ ۚYour wayرَبَّنَاOur LordاطْمِسْDestroyعَلٰۤی[on]اَمْوَالِهِمْtheir wealthوَ اشْدُدْand hardenعَلٰی[on]قُلُوْبِهِمْtheir heartsفَلَاso (that) notیُؤْمِنُوْاthey believeحَتّٰیuntilیَرَوُاthey seeالْعَذَابَthe punishmentالْاَلِیْمَ the painful 10. Yunus Page 219قَالَHe saidقَدْVerilyاُجِیْبَتْhas been answeredدَّعْوَتُكُمَا(the) invocation of both of youفَاسْتَقِیْمَاSo you two (keep to the) straight wayوَ لَاAnd (do) notتَتَّبِعٰٓنِّfollowسَبِیْلَ(the) wayالَّذِیْنَ(of) those whoلَا(do) notیَعْلَمُوْنَ know وَ جٰوَزْنَاAnd We took acrossبِبَنِیْۤ(the) Childrenاِسْرَآءِیْلَ(of) Israelالْبَحْرَthe seaفَاَتْبَعَهُمْand followed themفِرْعَوْنُFiraunوَ جُنُوْدُهٗand his hostsبَغْیًا(in) rebellionوَّ عَدْوًا ؕand enmityحَتّٰۤیuntilاِذَاۤwhenاَدْرَكَهُovertook himالْغَرَقُ ۙthe drowningقَالَhe saidاٰمَنْتُI believeاَنَّهٗthatلَاۤ(there is) noاِلٰهَgodاِلَّاexceptالَّذِیْۤthe Oneاٰمَنَتْin Whom believeبِهٖin Whom believeبَنُوْۤاthe Children of Israelاِسْرَآءِیْلَthe Children of Israelوَ اَنَاand I amمِنَofالْمُسْلِمِیْنَ the Muslims آٰلْـٰٔنَNowوَ قَدْAnd verilyعَصَیْتَyou (had) disobeyedقَبْلُbeforeوَ كُنْتَand you wereمِنَofالْمُفْسِدِیْنَ the corrupters فَالْیَوْمَSo todayنُنَجِّیْكَWe will save youبِبَدَنِكَin your bodyلِتَكُوْنَthat you may beلِمَنْfor (those) whoخَلْفَكَsucceed youاٰیَةً ؕa signوَ اِنَّAnd indeedكَثِیْرًاmanyمِّنَamongالنَّاسِthe mankindعَنْofاٰیٰتِنَاOur Signsلَغٰفِلُوْنَ۠(are) surely heedless

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Translation of Verse 83-92

(10:83) None but a few youths⁷⁸ of Moses' people accepted him,⁷⁹ fearing that Pharaoh and their own chiefs would persecute them. Indeed Pharaoh was mighty in the land, he was among those who exceed all limits.⁸⁰

(10:84) Moses said: 'My people! If you believe in Allah and are truly Muslims⁸¹ then place your reliance on Him alone.'

(10:85) They replied:⁸² 'We place our reliance on Allah. Our Lord! Do not make us a trial for the oppressors,⁸³

(10:86) and deliver us, through Your mercy, from the unbelievers.'

(10:87) And We directed Moses and his brother: 'Prepare a few houses for your people in Egypt, and make your houses a direction for men to pray, and establish Prayer,⁸⁴ and give glad tidings to the men of faith.⁸⁵

(10:88) Moses prayed:⁸⁶ 'Our Lord! You bestowed upon Pharaoh and his nobles splendour⁸⁷ and riches⁸⁸ in the world. Our Lord! Have You done this that they may lead people astray from Your path? Our Lord! Obliterate their riches and harden their hearts that they may not believe until they observe the painful chastisement.⁸⁹

(10:89) Allah responded: 'The prayer of the two of you is accepted. So keep steadfast, and do not follow the path of the ignorant.⁹⁰

(10:90) And We led the Children of Israel across the sea. Then Pharaoh and his hosts pursued them in iniquity and transgression until Pharaoh cried out while he was drowning: 'I believe that there is no god but Allah in Whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am also one of those who submit to Allah.⁹¹

(10:91) (Thereupon came the response): 'Now you believe, although you disobeyed earlier and were one of the mischief-makers.

