Khatira on the Ḥawāmīm (4)

Occasion: Transcription of a khatira delivered on 24 February 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Praise be to Allah, and blessings and peace upon the servant of Allah, His Prophet and Messenger, our master Muhammad ﷺ, and upon his family and companions, with abundant peace. We had stopped at the story of the believer from the House of Pharaoh, and I made only a brief reference to him, and I do not know whether I will be successful in this ijtihād or not.

Who Is the Believer from the House of Pharaoh in the Course of the Story?

By following the story you realize that what befell the Children of Israel in the time of Moses, peace and blessings be upon him, befell them: they passed from one rebellion to the next, from one trick to another, from one wish to another. In their wishes and in their lives they wanted nothing more than this world; they were deceived by everything in it, and they made for themselves a calf that they thought to be their god instead of the Lord of the worlds, Glorified is He, under the influence of a loathsome materialism steeped in their souls, from which they cannot manage to break free. Accordingly, the real result that gives you an indication of the fruit of the call of Moses, peace be upon him, may well have been this man: the believer from the House of Pharaoh.

And when the Qur'an speaks of him, it says: ﴿وَقَالَ رَجُلٌ مُّؤْمِنٌ مِّنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَكْتُمُ إِيمَانَهُ﴾ (“And a believing man from the family of Pharaoh, who concealed his faith, said”).^[1] This is a verse that fits what we were discussing after Fajr: where is the good that is in people? You cannot know it unless it comes from Allah, Blessed and Exalted, and appears to people. You may see some people who appear not to be committed, or not to be believers, yet you see them in certain situations more truthful in speech, better in stance, and greater in outcome than those you see around you who are committed and go to prayer and so on. So you say: Glory be to Allah! This one defends the religion with such ferocity and such strength! ﴿اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ حَيْثُ يَجْعَلُ رِسَالَتَهُ﴾ (“Allah is most knowing of where to place His message”).^[2]

“Who Concealed His Faith”: From Whom? And Is Concealment Permissible?

This phrase, ﴿يَكْتُمُ إِيمَانَهُ﴾ (“who concealed his faith”), raises a question: from whom did he conceal it? And is concealing faith permitted or not? The ruling on it is built on the harm that results from showing faith and the benefit that results from it. If a man, were he to show his faith, would lead a great crowd, or most of the people, to accept Islam through his Islam, then he is different from an unknown man among the people who conceals his faith to avoid harm. Then there is the inner strength of individuals: one man is able to express himself, set out among the people, speak and open up, while another is weak in strength, feeble in resolve, stripped of will, and cannot do that; it is enough for him in faith, and enough for his safety, that he embraced Islam in the first place.

He Addresses Them with What They Themselves Proclaim

Our Lord, Glorified is He, says: ﴿أَتَقْتُلُونَ رَجُلًا أَن يَقُولَ رَبِّيَ اللَّهُ﴾ (“Do you kill a man because he says, ‘My Lord is Allah’”). Notice that when he rebuked them, he did not rebuke them on the question of belief and disbelief, but on the question of human rights, “civil rights” as it is said. He rebuked them with the logic that they agree on displaying to people. For there is no ruler who does not want, or does not try, to show people that he establishes justice, commands what is right, respects people, and that human rights exist; there are human rights associations and very big stories, and they all say so on the screens in front of people, but in the hidden matters they differ: some of them take that into account and respect it, and some deny it and ignore it.

So here he addressed them with what they show people of human rights: are you not the ones who speak of freedom of religion? Then ﴿وَقَدْ جَاءَكُم بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ مِن رَّبِّكُمْ﴾ (“while he has brought you clear proofs from your Lord”); that is, what is asked of you is merely to reflect, even a little, on what he has brought you. And this is the way of aggressors like Pharaoh: as soon as someone who disagrees with him in opinion comes forward, he starts attacking him immediately, and gives people no opportunity to express their real opinions; so he kills, exterminates, arrests, and imprisons. That is their method and that is their way.

