The Pharaoh Within Every Person: Tyranny and Imagined Self-Sufficiency

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 9 July 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

The Shaykh began with a prayer: And save us, our Lord, from the evils of our souls and from our bad deeds. O Allah, do not entrust us to ourselves for the blink of an eye, nor to anyone among Your creation, nor for less than that. O Allah, we ask You for salvation in this world, salvation in the Hereafter, and salvation at the meeting with You, O Lord of the worlds.

Why is Pharaoh mentioned repeatedly?

When you read the noble Qur'an and see the repeated mention of Pharaoh: ﴿هَلْ أَتَاكَ حَدِيثُ مُوسَىٰ * إِذْ نَادَاهُ رَبُّهُ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى * اذْهَبْ إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّهُ طَغَىٰ﴾ (Has the story of Mūsā reached you? When his Lord called to him in the sacred valley of Ṭuwā: Go to Pharaoh, for he has transgressed),^[1] I stop at the word "transgression," and I want a connection that comes to my mind between it and the saying of the Exalted: ﴿كَلَّا إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَيَطْغَىٰ * أَن رَّآهُ اسْتَغْنَىٰ﴾ (No! Indeed, man transgresses, when he sees himself self-sufficient).^[2] What actually happened is that Pharaoh sensed in himself a self-sufficiency from everything around him, and thought himself a true god.

So why is Pharaoh mentioned so often in the Qur'an? Because Pharaoh represents this mentality that feels complete independence, but it is an imagined independence. And the story of Mūsā, peace be upon him, is the most frequently repeated story in the noble Qur'an. So this one represents the conscience of tyranny, if one may say so, and that one represents the conscience of reminding and returning to the neutral point in life. It is as if my Lord, glorified, is telling us that within every person on the face of the earth there is a Pharaoh; that limit that separates humility from overstepping one's measure, between regarding human capacity for what it has and what it lacks, and going beyond this stage to claiming divinity.

That a person feel he is part of a whole

The balanced person always feels that he is part of a whole. The husband inside the home senses that his wife completes his existence in this life, and each of them has a role, and he respects this role until they meet Allah, blessed and exalted. And the woman does not feel masculinity but feels her femininity, and this submission which is part of her character and attribute is completed by another kind of submission in the man, by choice, so life is complete and the world goes on. And this man who feels he is part of a whole treats his family as the rest of the system of life for him, so he respects them and they hold him in esteem, and he feels he is part of a whole in his work, so he does not play the pharaoh over his peers, or his relatives, or those around him, and so life is complete.

So he gathered and called out

Pharaoh said: ﴿أَنَا رَبُّكُمُ الْأَعْلَىٰ﴾ (I am your lord, the most high), but before he said this word: ﴿فَحَشَرَ فَنَادَىٰ * فَقَالَ أَنَا رَبُّكُمُ الْأَعْلَىٰ﴾ (So he gathered and called out, and said: I am your lord, the most high).^[3] So what is the significance of ﴿فَحَشَرَ فَنَادَىٰ﴾ (So he gathered and called out)? Its significance is that he gathered the people in one place. He spoke to his men: Bring the people together for me, bring the people before me, I want to see my people. For he has his people. And when a person feels this feeling, that the company is his company, and that he has his audience, that he has a million likes on Facebook, and a hundred thousand follow him somewhere, he reaches a degree of acting the pharaoh at which he cannot stop, and so he transgresses.

And the word "transgression" means overstepping the limit to the degree that a person cannot come back. And very many people overstep the limit, but who is the one who oversteps the limit while aware? Take, for example, the driver, Allah bless those who drive a lot: the permitted limit is seventy and you are going eighty-two; a little over, but up to seventy-nine you are going fine and no one says anything to you. And perhaps the young men alert you: Watch out, someone might catch you. But this does not strip you of the ability to control yourself. But for the seventy to become a hundred and ten, you cannot do that. That excess speed the radar may alert you to, and you see and correct it, so this one has the ability to control himself. But there is another person who has transgressed to a level at which he cannot hold the reins of his own self, and that is the one the Qur'an warns against, whether in the verses of al-Nāziʿāt or in the many places in which Allah, blessed and exalted, mentions Pharaoh specifically, and Mūsā, peace be upon him, who represents the conscience of the Ummah, and represents the inner conscience of the individual human being, and the conscience of the Ummah when it calls out to the tyrant: Return to your senses and come back to your stronger logic.

In sum

And what is required, in sum of this word today, a short, small word, is that none of us sense an inner tyranny by which he overpowers those around him, and feels that he has an effective power over those around him, and so imagines that he can do whatever he wants. ﴿فَأَخَذَهُ اللَّهُ نَكَالَ الْآخِرَةِ وَالْأُولَىٰ * إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَعِبْرَةً لِّمَن يَخْشَىٰ﴾ (So Allah seized him with the punishment of the Hereafter and the first life. Indeed in that is a lesson for whoever fears).^[4] Is it an individual lesson or a societal one? It is a lesson at the level of the individual, for everyone who fears.

Why "a-antum" and not "a-anta"?

Then Allah, blessed and exalted, addresses the people: ﴿أَأَنتُمْ أَشَدُّ خَلْقًا أَمِ السَّمَاءُ ۚ بَنَاهَا﴾ (Are you a more difficult creation, or the heaven? He built it).^[5] So why did He not say: a-anta? As long as the address is individual and the admonition is for each one, why did we hear "a-antum"? Because a person's sense of tyranny is not realized through himself alone, but he senses it also through those around him. Were it not for the presence of these people, there would be no one to gather: ﴿فَحَشَرَ فَنَادَىٰ﴾ (So he gathered and called out); he called out among those who complete this system with him.

In Egypt we have a very common proverb that says: "They said, O Pharaoh, who made you a pharaoh? He said: I found no one to stop me." And we used to think that no other people had a pharaoh but us, but there are very many proverbs in the Palestinian, Syrian, and Yemeni forms that carry the same meaning. Had he found someone to rein him in, he would not have reached this level.

Where is the lesson?

The lesson: do not be a pharaoh in any place. Not as a father, nor as a husband, nor as a brother, nor as a boss, nor even as a customer. For sometimes you find a person who enters a café or a restaurant and plays the pharaoh over the poor fellow, or over the girl who brings him his orders: Take this away, put this down. Brother, calm down a little, these are human beings, who came here to earn their bread and serve you, they say to you: sir, so take it slowly and calm down somewhat.

And the point of our saying is that my Lord, glorified, refines all souls, and teaches us how to be disciplined in the pattern and movement of life. I ask Allah, the Most High, the Almighty, that He not make our souls tyrannical, that they not extend to the point of overstepping, that He keep us steady at the places where we ought to stop, and that we not be audacious, neither toward Allah nor toward anyone of His creation.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Nāziʿāt, verses 15–17. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-ʿAlaq, verses 6 and 7. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Nāziʿāt, verses 23 and 24. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Nāziʿāt, verses 25 and 26. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Nāziʿāt, verse 27.