(10:92) We shall now save your corpse that you may serve as a sign of warning for all posterity,⁹² although many men are heedless of Our signs.⁹³

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Commentary

78. The word dhurriyah used in this verse literally means ‘offspring’. We have, however, rendered this into English as ‘a few youths’. We have preferred this translation because the Qur’an employed this particular expression so as to convey the idea that it was a few youths — male and female — who had the courage of their convictions to embrace and champion the truth in those perilous times whereas their parents and the more elderly members of the community were unable to do so. The older segment of the population was too deeply concerned with its materialistic interests, too engrossed in worldliness and too eager to enjoy a life of security to stand by the truth when that seemed to invite all kinds of peril. On the contrary, this older generation tried to persuade the young ones to stay away from Moses for the simple reason that it would invite the wrath of Pharaoh upon themselves and upon others.

The Qur’an underscores this point, for once again those who came forward and courageously supported the Prophet (peace be on him) were not -the elderly. They were rather a few courageous Makkan youths. Those who embraced Islam at this very early period in its history — the period of revelation of these verses — and who supported the message of truth despite fierce persecution, were all young people. This group was altogether bereft of the aged doters of a life free of peril and hazard. ‘Ali ibn abi Talib, Ja‘far ibn al-‘Aqil, Zubayr, Talhah, Sa‘d ibn abi Waqqas, Mus‘ab ibn ‘Umayr, ‘Abd Allah ibn Mas‘ud were all young people and each one of them, at the time of embracing Islam, was under twenty. Likewise, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf, Bilal and Suhayb were all in their twenties while Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah, Zayd ibn Harithah, ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan and ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab were between thirty and thirty-five years of age. The oldest among these Companions was Abu Bakr, and when he embraced Islam he too was no older than thirty-eight. ‘Ammar ibn Yasir was the same age as the Prophet (peace be on him), and only one Companion, ‘Ubaydah ibn Harith al-Muttalibi was older than he.

79. The wordsفَمَآ ءَامَنَ لِمُوسَىٰٓ which occur in the present verse have given rise to the misunderstanding that all the Israelites were unbelievers, and that in the early phases of Moses’ ‘prophethood’ only a very few persons were believers. The use of the preposition, when applied to ایمان signifies ‘to obey and follow someone’. What these words, therefore, mean is that except for a few young people none in the whole nation of Israel was prepared to accept Moses as his leader, to follow him and support him in his Islamic mission. The part of the verse which follows makes it quite clear that this was not because they had any doubts about the veracity of Moses (peace be on him) or about the truth of his mission. The only reason for them not joining hands with him was that they — especially their elders and nobles — were unwilling to risk Pharaoh’s fierce persecution. These people both in terms of pedigree and faith, belonged to the ummah of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph (peace be on them) and were, therefore, Muslims. Yet the long subjugation of the Israelites had created such moral degeneration and faint-heartedness among them that they had been rendered altogether incapable of championing the cause of faith and truth or of opposing falsehood and unbelief, or even supporting those who had set out to champion that cause. The overall attitude of the Israelites during the whole of this conflict between Moses and Pharaoh may be gauged by the following statement in the Bible: They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came forth from Pharaoh; and they said to them, ‘The Lord look upon you and judge, because you have made us offensive in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us’ (Exodus 5: 20-1).

According to the Talmud, the Israelites used to tell the Prophets Moses and Aaron (peace be on them): ‘Yea’, said the overburdened children of Israel to Moses and. Aaron, ‘we are like a lamb which the wolf has carried from its flock, the shepherd strives to take it from him, but between the two the lamb is pulled to pieces; between ye and Pharaoh will we all be killed’ (H. Polano, The Talmud Selections, p. 152).

The Qur’an also refers to much the same when it mentions what the Israelites said to Prophet Moses (peace be 6n him): We were oppressed before your coming to us and after it (al-A'‘raf 7: 129). .

80. The word nd js which has been used here signifies transgressors, those. who exceed the limits. But this literal translation hardly conveys the true spirit of the word. For it has been used to refer to those who, in order to achieve their objectives, are not deterred from using any means, howsoever evil they may be. Such people do not mind committing injustice, or indulging in acts of moral turpitude. They are also wont to-go to any extent in pursuing their desires. Once they have something in mind, they simply know no bounds.