﴿وَإِن يَكُ كَاذِبًا فَعَلَيْهِ كَذِبُهُ﴾

He says: ﴿وَإِن يَكُ كَاذِبًا فَعَلَيْهِ كَذِبُهُ﴾ (“And if he should be lying, then upon him is his lie”). And what did we understand from this? That reality itself will prove him false after a while. That is why we say that any caller to Allah who is not sincere in his work, Allah, Blessed and Exalted, exposes his affair after a while. We are not speaking here of the slanders and attacks with which people are tried and accused; the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself was accused of being a liar, a sorcerer, and a poet. Rather, we are speaking of someone who himself falls into an error that exposes him, without his knowing and without his wanting it.

Then: ﴿وَإِن يَكُ صَادِقًا يُصِبْكُم بَعْضُ الَّذِي يَعِدُكُمْ﴾ (“but if he should be truthful, there will strike you some of that of which he warns you”); that is, good will reach you, even if little of the good that this man claims is promised to whoever follows him. For no prophet came but he promised and warned; he promised his people abundant good, as Noah, peace be upon him, said: ﴿اسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ إِنَّهُ كَانَ غَفَّارًا * يُرْسِلِ السَّمَاءَ عَلَيْكُم مِّدْرَارًا * وَيُمْدِدْكُم بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينَ وَيَجْعَل لَّكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ وَيَجْعَل لَّكُمْ أَنْهَارًا﴾ (“Ask forgiveness of your Lord; indeed, He is ever a Perpetual Forgiver. He will send the sky upon you in continuing rain, and give you increase in wealth and children, and provide for you gardens and provide for you rivers”),^[3] and he warned his people that if they opposed the command of the Lord of the worlds, He would punish them with a punishment from Himself, and the kinds of punishment that Allah, Glorified is He, has related to us in the Qur'an are many. So here he says: Moses, peace be upon him, only promised his people abundant good if they submitted to him, believed in his message, followed their Lord, and followed their prophet in their worship of their Lord, Glorified is He.

﴿إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي مَنْ هُوَ مُسْرِفٌ كَذَّابٌ﴾

Then he continues with the words: ﴿إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي مَنْ هُوَ مُسْرِفٌ كَذَّابٌ﴾ (“Indeed, Allah does not guide one who is a transgressor and a liar”). And here I ask myself: did that believing man who was concealing his faith say it in this formulation, using the name of Allah, Glorified is He, to express that the God from whom a message comes does not guide one who lies about Him and transgresses in the matter of calling to Him? He stated it in general terms. Then he said: ﴿يَا قَوْمِ لَكُمُ الْمُلْكُ الْيَوْمَ ظَاهِرِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَمَن يَنصُرُنَا مِن بَأْسِ اللَّهِ إِن جَاءَنَا﴾ (“O my people, yours is dominion today, prevailing in the land. But who would protect us from the punishment of Allah if it came to us?”); so here he expresses his belonging to Allah, Blessed and Exalted.

And my question, in utmost simplicity, is: was this speech acceptable among these people? That one of the creatures should express that he has a god other than Pharaoh? You will say to me: no. But without doubt every regime must have an opposition, even a formal one that it draws up itself, expressing itself in a different tongue; reality may be like this, and there may be someone who objects but does not call the mass of people to this objection.

“Do Whatever You Want Inside the Room, and Do Not Go Out into the Street”

I will give a very simple example. At the beginning of the call, a man from the hardened ones of Quraysh entered the house of Abū Ṭālib, and living with Abū Ṭālib were the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. He sat with Abū Ṭālib and spoke with him at length, and while they were speaking he looked to one side and found two young men doing something, and said: Who are these? He said: This is Muhammad and ʿAlī; Muhammad claims that he has a religion, so they pray to their Lord.^[4] So how was the reaction of that man? He did not do anything at all. Why? Because they had not yet come out of the room; he is free to pray and do what he wants.

