The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Ṣād – Verse 12

كَذَّبَت قَبلَهُم قَومُ نوحٍ وَعادٌ وَفِرعَونُ ذُو الأَوتادِ

Before them Noah’s people impugned [their apostle] and [so did the people of] ʿĀd, and Pharaoh, the impaler [of his victims].

EXEGESIS

Kadhdhabat (impugned) is the emphatic form of kadhaba (to lie) and carries the meaning of calling someone a liar.

Dhū al-awtād (the impaler); awtād is the plural of watid or watad meaning a piece of wood that is driven to the ground, i.e. a stake.‎[1] For example, the mountains are figuratively described as such: Did We not make … the mountains stakes (awtād) (78:6-7). Dhū means the one who possesses something; in other words, the verse can be understood as: Pharaoh, the one who had stakes. The stakes here should be a simile, a disparaging attribute, meant to demean and belittle the pyramids, the quintessential pharaonic icons and their great source of pride, as if they were nothing but small pegs on the ground.

EXPOSITION

The Meccan elite are reminded that Before them God destroyed previous nations for their arrogance and their turning away from God’s reminders, nations far more powerful than the forces that the Meccan elite could muster. They all met destruction in the end. As for the people of Prophet Noah (a), the flood overtook them (29:14), as for the enslaver of the people of Prophet Moses (a), God drowned Pharaoh’s clan (2:50), while ʿĀd – the people of Prophet Hūd (a) – were destroyed by a fierce icy gale (69:6)‎[2] because of their pride and their self-ascribed might, As for [the people of] ʿĀd, they acted arrogantly in the earth unduly, and they said: ‘Who is more powerful than us?’ (41:15).

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

The scholars are divided over the meaning of dhū al-awtād:

  1. From Ibn Abbas, Qatādah, and others, that Pharaoh had stakes with which he used to play.‎[3]
  2. From Suddī and others, that he had stakes with which he tortured people.‎[4] According to Ṭabrisī, this should have been done by driving the stakes through their extremities on the ground.‎[5]
  3. From al-Ḍaḥḥāk, that it means the one with constructions, and his constructions were called stakes.‎[6] This should be referring to the pyramids.
  4. From Jubbāʾī, that it is a metaphor for his armies, as his armies kept him and his empire in power, much like stakes hold down a tent.‎[7] Or, that Pharaoh was securely fastened to power.‎[8]
  5. Because his armies were so great in number they carried with them a vast quantity of stakes for their tents.‎[9]
  6. That he built a giant stake-like minaret on top of which he slaughtered people.‎[10]

Of these opinions the third seems to be the most correct, as since ancient times it is the pyramids that are the well-known quality of Egyptian pharaohs. When the Quran describes Pharaoh with this single attribute, it would not make sense for it to refer to anything else than the pyramids, as probably none of the other mentioned qualities are things that would have been known to the audience at the time, let alone famous enough to stand out as a distinctive attribute.

[1] Lisan, 3/444.
[2] See also 46:24-25.
[3] Tibyan, 8/547; Tabari, 23/83; Suyuti, 5/297.
[4] Tibyan, 8/547; Tabari, 23/83. This should be what the translation the impaler is meant to convey.
[5] Tabrisi, 8/729.
[6] Tibyan, 8/547; Tabari, 23/83. This opinion is also attributed to Ibn Abbas (Thalabi, 8/180).
[7] Tabrisi, 8/729; Thalabi, 8/180.
[8] Zamakhshari, 4/75-76; Nemuneh, 19/230.
[9] Tabrisi, 8/729.
[10] Muhit, 9/141.