81. Such an address could, obviously, not be directed to a community of unbelievers. The Prophet Moses’ statement makes it absolutely clear that the Israelites. Of those days were believers. Accordingly, Moses (peace be on him) exhorted them not to be unnerved by Pharaoh’s might, that they put their trust in God’s power if indeed they. were true believers as they claimed.

82. This was the reply of the youths who came forward to support Moses (peace. be on him). It is evident from the context that the ones who said: ‘We place our reliance on Allah’ were not the ‘wrong-doing folk” [mentioned in the present verse] but the ‘youths’ [mentioned in verse 83 above].

83. The supplication of these devout youths: ‘Our Lord! Do not make us a trial for the oppressors’, covers a very wide range of meanings. Whenever a people. rise to establish the truth in the midst of prevalent falsehood, they encounter oppressors of all sorts. On the one hand, there are protagonists’ falsehood who would like to crush the standard-bearers of the truth with all the force at their disposal. There is also a sizeable group of people who claim to champion the truth but who, despite their claim to be its devotees, are so cowed by the all-round supremacy of falsehood that they look upon the struggle to make the truth prevail as an unnecessary, futile and absurd pursuit. Such people are inclined, in order to somehow justify their insincerity to the cause of the truth, to prove that those who are engaged in the struggle to make the truth prevail are in fact in error. By so doing they seek to calm the uneasiness felt by their conscience concerning the desirability of struggling for the cause of the truth. Over and above all these are the common people who observe, as silent spectators, the encounter between truth and falsehood, and ultimately support the party which appears to be winning regardless of what aspect that party supports.

In this scenario, every reverse that the votaries of the truth suffer, every affliction or hardship that they endure, any mistake that they commit, and any weakness that they show becomes a cause of trial for all these groups. If the votaries of the truth are crushed or defeated, the protagonist of falsehood jubilantly claim that it was they, rather than those whom they opposed, who were in the right. The lukewarm supporters of the truth would cry: ‘Look! Did we not foretell that the conflict with such mighty forces would merely result in a loss of many precious lives, that it would be an act of sheer self-destruction, an act of wanton suicide, which has not been made incumbent on us by the Law of God. So far as the fundamental requirements of faith are concerned, they are being-fulfilled by the performance of basic religious duties and rituals. As for the rulers, however oppressive they may be, they did not prevent them from performing those duties.’ As for the masses, their attitude is that the truth is known by the fact that it achieves victory. Hence, if a group comes forth as triumphant, the fact of its triumph proves that it was in the right. Similarly, if in the course of a struggle, the protagonists of the truth commit any lapse or betray - any weakness in the face of heavy odds, or if even a single person succumbs-to any act of immorality, this provides a good many opponents with a pretext to cling to falsehood. If the struggle meets with failure, people are so wont to lose heart that it becomes extremely difficult for any similar movement to rise for a very long time. Viewed against this background, the prayer of the companions of Moses (peace be on him) appears very meaningful: ‘Our Lord! Do not make us a trial for the oppressors.’ This prayer sought from God His grace that would protect them from their shortcomings and weaknesses, and would render their struggle successful in this world in order that their very existence might become a blessing for fellow human beings rather than a means, in the hands of oppressors, to inflict harm.

84. The Qur’an-commentators disagree about the meaning of this verse.

After carefully considering the actual words of the verse and reflecting over the context in which these words were said, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps because of the oppression prevailing in Egypt, and because the faith of the Israelites had become quite weak, congregational prayer had become defunct among both the Israeli and Egyptian Muslims.* The abandonment of congregational prayer was a major cause of the disintegration of their collective entity and the virtual extinction of their religious life. That is why Moses (peace be on him) was directed to re-establish congregational prayer and to construct or acquire a few houses in Egypt specifically for that purpose. *The author’s expression ‘Egyptian Muslims’ denotes those Egyptians who had embraced the faith of the Prophets, the faith of Moses (peace be on him) - Ed.

