Tafsir of Al-Mu'minoon 23:47

"They said: 'Shall we believe in two human beings...'"

The word bashar (human) is used for both the singular and the plural:

• Singular: "A perfect human" (basharan sawiyya) [Maryam: 17].
• Dual: "Two human beings" (li-basharayn) [Al-Mu'minun: 47].
• Plural: "If you see any human" (min al-bashar) [Maryam: 26].

The words mithl (like) and ghayr (other than) are used to describe the dual, the plural, the masculine, and the feminine:

• Plural/Masculine: "You are then like them" (mithluhum) [An-Nisa: 140].
• Plural/Feminine: "And of the earth the like thereof" (mithlahunna) [At-Talaq: 12].

It is also said: huma mithlahu (they two are his likes) and hum amthaluhu (they are his likes):

• "Those whom you call upon besides Allah are servants like you" ('ibadun amthalukum) [Al-A'raf: 194].

"And their people" This refers to the Children of Israel. It means: "Are they to worship us in submission and humiliation?" Or, because he [Pharaoh] claimed divinity, he demanded worship from the people, asserting that their obedience to him was, in reality, worship.