When Pharaoh Started Losing His Mind | Story Night: Pharaoh Shall Drown | Nouman Ali Khan

When Pharaoh Started Losing His Mind

Allah is telling us that when put in a corner, Fir'aun starts losing his mind, starts saying crazy things, starts coming up with the stupidest ideas and then putting them on Twitter. Just happens. And you can't believe how this person can rule an entire nation.

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ. Did the Egyptians believe in an afterlife? Anybody wanna guess? Yes. They believed in an afterlife.

The Fir'aun Concept of Akhira

We're now going to learn the Fir'aun concept of Akhira. Not the Qur'an concept of Akhira, the Fir'aun concept of Akhira. So make sure you pay attention.

They believed that only people of royal blood can go to the afterlife. Everybody else just dies. If you're not born of the royal blood, sorry.

That was the first, that was Fir'aun Akhira 1.0. And how do you go to the Akhira? You have to build a very expensive tomb. Looks like a temple. And then you have to go through a special process of being mummified.

They get this very expensive Louis Vuitton tape and they put you in it with spices inside. And then they put you inside this tomb. And from there, the guardians of the afterlife come and they transport you into the next world.

That is their concept of the Akhira. So you need a few things. You need a tomb. You need to be from royal blood. And you need to be very expensive mummified. You need those three things.

People started having a problem with that. So they updated it. They said, Okay. Okay, not just royals. Royals and rich people can go to the afterlife. That was 2.0. That was Akhira 2.0 for Fir'aun. They updated it. Then they had to make another update.

They said, Anybody who can afford to make a tomb and afford to get mummified, turn into a mummy when they die, can go to the afterlife. Everybody else will just what? Die. And they would make beautiful pictures about the afterlife and how it has all the treasures of the world and you get to be kind of like a Jannah concept.

Of course, Fir'aun, when Fir'aun dies, he goes back and becomes a star. He becomes one of the gods again. That was their idea.

The General's Warning

So these generals, because they were the elite of society, do you think they had tombs already made? Yes. Were they already prepared when they die that they're going to be mummified? Yes. That was already set. The thing is, that this concept of the afterlife means, if that doesn't happen, then you're just going to not exist anymore. That's the worst thing that will happen is, you will no longer exist.

The general says to them, I'm afraid the same thing will happen to you that happened to those other nations. Like the nation of Nuh, the nation of Ad, the nation of... And if that happens, will anybody mummify you? No. What's going to happen to your tombs? They'll be destroyed. Which means you're just going to end. So the pharaohs are like, that's pretty bad. But you know what? I can accept that I'll just die.

Then the general says:

I'm also afraid that there's a day where you're going to be called back. The generals are like, called back? Called back? What are you talking about called back?

The day you're going to turn your backs and run and you will find no one to protect you from Allah. Again, he says Allah. Which day is he referring to? Judgment Day. They had no concept of Judgment Day.

All of a sudden, first you will die like the nation of Nuh and Ad and Thamud, etc. Then you will be called back and you will try to run and you will find no one to protect you from Allah. And then he says:

Meaning, who are you running from? Allah. Who are you running from? Allah. What's the biggest curse Allah gives? He won't give you guidance. In other words, if you have guidance, you'll be safe. And if you don't have guidance, you're going to be in big trouble. That's what he's telling them.

And whoever Allah misguides can never find anybody to guide him. He's basically telling Fir'aun, Fir'aun just said, by the way, I'm trying to guide you, remember? I'm trying to guide you guys. And he said, yeah, whoever Allah misguides, nobody can guide. You're done, bro. You're so lost.

So he's basically ignoring Fir'aun at this point. He's not even talking to Fir'aun. He's just saying, whoever Allah misguides can't have a guide. I'm trying to tell you guys, let's save ourselves. Because death is coming. And if it's coming like this, then there's no tomb or nothing for you guys.

The Story of Yusuf

So now he's introducing them to the Akhira. He introduced them to the day the nation will be destroyed, the day of judgment. And then he takes them back to Egyptian history. So it's time for you to learn some Egyptian history too, not just Egyptian religion.

A long time ago, there was a king who saw a dream of seven cows that were fat and seven cows that were skinny. You know what I'm talking about? Which prophet am I talking about? Ah, Yusuf. And there was a man in prison who interpreted that dream. And then he was released from prison.

And he became the minister of finance of what country? Egypt. And he saved Egypt from famine. And he helped Egypt become a prosperous agricultural society. And eventually Egypt prospered so much that they became a vast kingdom. And that kingdom eventually transformed into the pharaohs. And the pharaohs are here today at the time of Musa because Yusuf interpreted a dream.

The pharaohs would never have become pharaohs if Yusuf didn't save Egypt. So the actual founder of the nation, the actual savior of the nation, the creator of the new nation of Egypt is actually who? Yusuf. This is why the Egyptians, the Qur'an tells us, it seems the Egyptians recognized the heroic contribution of Yusuf. They recognized it in their history books.

What do you know about Yusuf? When he was in jail, did he share the message of Islam when he was in jail? He did, right? Two prisoners came to talk to him and he talked about Islam. Do you think when he was a minister of finance he would stay quiet about Islam or he would talk about Islam? If he won't even stay quiet when he's in jail, I'm pretty sure he's gonna talk about Islam when he's in government.

So they heard about the message of Islam from Yusuf. And they, now we're gonna learn this ayah:

Yusuf came to you with all the proofs you needed. Yusuf interpreted that dream that brought us this prosperity to begin with. You kept doubting what he was telling you. You kept saying, Yusuf, you're a great minister of finance but let's keep religion private. It's a really interesting belief you have. I really like your spiritual stuff. But, I don't know. I like the whole multiple gods thing. The stars and everything. Right? So, you were doubtful.

