سورة النازعات

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Whoever calls people to the worship of himself is like Pharaoh, who said أَنَا رَبُّکُمُ الْأَعْلی [I am your lord, the most high].

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) says: Jibra'il (peace be upon him) said: "O Lord! Will You leave Pharaoh, when he said: أَنَا رَبُّکُمُ الْأَعْلَی [I am your lord, the most high]?!" Allah says: "Only one who is like you says this — one who fears missing his chance."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Allah the Mighty and Majestic granted Pharaoh a respite of forty years between his two statements — one being when he said: فَقَالَ أَنَا رَبُّکُمُ الْأَعْلَی [I am your lord, the most high], and the other when he said: "I do not know of any god for you other than myself." (Qasas/38) — then He seized him with the punishment of the Hereafter and of this world. And from the time Allah the Mighty and Majestic said to Musa (peace be upon him) and Harun (peace be upon him): "The supplication of you two has been answered" (Yunus/89) until the day Allah showed Musa (peace be upon him) the effect of the answering of the supplication, there was a gap of forty years. Then he said: "Jibra'il said: I contended sharply with my Lord concerning Pharaoh and said: 'O Lord! Even though Pharaoh proclaims أَنَا رَبُّکُمُ الْأَعْلَی [I am your lord, the most high], You have left him to his own state?' He said: 'Only a servant like you speaks such words.'"

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): Musa (peace be upon him) said: "Have You granted Pharaoh four hundred years of respite while he says أَنَا رَبُّکُمُ الْأَعْلَی [I am your lord, the most high], denies Your prophets and messengers, and rejects Your signs?" Allah revealed to Musa: "His conduct in this world was good and his veil was easy — he was easy of access — and so I wished to reward him for it."

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): Jibra'il said to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): "If only you had seen me with Pharaoh when he was reciting the word of tawhid (oneness) [and saying]: 'I believe that there is no god except the One in whom the Children of Israel have believed, and I am among the Muslims.' (Yunus/90) And I, out of the intensity of my anger against him, buried him in water and mud, lest he repent and Allah accept his repentance." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said to him: "O Jibra'il! What was the cause of the intensity of your anger against him?" He said: "Because of his saying: أَنَا رَبُّکُمُ الْأَعْلَی [I am your lord, the most high]; and that was his last statement, at the time when he reached the sea, while the statement 'I do not know of any god for you other than myself' (Qasas/38) [was his first statement]. Between his first statement and his last there was a gap of forty years. And he said to his people أَنَا رَبُّکُمُ الْأَعْلَی only when he reached the sea and saw that a path inside it had gone dry; so he said to his people: 'Do you see that the sea has dried up out of fear of me?!' And when they saw that, they believed him. That is the saying of Allah: 'And Pharaoh led his people astray and did not guide them.' (Ta Ha/79)"

Imam Kazim (peace be upon him): Ishaq ibn Ammar narrated from Imam Kazim (peace be upon him) that he said: "O Ishaq! In Hell there is a wilderness called Saqar which has not breathed since the day Allah created it. If Allah were to permit it to breathe to the extent of a needle's eye, everything on the face of the earth would burn. The people of Hell seek refuge from the heat, stench and filth of this wilderness, and from the punishment Allah has prepared for its inhabitants. And in that wilderness is a mountain from whose heat, stench and filth, and from what Allah has prepared for its inhabitants, all the people of that wilderness seek refuge. And in that mountain is a valley from whose heat, stench and filth, and from what Allah has prepared for its inhabitants, the people of that mountain seek refuge. And in that valley is a well from whose burning, stench and filth, and from what Allah has prepared for its inhabitants, the people of that valley seek refuge. And in that well is a serpent from whose evil, stench and filth, and from the venom which Allah has prepared for the inhabitants of that well in that serpent's fangs, all the people of that well seek refuge. And in the belly of that serpent are seven chests in which are lodged five persons from the past nations and two persons from this nation." I said: "May I be your ransom! Who are those five, and who are the two?" He said: "As for the five: Qabil, the one who killed Habil; and Nimrud, the one [Nimrud] who disputed with Ibrahim concerning his Lord and said: 'It is I who give life and cause death,' (Baqarah/258); and Fir'awn, the one who said: أَنَا رَبُّکُمُ الْأَعْلی [I am your lord, the most high]."