And this is the very same logic by which it is said to you: Do you want to be a Muslim? A Christian? A Jew? Do what you like, but do not go out into the street, do not go out to say this is right and this is wrong, do not “mark me.” Do everything you want inside this room, close the door on yourself and arrange what you want, but do not go out onto the road and adjust people's paths or say this is right and this is wrong.

When Did the Campaign against Islam Intensify in the West?

When did the strong, fierce campaign against Islam and Muslims begin in the West, or in America in general? In France, for example, when the issue of the hijab appeared intensively. And I heard a news item some days ago that Germany does not want more conscripts in the army, even though it is in a great predicament these days; when they asked them why, they were told: because most of the young people ready for conscription among the sons of Germany are Muslims.^[5] And this is because our societies worship Allah through procreation: that you have offspring in whom you take pride, by whom you multiply the nations, and whom you bring on the Day of Resurrection as intercessors before Allah, Glorified is He; all of these are influences, not on reproductive health, I do not say, but on the reproductive intention in the first place.

And when I walk today in the university here, you see the rate of immodest dress is high in some scenes, higher than you find at Cairo University, for example, but the overwhelming majority you have, say, is forty percent veiled and sixty percent uncovered. Even so, you find among them veiled women, by the grace of Allah, Glorified is He, and as you walk in the university you do not finish greeting with salaam and returning it, “as-salāmu ʿalaykum, as-salāmu ʿalaykum”; you are just walking down the road.

So when the matter began to spread this much, and religion began to influence its followers... for in an old time we had a religiosity with a negative effect on its people: the girls are Muslim in the mosque and at home, a Muslim woman knows she has a monthly period and then performs ghusl to begin praying, but this matter does not change character; so when she leaves the house she goes out uncovered like everyone else, and her dress is closer to the dress of others, and she is nevertheless Muslim. Accordingly, when the hijab surge began in France in particular, we saw this fierce onslaught. Why? Because Islam began to leave its place to spread into the depths of life and influence it.

To the point that, as you walk in New York, you see a huge sign on one of the big screens saying that the people who are there, with their enthusiasm, are not a danger to you only... and a very big sign on which enormous sums were spent. What drives him to spend all this money indicates that he has become fearful of this spread that has occurred among university students, Muslims and non-Muslims.

The Man in the Palace

So when he says: ﴿يَا قَوْمِ لَكُمُ الْمُلْكُ الْيَوْمَ ظَاهِرِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَمَن يَنصُرُنَا مِن بَأْسِ اللَّهِ إِن جَاءَنَا﴾ (“O my people, yours is dominion today, prevailing in the land. But who would protect us from the punishment of Allah if it came to us?”),^[12] the possibility of this man speaking the words of the Lord of the worlds, or expressing his identity, existed because he did not yet have any influence. Imagine the whole palace following their master and chief Pharaoh, who claims that he owns the dominion of Egypt and these rivers flow beneath him, and just one person passes by and says to him: “Boss, the matter has some logic, and the god would be like this, and this talk has not yet reached you, and when you grow up a little, my dear...” So he considers him a passive opposition, an opposition that exists from him in the first place, passive, with no effect in stirring the stagnant waters in society or in moving the people. But if the voices go outside: No! Seize him, bring this man. Right? When signs of fear of a person appear, he is seized.

Pharaoh: ﴿مَا أُرِيكُمْ إِلَّا مَا أَرَىٰ﴾

Then Allah says: and what did Pharaoh say? ﴿مَا أُرِيكُمْ إِلَّا مَا أَرَىٰ وَمَا أَهْدِيكُمْ إِلَّا سَبِيلَ الرَّشَادِ﴾ (“I do not show you except what I see, and I do not guide you except to the way of right conduct”).^[6] Look: he could have said, Bring me this man so that we discuss these clear proofs and refute them, and he brings what he has, and we gather our scholars and look into the issues and analyze the results and come out to the people with a conclusion. But Pharaoh said: “My way or the highway”: I do not show you except what I see. Man, have some shame.