You didn't attack him. You didn't imprison him. But you didn't take him seriously. Until he died. Until he died. When he died, you people said, remember when you people said, Allah will never send a messenger after him.

Very strange thing to say. Yusuf died many generations ago. And when he died, the ruler said, God will not send another messenger after him. As if, he's telling us that Yusuf, when he was alive, used to say, look, Allah gave you prosperity. But if this prosperity keeps going, you will become excessive. What's the word for excessive? Musrif.

And you might become close to destruction. And when that happens, God will send a messenger to you to try to save you from yourselves. And if you don't listen to him, you will all be destroyed. Make sure when that messenger comes, you follow him. And then Yusuf died, and they said, no, God's not gonna send another messenger. And this general is saying, do you see now? It's Musa.

Can you guys tell? You know, so he's basically pointing it out. Look, we know this. It's in our history. By the way, in another surah, in surah al-Qasas, when Musa gave his message, you know what Fir'aun said? He said:

This is just magic. It's new kind of magic. It's just different from what we're used to. It's, you know, a new version, new release. And then he said, We've never heard anything like this in our whole history. Liar! He said, we've never heard anything like this in our whole history. Did they hear something like this in their history? Yes. From who? Yusuf. And the general knows this. And the other generals know this. Because they're having their own private meeting. And he's saying, remember Yusuf?

Now, what's interesting about the word halakha? I don't want to go into too many details. I'm skipping many details for you guys. You think I'm too detailed? Believe me, I'm skipping details. But I'll tell you one detail.

The word halakha in Arabic also means to erase. Not just to die, but to erase. It seems with this word, Allah is telling them, or the general is telling the other generals, we try to erase that part of the history of Yusuf. Because that part of the history of Yusuf doesn't go with our story. Our story is the story of Ma'at and Isfat and these gods and the pharaoh being a child of the gods. And it would contradict that story.

So we try to ignore or erase that part of the history. But we all know inside the classified documents what Yusuf was. We know. There are redacted files in the archives. Right?

That is how Allah seals the heart of every arrogant tyrant. Even your great leader Yusuf told you, you should be doing this. If you have any respect for your history, you should be loyal to Musa right now.

So he gave them the warning of the nations. He gave them the warning of Judgment Day. He reminded them of their history. He told them that the war from Allah is getting closer and closer. Every possible way to get them to get their act together.

Pharaoh's Ridiculous Solution

Pharaoh decides he needs to step into this conversation again. The speech has gone on for too long. I need to be heard. I have an important message. Guys, let's stop this conversation. I got an idea.

Here's his idea:

Haman, build me a ballroom. I mean, build me a tower. Build me a tower. We're talking about the nation being destroyed. You want to build a what? Why do you want to build a tower? I want to go up there and meet the causes.

Literally, he says meet the causes. Let me tell you why he said causes. Because they believe the gods are the causes of what happens on the earth. What's up there in the sky? The stars. What does he call the stars? Causes. Let me go up there and have a meeting with all these other gods.

Because the priests are all dead. So they can't communicate with the gods. So I'm going to have to find a new way to communicate with the gods. I got an idea. Why don't you build me a tower? I'll go up there and have a word with all these stars myself. Right? Because obviously the religion is broken. So he has to come up with a new version of the thing.

And then he says something even crazier. I want to go to all the means, all the causes of the skies. Then I can get so high up, I can look down at the god of Musa. I'll go higher than the god of Musa and look down at him. Because my gods, those other stars, are probably much higher than Musa.

And you know, I know politics. Probably Musa's god is one of them and he's a troublemaker god. So I'll go talk to my gods that we've been family connections for many years. So I'll have a word with them and say, Have you heard of this god who's giving me a lot of trouble? One of his guys is down there and he's got a stick and he's got all kinds of problems for me. So can we have a United Nations Convention to deal with this Passover Resolution against this one god? Can we do that? And we can all put pressure on this one god. Let me build this tower. Brilliant idea.

I think Musa's lying. I actually think he learned this magic from that god but that god doesn't even know he stole some of his secret magic files from his Google Drive. And he's using it without his permission. So I'm gonna go up there and talk to this Allah myself and tell him, Hey, do you know that there's this guy talking about you down there? Because I'm gonna go talk to Allah myself. He doesn't say Allah though. Right?

I think Musa's lying. He doesn't say Musa doesn't know magic. He doesn't say Musa's god doesn't exist. He just thinks Musa is misrepresenting him. I'll go talk to Allah. This is an important, important piece of the story.

What is the job of a messenger for us? The messenger communicates the will of Allah from above the heavens. Yes? What is the job of Fir'aun in the Egyptian religion? He communicates the will of the gods from above the heavens. In their own way, he's a prophet. In their own weird way.

And he wants to take the role of being the ambassador of the will of the heavens again. Because right now that role belongs to Musa. So he says, Okay, well Musa apparently went up to a mountain to talk to him. I'm not gonna go to no mountain. I'll build my own mountain. I'll go on a tower and go talk to the god of Musa.

I'll go up there and look down on the god of Musa and say, Hey, what's up? Look at the arrogance of this guy.

Allah says, That is how the most evil actions were made beautiful to Fir'aun. Your nation is dying. Your nation is devastated economically, politically, socially. Your military is broken. They're not even agreeing with each other. Your own general is standing up against you. Everything in your country has fallen apart. And what do you wanna do? Build a tower.

Allah is telling us that when put in a corner, Fir'aun starts losing his mind. Starts saying crazy things. Starts coming up with the stupidest ideas and then putting them on Twitter. Just happens. And you can't believe how this person can rule an entire nation.