I RECENTLY WROTE ‘Two Years On: Why Removing a Tyrant is Not Enough,’ about the way Surah al Qaṣaṣ exposes the architecture of tyranny.
The Qur’an does not present Pharaoh’s oppression as the work of one powerful individual. It shows us a system. Pharaoh stands at the centre of political power. Hāmān represents the bureaucratic machinery surrounding him. The soldiers provide the coercive force. Qārūn represents wealth aligning itself with an unjust order.
The lesson is important. Removing a tyrant is not the same as dismantling tyranny. A ruler can fall while the structures that sustained him remain.
But there is another dimension to the story. Tyranny does not simply have a structure. Tyranny has a direction.
Later in the same surah, Allah says:
وَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ أَئِمَّةً يَدْعُونَ إِلَى النَّارِ ۖ وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ لَا يُنصَرُونَ
And We made them leaders who invite to the Fire; and on the Day of Resurrection they will not be helped. (al-Qaṣaṣ 41)
A word here deserves our attention: a’immatan, leaders. Those who are at the front. Those whom others follow.
We instinctively associate leadership with something positive. A leader is someone who stands ahead, organises, commands and makes decisions. But Allah does not treat leadership itself as a virtue.
He asks a more fundamental question: Where does the leadership take people?
Leadership Has a Direction
Allah uses the same word elsewhere for people whose leadership is praised:
وَجَعَلْنَا مِنْهُمْ أَئِمَّةً يَهْدُونَ بِأَمْرِنَا
And We made from among them leaders who guided by Our command. (al-Sajdah 24)
The same noun a’immatan. But what follows it is completely different.
Yahdūna bi-amrinā, they guide by Our command.
Yad’ūna ilā an-nār, they call towards the Fire.
The Qur’an is showing us something profound. Leadership is not inherently good or bad. Leadership has a direction.
Pharaoh did not stand before his people and announce that he intended to lead them to the Fire. His language was different. He spoke about his kingdom, his authority, the stability of his rule and the threat posed by Mūsā (as). He presented himself as the protector of the existing order.
But Allah tells us where that order was actually taking people. This is one of the Qur’an’s important disciplines in thinking about power. We are not asked to evaluate leadership only by the language it uses about itself. We are asked to look at its direction.
A leader may speak about prosperity, security, stability, greatness, development or justice. These things may all sound desirable. But none of them, by themselves, establish that the leadership is good.
The Qur’anic question goes deeper. What kind of people is this leadership producing? What does it teach them to value? What does it make them fear? And ultimately, where is it taking them?
That is why the description of Pharaoh’s leadership is so striking. Allah does not merely say that they ruled badly. He says: Yad’ūna ilā an-nār, they called people towards the Fire.
How Pharaoh Made His People Follow
This raises another question. How does a society come to follow such a direction?
Allah gives us an extraordinary insight elsewhere:
فَاسْتَخَفَّ قَوْمَهُ فَأَطَاعُوهُ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَوْمًا فَاسِقِينَ
So he made light of his people, and they obeyed him. Indeed, they were a defiantly disobedient people. (al-Zukhruf 54)
The phrase fastakhaffa qawmahu is remarkable. Pharaoh made his people light.
The word carries the sense of making something light, insignificant or lacking weight. There is an intellectual and moral dimension to it. He reduced the weight with which his people considered serious matters.
And then comes the consequence: fa-aṭāʿūhu, so they obeyed him.
The Qur’an is showing us something important about tyranny. Pharaoh did not rely only on force. He also shaped the environment in which his people thought and judged. He made his people light, and they followed him.
That should make us think about political leadership beyond laws and institutions.
Leadership shapes the attention of a society. It determines what is constantly discussed and what is ignored. It can make some matters appear urgent and others irrelevant. It can turn serious questions into entertainment and trivial questions into matters of enormous importance.
A population can become highly informed about personalities while knowing very little about principles. It can become passionate about slogans while losing the ability to ask deeper questions. It can become absorbed in what is immediately visible while becoming indifferent to what has lasting consequences.
This is particularly relevant in an age of political sound bites. A dramatic announcement is easier to consume than a serious argument. A slogan is easier to repeat than a principle. A visible achievement is easier to celebrate than a serious consequence that may only become apparent years later.
None of this means that delivery does not matter. It does. But the Qur’an teaches us not to confuse what is visible with what is valuable.
The question is still: Where are we being taken?
What Does Success Mean?
This also changes how we think about political success.
We often measure leaders by what they deliver. Did the economy grow? Did they improve infrastructure? Did they increase security? Did they win an election? Did they host a World Cup? Did they make the country stronger?
These questions may have importance. Islam does not teach us to ignore worldly welfare. But the Qur’an refuses to let worldly achievement become the final measure of political success.
A society can become wealthier without becoming more just. It can become more stable without becoming more righteous. It can become technologically advanced while becoming spiritually empty. It can speak constantly about justice while leaving the vulnerable unprotected. And a leader can speak constantly about Islam without necessarily producing people who are closer to Allah.
The Qur’anic question is not simply what was delivered, but what direction was established.
“We Made Them Leaders”
There is another part of the verse that deserves attention.
Allah says: Wa jaʿalnāhum, and We made them leaders.
This does not mean that Allah approved of their leadership. Allah repeatedly reminds us that worldly power, wealth and success are not straightforward signs of divine favour. Allah may give someone authority as a blessing, as a test, or as part of the process through which their own choices eventually become evidence against them.
Pharaoh had enormous authority, power and wealth. He had armies. He had the ability to command and punish.
Yet none of this meant that Allah was pleased with him. His authority became part of his test. Indeed, it became part of his punishment, because the very power through which he oppressed others became part of the evidence against him.
And this is why the end of the verse is so important: Wa yawmal-qiyāmati lā yunṣarūn, and on the Day of Resurrection they will not be helped.
The verse moves from authority to direction, and from direction to accountability.
They were leaders. They called people towards the Fire. And on the Day of Resurrection, they would have no one to help them.
Worldly power, political authority, the ability to command all had an end. But their accountability did not.
The Alternative
This is why the Qur’anic alternative to Pharaoh is not simply a nicer ruler, a more popular ruler or even a more successful ruler.
Allah describes another kind of leadership: Wa jaʿalnā minhum aʾimmatan yahdūna bi-amrinā, and We made from among them leaders who guided by Our command.
The difference is contained in those final words: bi-amrinā, by Our command.
The leader is not the source of ultimate morality. Authority does not make something right. Popularity does not make something right. Political necessity does not make something right.
The ruler himself remains under the authority of Allah. That is the fundamental difference between leadership that guides and leadership that misguides.
One takes its direction from Allah’s command. The other establishes its own direction and asks everyone else to follow.
Do Not Become Light
Perhaps this is also where the responsibility of those who follow becomes clearer.
The reality is that both types of a’immatan that Allah mentions will lead their followers. The difference is their direction.
Pharaoh made his people light, and then they obeyed him. The opposite is to develop weight.
A believer should not be so easily carried by slogans, personalities, sound bites or promises that serious questions disappear. We need enough grounding in the Qur’an and Sunnah to recognise what matters, to distinguish appearance from reality, and to ask where leadership is actually taking us.
Tyranny has a direction. So does guidance. Our responsibility is to have enough weight to recognise the difference.
|QUR’ANIC REFLECTION · SURAH AN QASAS 41|
