Tafsir of Al-A'raf 7:127

"And the eminent among the people of Pharaoh said," addressing him after they had witnessed what they witnessed of the affair of Moses (peace be upon him): "Will you leave Moses," meaning, will you leave him and his people, "to cause corruption in the land," that is, in the land of Egypt. The intended meaning of corruption includes both religious and worldly corruption. The object of the verb is omitted for the sake of generalization, or it is treated as an intransitive verb, or one might estimate [the meaning as]: "to corrupt the people by calling them to their religion and by exiting [from obedience] to you." Ibn Jarir narrated from Ibn Abbas: "When the sorcerers believed, six hundred thousand of the Children of Israel followed Moses (peace be upon him)."

"And forsake you," which is conjoined to "to cause corruption," which is in the accusative case by the particle an (to), or it is in the accusative as the response to an interrogation, just as it is in the accusative after the fa (particle of consequence). To that effect is the statement of Al-Hutai'ah: "Am I not your neighbor, and shall there be between me and you friendship and brotherhood?" The meaning is: How can it be possible to combine your leaving Moses (peace be upon him) and his people to cause corruption in the land, with them forsaking you? That is, such an occurrence is impossible. Al-Hasan and Nu'aym bin Maysarah read it in the nominative case as a conjunction to "will you leave," or as a new sentence, or as a state (hal) with an elided subject—that is, "while he forsakes you"—because a verbal sentence does not take the waw (conjunction) according to the standard eloquent usage. The sentence, based on the assumption of a new clause, is parenthetical and emphasizes the meaning of what preceded: "You leave him, and his habit is to forsake you." It is necessary to assume "he" according to what Al-Tayyibi said, as in the possibility of it being a state, to indicate continuity. Upon the assumption of it being a state, it confirms the source of the dilemma. From Al-Ashhab, it is reported that he read it with the ra unvocalized (sukun); Ibn Jinni explained this as the vowel being dropped for ease, similar to the recitation of Abu 'Amr "he commands you" (ya'murukum) with a silent ra due to the heaviness of the vowel when vowels follow one another, which was the choice of Abu al-Baqa'. It is also said that it is a conjunction to what preceded according to the meaning; this is called in other than the Quran "conjunction of illusion," as if it were said: "they cause corruption and he forsakes you," like His saying: "then I would be charitable and be among the righteous."

"And your gods," meaning your objects of worship. It is narrated that he used to worship the stars, so they were his gods, and he believed they were the nurturers of the lower world absolutely, while he was the lord of the human species. From Al-Suddi, it is reported that Pharaoh had taken idols for his people and commanded them to worship them to draw near to him, and for that reason he said, "I am your lord, the Most High." It is also said that he had a cow he worshipped, and whenever he saw a beautiful cow, he would command his people to worship it; for this reason, the Samiri brought out a calf for the Children of Israel. This is a weak narration from Ibn Abbas. Sulaiman al-Taymi said: "It reached me that he would place something on his neck that he would worship." Commanding the assembly regarding it requires careful attention. Ibn Mas'ud, Al-Dahhak, Mujahid, and Al-Sha'bi read it as "your worship" (ilahatik—taking the infinitive form), being the same in word and meaning.

More than one person narrated from Ibn Abbas that he used to dislike the reading of "gods" in the plural and would read it as the infinitive, saying: "Pharaoh used to worship and was not worshipped. Do you not see his saying: 'I have not known for you any god other than me'?" Hence, some said that it is more likely that he was a materialist (Dahri) who denied the Creator. It is also said that "the gods" was a name for the sun, and he used to worship it; Abu Ali cited in poetry: "And we hurried the gods to return."

He said, "answering them: 'We will kill their sons and keep their women alive,' as we used to do with them before, so that it may be known that we are upon what we were upon of subjugation and dominance, and let no one imagine that this is the newborn upon whose hands the astrologers and soothsayers decreed the loss of our kingdom." Ibn Kathir and Nafi' read "we will kill" with the reduction of the tashdid.

"And we are over them, dominators," meaning, victors, as we were; our state has not changed, and they are subjugated under our hands. Pharaoh had cut off his desire to kill Moses (peace be upon him), so he did not promise the eminent that he would kill him because of what he saw of the loftiness of his affair and the greatness of his status. It is as if, for that reason, he did not promise the killing of his people either. The apparent meaning, according to what has been said, is that this statement from Pharaoh is a declaration that they are not able to cause corruption in the land, and an announcement of his indifference toward them, and that their affair later is as their affair was before, and that killing them is a futile act that yields no fruit. Al-Tayyibi mentioned that this is of the "wise style," even if it proceeded from a fool, and that the nominal sentence is like a consolidation for what preceded it. So understand.