And why did he use these words: ﴿وَمَا أَهْدِيكُمْ﴾ (“and I do not guide you”)? The basis of guidance is that it comes from a kindled, thinking mind that infers what follows from things, a mind capable of guidance; the one who guides knows the inner realities of matters before their outward appearances, and knows the hidden depths of issues and their secrets before what appears of them. So here comes the matter of guidance: I am the one who guides you; so if you seek in Moses some kind of guidance, all guidance is with me, this is what he claims. ﴿سَبِيلَ الرَّشَادِ﴾ (“the way of right conduct”): rashād is the most effective path to reaching goals. So it is as if he is saying: I am the one who brings you to the shore of safety. But what shore of safety does he mean? The shore of safety that he has, because everyone knows that when he is angry he unleashes his whips and swords on people's necks. So when he said that to them, was there in it a kind of gentleness and kindness toward them in the dialogue, or was it a kind of veiled threat? It is a veiled threat: listen to me, I am the only one who protects you, and stay by our side and you will be fine, otherwise the matter is dangerous for you. You hear it the first time and think that if you leave this protection you will be in danger, but in reality he is threatening you that he himself will cause you dangers.

﴿يَا قَوْمِ إِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُم مِّثْلَ يَوْمِ الْأَحْزَابِ﴾

Then ﴿وَقَالَ الَّذِي آمَنَ يَا قَوْمِ إِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُم مِّثْلَ يَوْمِ الْأَحْزَابِ﴾ (“And he who believed said, ‘O my people, indeed I fear for you the like of the day of the companies’”).^[7] The beginning of the call coming from the believer from the House of Pharaoh was that he began to light the fuse of thinking in people's minds. His mention of the word killing in ﴿أَتَقْتُلُونَ﴾ (“Do you kill”) is a beginning of reminding that these acts are a kind of assault on the public right, the right to life of every individual. Then he ascribed manhood to Moses, peace be upon him, when he said ﴿رَجُلًا﴾ (“a man”); so he is not an unknown, but known among them for his determination, intensity, strength, resolve, will, carrying things out, and bearing responsibility. ﴿أَتَقْتُلُونَ رَجُلًا أَن يَقُولَ رَبِّيَ اللَّهُ﴾, merely because he says that. For the man did not want you to turn against yourselves, but carried a message from the Lord of the worlds, Glorified is He: ﴿هَل لَّكَ إِلَىٰ أَن تَزَكَّىٰ﴾ (“Would you be willing to purify yourself?”).^[13]

We Did Not Come to Ruin the World but to Build It Up

We did not come to ruin the world. And this is the great message that we want to carry to societies today: that we did not come to ruin the world but came to build it up. And that is what enrages them about us; because they know perfectly well that the fair-minded among us came only to restructure life in the way that justice, benevolence, fairness, chivalry, chastity, purity, and clarity seek, but they do not want this. So they ascribe to you what you are reproached with, even if it was never in the dictionary of your life. And perhaps some wrongdoers were hunted down and their deeds inflated until it was broadcast on the screens that this is Islam, because it is attributed to one of them.

Look at the cases in America: when a Muslim makes a mistake, we are the first to disown him, as a religion and as rules and organizations; the divine foundations set by the Lord of the worlds make us the first to denounce. If someone killed people in the street, would any of us approve of that? Impossible, of course; we are the first to denounce it. Even so they come and say: Islam expresses that and commands its followers to do it, this is a Muslim. But if it were someone from another group they would tell you: this one is mentally disturbed, or has a problem. People, let us have one standard! No, it does not work; because if you go out to people with the measures of Islam that you have that regulate the movement of life, you overturn on them all the systems of injustice they practice, or the crookedness they seek in any way.

The Memory of the Companies, and Why “O My People”?

