يَٰقَوْمِ لَكُمُ ٱلْمُلْكُ ٱلْيَوْمَ ظَٰهِرِينَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَمَن يَنصُرُنَا مِنۢ بَأْسِ ٱللَّهِ إِن جَآءَنَا قَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ مَآ أُرِيكُمْ إِلَّا مَآ أَرَىٰ وَمَآ أَهْدِيكُمْ إِلَّا سَبِيلَ ٱلرَّشَادِ
"'O my people! Today the dominion is yours, you have the upper hand in the land. But who will help us against God's might if it comes upon us?' Pharaoh said: 'I show you only what I myself see, and I guide you only to the path of right direction.'"
The believing man's sentence begins with an admission: lakumu'l-mulku'l-yawma ẓāhirīna fi'l-arḍ — "today the dominion is yours, you have the upper hand." He does not object; he concedes it.
And the pronoun is worth recording: yanṣurunā — "who will help us." He does not place himself outside. The address yā qawmi, which he has kept up since the twenty-eighth verse, passes here into the pronoun as well.
| Claim | What it says |
|---|---|
| Mā urīkum illā mā arā | I show you nothing but what I see |
| Wa mā ahdīkum illā sabīla'r-rashād | I guide you only to the path of right direction |
The second claim must be recorded, because the same construct will occur nine verses later in the mouth of the believing man: ittabiʿūnī ahdikum sabīla'r-rashād (38).
| Verse | Who says it | Expression |
|---|---|---|
| 29 | Pharaoh | Wa mā ahdīkum illā sabīla'r-rashād |
| 38 | The believing man | Ittabiʿūnī ahdikum sabīla'r-rashād |
I record this as my own reading: both sides promise the same thing and use the same word. The difference does not lie in the wording of the claim. And the measure given in the thirty-fifth verse of the sūra works precisely here: bi-ghayri sulṭānin — is there anything to stand on? The only thing offered as a ground in Pharaoh's sentence is his own view (mā arā).
وَيَٰقَوْمِ إِنِّىٓ أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلتَّنَادِ — yawmu't-tanād: "the day of calling to one another" — Form VI, reciprocity: calling out to each other.
It should be read together with yawmu't-talāq (the day of meeting) in the fifteenth verse. And the fourth block of the sūra (47-56) confirms this name: there they really will call out to one another.
And the subject of the believing man's fear is worth recording: akhāfu ʿalaykum — "I fear for you." In the twenty-sixth verse Pharaoh too had been afraid: innī akhāfu an yubaddila dīnakum — "I fear that he will change your religion." The same verb, two different anxieties.