The reason for such a directive is that when a group of Muslims falls prey to degeneration and dissolution, the necessary effort to revive their religious spirit and to restore their shattered integrity, if it is to conform to a truly Islamic pattern, must begin with the revival of congregational prayer.

The directive to ‘make your houses a direction for men to pray’ suggests, in my opinion, that these prayer-houses should become pivotal points for the entire people. That the directive to ‘establish Prayer’ immediately follows this statement means that rather than offer Prayer at different places, they should congregate in the houses set aside for Prayer and perform it collectively. For certainly one of the implications of the expression ‘to establish Prayer’ which frequently occurs in the Qur’an, is its observance in congregation.

85. Moses (peace be on him) was directed to banish those feelings of despair, awe and dismay which had seized the believers. To ‘give glad tidings’ encompasses the whole range required by this task.

86. These verses are related to the early period of Moses’ (peace be on him) mission whereas the prayer itself probably belongs to his last days in Egypt.

The intervening period spans several years, the detailed events of which have not been mentioned here. At other places in the Qur’an, however, there are references to the events that took place in that intervening period.

87. This alludes to the pomp and splendor and the glamour of cultural refinement because of which people had become enamoured of them and their life-style, and which had created in the former an irrepressible urge to ape the ways of the latter.

88. This refers to the abundance of material resources which are available to the unbelievers to execute their plans, whereas the believers, insofar as they lack those resources, are forced to defer the execution of their plans.

89. This prayer, as we have pointed out earlier (see n. 86 above), was made by the Prophet Moses (peace be on him) during his very last days in Egypt.

Moses resorted to this prayer when, although Pharaoh and his nobles had witnessed a series of signs betokening the truth, and even though Moses (peace be on him) had made the truth all too patently clear to them, they still obdurately persisted in their hostility to it. Moses’ prayer that God may ‘obliterate their riches and harden their hearts’ is a prayer that Prophets are wont to make at a time when they are faced with opposition like that mentioned above. The prayer is substantially in accord with God’s own judgement against those who obdurately oppose the truth — that they may never be enabled to have faith.

90. Those who are ignorant of reality and who have no grasp of the beneficent considerations underlying God’s decisions are liable to misunderstand things. Such people observe the weakness of the forces that stand for truth as against the forces of falsehood. They observe that those who seek to make the truth prevail suffer a series of reverses. By way of contrast, they observe the dazzling worldly success of those who stand for falsehood. On such occasions they fall prey to several misconceptions. They begin to suspect that perhaps God Himself wants that His rebels should continue to hold sway over the earth, that perhaps even He — Who Himself is the Truth — is not willing to support the truth in its encounter with falsehood. Under the influence of such a fallacious line of reasoning, they conclude that the struggle for establishing the hegemony of the truth is an exercise in futility. They feel, therefore, satisfied with the freedom to practice religious principles in a very narrow domain of human life; this is provided within the framework of a system of life which is based on denial of the true faith and the ‘right’ to violate the injunctions of God.

In the present verse God has directed Moses (peace be on him) and his followers not to fall prey to such erroneous ideas. God’s directive, as embodied in this verse, amounts to saying that people should patiently persist in their efforts in the face of adverse circumstances, lest they also fall prey to the same mistake as committed by those who lack knowledge and wisdom.

91. Though this event is not mentioned in the Bible, it is explicitly recorded in the Talmud in the following words: ‘Who is like Thee, O Lord, among the gods?’

92. Even to this day the exact place where Pharaoh’s dead body was found afloat on the surface of the sea is known. Lying on the western coast of the Sinaitic peninsula, it is presently known as the Mount of Pharaoh (Jabal Fir‘awn). A warm spring, situated in its vicinity, is also still called the Bath of Pharaoh (Hammam Fir‘awn) after Pharaoh. Located a few miles away, Abu Zanimah is identified as the precise spot at which Pharaoh’s dead body was found. If the name of the Pharaoh who died by drowning was Minpetah, as has been established by current research, his embalmed body still lies in the museum of Cairo. In 1907 when Sir Grafton Elliot Smith removed bandages from the mummified body of this Pharaoh, it was found to be coated with a layer of salt. This is clear proof of his death by drowning at sea.

93. God continues to confront people with instructive signs, even though most of them, in total disregard of such signs, fail to derive any lesson, from them.