We say again: ﴿وَقَالَ الَّذِي آمَنَ يَا قَوْمِ إِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُم مِّثْلَ يَوْمِ الْأَحْزَابِ﴾. And we were at the beginning of the surah, where Allah, Glorified is He, said: ﴿كَذَّبَتْ قَبْلَهُمْ قَوْمُ نُوحٍ وَالْأَحْزَابُ مِن بَعْدِهِمْ وَهَمَّتْ كُلُّ أُمَّةٍ بِرَسُولِهِمْ لِيَأْخُذُوهُ﴾ (“The people of Noah denied before them, and the companies after them, and every nation intended to seize its messenger”).^[8] So here he reminds them of the companies who came before them, whom Allah, Glorified is He, destroyed for their disbelief and their aggression against the religion of the Lord of Might, exalted in His loftiness.

And the repetition of the phrase “O my people” in the Noble Qur'an on the tongues of the messengers: are the people here Muslims or disbelievers? Disbelievers, by agreement. So why does he ascribe them to himself and say “O my people”? To make them feel that we are one. In another formulation: the caller does not uproot himself from his family even if they do wrong, and does not uproot himself from his people even if they do wrong. And his ascribing them to himself, as if they emanate from what he has; so if I am in error, you are in error, and if I am in the right, the basic expectation is that you be in the right. Someone may say: is there not in his saying “my people” a kind of elevation for him? On the contrary, it is a strengthening of the bonds of relationship that are hidden from the eyes of people: we are one people, we are with each other.

The Four Places Where the Name of Allah Was Mentioned

Then he said: ﴿مِثْلَ دَأْبِ قَوْمِ نُوحٍ وَعَادٍ وَثَمُودَ وَالَّذِينَ مِن بَعْدِهِمْ وَمَا اللَّهُ يُرِيدُ ظُلْمًا لِّلْعِبَادِ﴾ (“like the custom of the people of Noah and ʿĀd and Thamūd and those after them. And Allah wants no injustice for His servants”).^[9] So how many times has the word Allah, Glorified is He, been repeated up to now? The first: ﴿أَن يَقُولَ رَبِّيَ اللَّهُ﴾. The second: ﴿إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي مَنْ هُوَ مُسْرِفٌ كَذَّابٌ﴾. The third: ﴿فَمَن يَنصُرُنَا مِن بَأْسِ اللَّهِ إِن جَاءَنَا﴾. The fourth: ﴿وَمَا اللَّهُ يُرِيدُ ظُلْمًا لِّلْعِبَادِ﴾. And each time you find a different point of note.

In the first, ﴿أَن يَقُولَ رَبِّيَ اللَّهُ﴾, there is an indication that the human being who wanted to choose chose the One who has the attributes of divinity. And in the second: this god who was chosen to be worshipped does not guide one who is a transgressor and a liar. And the fourth: ﴿وَمَا اللَّهُ يُرِيدُ ظُلْمًا لِّلْعِبَادِ﴾ because He did not command injustice, and does not approve for His followers to be of this kind. And that is the mother rule that will pervade the souls of these creatures as the believer from the House of Pharaoh establishes it. And Allah the Exalted knows best.

From the Past to the Future: ﴿يَوْمَ التَّنَادِ﴾

Then: ﴿وَيَا قَوْمِ إِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ يَوْمَ التَّنَادِ * يَوْمَ تُوَلُّونَ مُدْبِرِينَ مَا لَكُم مِّنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ عَاصِمٍ وَمَن يُضْلِلِ اللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُ مِنْ هَادٍ﴾ (“And O my people, indeed I fear for you the Day of Mutual Calling, the Day you will turn back fleeing, having no protector from Allah. And whoever Allah leaves astray, for him there is no guide”).^[10] He turned their gaze in a great turn from looking backward to looking forward: after he reminded them of memories that occurred before them and that they knew through what they inherited of history, he opened their minds to the past, then opened them once more to the future awaiting each one of them if he departs from the course of faith and justice. And it is the longed-for day for everyone who fears the Hereafter.

