Tafsir of Ghafir 40:26

"And Pharaoh said, 'Let me kill Moses...'"

Whenever he intended to kill him, they would restrain him by saying, "He is not the one you fear; he is less than that and weaker. He is nothing but a sorcerer, and a sorcerer like him shall oppose him. If you kill him, you will introduce doubt among the people, and they will believe that you were incapable of confronting him with argument."

The apparent fact is that he—may the curse of Allah be upon him—was certain that he (peace be upon him) was a Prophet. However, he possessed guile and cunning, and he was a killer, a shedder of blood over the most trivial matters. How, then, would he not kill one who, in his estimation, was lower than that—the one who would shake his throne and demolish his kingdom? But he feared that if he intended to kill him, he would be hastened to destruction. Thus, his saying, "Let me [kill] him," was a deception for his people, making them believe that it was they who were restraining him, while in reality, nothing restrained him except the horror and terror within his own soul.

This is indicated by his saying, "Let him call upon his Lord." Its outward meaning is the belittlement of Moses (peace be upon him) and his calling upon his Lord—similar to saying, "Call upon your helper, for I am about to take vengeance upon you." Its inward meaning, however, is that his very limbs were trembling from [the prospect of] his calling upon his Lord. For this reason, he spoke this at the very beginning of his discourse, feigning that he did not care about the supplication of his Lord. He was like one who says, "Leave me to do such-and-such, whatever may come of it." Otherwise, what right would one who claims to be their "highest lord" have to give any weight to what Moses (peace be upon him) claims, to the extent that he would speak of it, whether sarcastically or in earnest?

"I fear that he will change your religion..."

Meaning: if I do not kill him, he will change your state—the condition you are upon, which is the worship of me and the worship of idols. The accursed one had commanded them to carve them and to make them intercessors for them before him, just as the disbelievers of Mecca used to say, "These are our intercessors before Allah." It is for this reason that they attributed the gods to him in their saying, "And forsake you and your gods." It is an attribution of honor and exclusivity. This is the view held by some exegetes.

Ibn Atiyyah said: "Religion" here means authority (dominion), from which comes the saying of Zuhayr: If you were to reside among a tribe of Banu Asad, according to the 'religion' (authority) of 'Amr, and Fadak stood between us... Meaning: I fear that he will change your authority and humiliate you.

"Or that he will cause corruption to appear in the earth."

That is, through chaos and anarchy, during which security vanishes, farms and livelihoods are disrupted, and people perish through killing and displacement. Thus, the corruption he meant was the corruption of their worldly affairs. The summary of the meaning, based on what was established first, is: "I fear that he will corrupt your religious affairs by altering them, or corrupt your worldly affairs by disrupting them." Both are matters, each of which is bitter. A similar analysis applies to the second interpretation of "religion." It is narrated from Qatadah that the accursed one meant by "corruption": obedience to Allah the Exalted.

• The people of Medina, Abu 'Amr, and Ibn Kathir (in one narration) read "Wa an" (with a conjunctive waw).
• Al-A'raj, Al-A'mash, Ibn Wathab, 'Isa, Ibn Kathir, Ibn 'Amir, and the Kufans—other than Hafs—read "yuzhira" (he makes to appear) with a fatha on the ya and the ha, and "al-fasada" (corruption) in the nominative case.
• Mujahid read "yuzhhira" with a tashdid (emphasis) on the za and the ha, with "al-fasada" in the nominative.
• Zayd ibn Ali read "yuzhara" with a damma on the ya and a fatha on the ha, in the passive voice, with "al-fasada" in the nominative.