And he moved them to a scene wonderfully dramatic in its description, and he magnified the matter and made it dreadful in their eyes, portraying to them the state of people fleeing in random flight: ﴿يَوْمَ تُوَلُّونَ مُدْبِرِينَ﴾ (“the Day you will turn back fleeing”), but they are exposed, walking on a land with clear features, flat, with nothing to hide behind. Imagine the scene: people running everywhere, but on exposed ground, where will you go? And you can imagine, for example, that you placed two grains of sugar in a spot on the desk, and the ants came from everywhere, going and coming, each carrying a grain of sugar and hiding as if concealing it, as if saying: I took nothing, while you see them all. So you put your finger here and stop the ant, and you see all the rest going back, and signals take place among them, and the first one runs and the others run behind him, and you put your finger on the other side... like this: ﴿يَوْمَ تُوَلُّونَ مُدْبِرِينَ مَا لَكُم مِّنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ عَاصِمٍ وَمَن يُضْلِلِ اللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُ مِنْ هَادٍ﴾.

﴿وَلَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ يُوسُفُ مِن قَبْلُ بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ﴾

Then: ﴿وَلَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ يُوسُفُ مِن قَبْلُ بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ﴾ (“And Joseph had already come to you before with clear proofs”).^[11] That is, if the matter of the clear proofs that Moses brought is far from your minds in your present conception, then all that is asked of you is to open your mind to a memory that insists on calling up the past memories of Joseph, peace be upon him. And lo, Joseph, peace be upon him, to whom you trace your descent and of whom you boast, is the one who came to this land and brought his people to this land, and Allah, Blessed and Exalted, opened at his hands the safety valve of this land and secured it from hunger and so on and so on; and you know all these stories, and he had brought the clear proofs before.

Allah, Blessed and Exalted, said: ﴿فَمَا زِلْتُمْ فِي شَكٍّ مِّمَّا جَاءَكُم بِهِ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا هَلَكَ قُلْتُمْ لَن يَبْعَثَ اللَّهُ مِن بَعْدِهِ رَسُولًا﴾ (“But you remained in doubt of that which he brought you until, when he died, you said, ‘Never will Allah send after him a messenger’”), and this shows the degree of denial among them: that they wish there were no messenger at all, because the matter of reminding of Allah itself pains them. So let not those slogans deceive you: ﴿كَذَٰلِكَ يُضِلُّ اللَّهُ مَنْ هُوَ مُسْرِفٌ مُّرْتَابٌ﴾ (“Thus does Allah leave astray he who is a transgressor and a doubter”).^[14]

We stop here and continue, if Allah wills.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Ghāfir: 28. The full verse: ﴿...أَتَقْتُلُونَ رَجُلًا أَن يَقُولَ رَبِّيَ اللَّهُ وَقَدْ جَاءَكُم بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ مِن رَّبِّكُمْ ۖ وَإِن يَكُ كَاذِبًا فَعَلَيْهِ كَذِبُهُ ۖ وَإِن يَكُ صَادِقًا يُصِبْكُم بَعْضُ الَّذِي يَعِدُكُمْ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي مَنْ هُوَ مُسْرِفٌ كَذَّابٌ﴾, and the speaker pronounced its parts one after another in the explanation. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: al-Anʿām: 124. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Nūḥ: 10–12. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The report is transmitted as the speaker presented it, and no source was mentioned for it in the transcript. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: The report is transmitted as the speaker heard it, and its source was not specified in the transcript. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: Ghāfir: 29. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: Ghāfir: 30. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: Ghāfir: 5. ^[9]: Editor's documentation: Ghāfir: 30–31 (and the sentence is the continuation of his words ﴿إِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُم مِّثْلَ يَوْمِ الْأَحْزَابِ﴾ in verse 30). ^[10]: Editor's documentation: Ghāfir: 32–33. ^[11]: Editor's documentation: Ghāfir: 34. ^[12]: Editor's documentation: Ghāfir: 29 (the beginning of the verse). ^[13]: Editor's documentation: al-Nāziʿāt: 18, which is from the address of Moses, peace be upon him, to Pharaoh: ﴿فَقُلْ هَل لَّكَ إِلَىٰ أَن تَزَكَّىٰ﴾, and the speaker pronounced some of it. ^[14]: Editor's documentation: Ghāfir: 34 (the continuation of the verse).