Signs of a Desperate Tyrant | Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

Introduction: The Quranic Warning

Allah Almighty says in His Noble Book, after I say I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan:

And Pharaoh called out to his people, he said, "O my people, do I not have the kingdom of Egypt? And these rivers flow beneath me, do you not see? Or am I better than this one who is humiliated, and he can hardly explain? If only bracelets of gold had been thrown at him, or the angels had come with him in pairs." So he made his people humble, and they obeyed him. Indeed, they were a defiantly disobedient people.

O Allah, do not make us of the defiantly disobedient. O my Lord, open my heart and ease my affair, and remove the tightness of my tongue, so that my speech may be clear. O Allah, make us steadfast on the path of repentance.

There is no god but Allah. O Allah, make us of those who believe and do good, and continue with the truth, and continue with patience. Ameen, O Lord of the worlds.

Pharaoh as a Case Study in the Quran

Of the enemies of Allah in human form, it's hard to find anybody else in the Quran talked about as much as Pharaoh. Allah has spoken about him in great detail in many different surahs of the Quran. And Allah did not repeat himself for no purpose.

Every surah that mentions Pharaoh, you learn something more about Pharaoh. You learn something else about his personality, about his strategies, what led to his destruction. There's a reason that Allah did this.

Pharaoh was supposed to serve as an example. Allah even mentioned when Pharaoh was drowning, that he's supposed to become a lesson for people that will come after him. So everything we learn about Pharaoh is actually a living lesson.

It's not just someone who died a long time ago in history. Allah is using him as a case study, as an example to teach us about the world around us now. In the university, when you're studying any subject, you have your textbook or study material, you'll have a subject.

And under that subject, you will have the theory. And after the theory, you might have some examples. So whatever theory you're studying, first you study the theory, and then you go through examples.

And the examples help you understand the theory better. The Quran many times takes the reverse approach. The Quran actually gives the example, and from the example, you can discover the theory.

So that way, in that one example, multiple theories can be present. So you're not limited to one theory for one example, but that one example can teach you multiple lessons. It's actually reversed.

It's the other way around. And that's what Pharaoh is in the Quran. He's a case study.

He's one big example of how power works, how corrupt government works, how arrogance works, how narcissism works, how manipulation works, how propaganda works. There's lots and lots of mechanisms. You'll find all of them inside the personality of Pharaoh.

The Context: Pharaoh's Weakening Power

In these few minutes that I have with you, I'm going to share something with you that belongs to Surah Al-Zukhruf. And here is a very important part of the story of Pharaoh. It's a very specific piece of his story.

At this point in his story, Musa has already defeated him in front of his own ministers inside the palace when he showed him the snake, the staff turning into a snake. That's already happened. So all of his ministers and his religious leadership are already impressed with Musa.

And they've seen in front of their eyes the defeat of Pharaoh privately, not publicly, privately. What's also already happened is that he gathered all of the sorcerers, the magicians, the priests, and they had a public showdown against Musa. And now even the public knows who's on the side of the truth.

So the public is now turned against him too. There's a discontent among the public. All of his previous propaganda has failed.

What's also happened is Allah has captured Egypt with nine different signs. Five of them are mentioned in Surah Al-A'raf explicitly. Basically, Egypt has become economically paralyzed.

They were a manufacturer or they're a producer of crop, and the crop has been destroyed. This was the healthiest society, they've been struck with disease. Their food has been infected.

The river has turned into blood. The nation is basically paralyzed. They're not destroyed, but they're paralyzed.

So you can say that they're going through an economic and a social and a political crisis. That's already happened. What's also already happened is one of his own generals has questioned him in public, in front of all the other generals.

And not only is the nation divided, inside the government itself there is now division. So Pharaoh is having a lot of problems, both on the outside with the public, then with his religious leadership, the magicians, and also his military leadership, the generals. There's also some discord within them.

Those of you that are familiar in Surah Al-Ghafir, when Allah mentions the believer that challenged him, he was one of the generals of Pharaoh. Allah didn't say that he killed him.

He said, فَوَقَاهُ اللَّهُ سَيِّئَاتِ مَا مَكَرُوا — Allah protected that one general from the schemes they were trying to make. In other words, Pharaoh couldn't just say, kill him, he spoke against me, kill him. He had to come up with a scheme.

He didn't give an order. Like he said himself, ذَرُونِي أَقْتُلْ مُوسَىٰ وَلْيَدْعُ رَبَّهُ — "Let me kill Musa, and let him call upon his Lord." He said it explicitly. But he didn't give the executive order to kill the general, because a general has lieutenants, and those lieutenants have foot soldiers.

He's not just anybody. But if you kill one general, the other generals will say, wait a second, none of us are safe. So this will become a big problem for him.

So he can't just kill him. He can't even touch him. So Pharaoh's power is now being reduced, and reduced, and reduced, and reduced.

He can't just do whatever he wants. He wants people to think a certain way, he's not able to get them to think that way. So he now is stuck, because he can't kill all the people, he can't kill his general, he can't kill Musa.

He's stuck. So he has one of his last attempts to do damage control, to undo all of this damage, so he can recover some of his power and some of his influence.

The Propaganda Campaign Begins

This is what I'm going to share with you from Surah Az-Zukhruf. Allah tells us, وَنَادَىٰ فِرْعَوْنُ فِي قَوْمِهِ — Pharaoh made an announcement into his nation. Before, he doesn't need to make a public service announcement, he can just tell his generals, this is what I do, everybody does it.

You don't question Pharaoh. إِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ عَلَا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَجَعَلَ أَهْلَهَا شِيَعًا — Pharaoh had very high power in the land. He doesn't have to convince you of anything.

He'll just tell you what to do. But now he felt, he needs to change public opinion. He's so weak now, that even though he doesn't even feel support from inside his own government, he needs to get the support of the people.

So he needs to start a new propaganda campaign. He needs to start a new media campaign. And this is his media campaign.

First Attack: Asserting Legitimacy Through Divine Right

He said to them, أَلَيْسَ لِي مُلْكُ مِصْرَ — "Do I not alone own the kingdom of Egypt? Am I not your king? Am I not the only king that deserves kingship?" Because for many thousands of years, the Egyptians believed that the Pharaoh, any Pharaoh that's in power, is actually chosen by the gods. It's a religious thing. They have a right from the heavens to rule.

The universe decided that they should be the ruler. Now he's using their religious programming for many generations and saying, أَلَيْسَ لِي مُلْكُ مِصْرَ وَهَٰذِهِ الْأَنْهَارُ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِي — "Don't you see that these rivers flow under my feet?" Because they also believe that the Pharaoh is the reason that the rivers run, and the farm produces good, and the sky is okay, everything is normal. Because Pharaoh creates the balance between the sky and the earth.

This was part of their religion. So he's saying, have you forgotten your religion basically? I'm the reason everything is supposed to be okay. أَلَيْسَ لِي مُلْكُ مِصْرَ وَهَٰذِهِ الْأَنْهَارُ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِي. What's crazy is, he's saying this when the nation has already collapsed.

People could have said to him, what rivers? They're turned to blood. What kingdom? The whole kingdom is collapsing. What are you talking about? But he has to say something with so much confidence.

He has to lie. He knows what he's saying doesn't even make sense. He knows it.

But he has to say it so loud, and with so much confidence. He has to say it in all caps. He has to put it on Twitter.

He has to put it out there so that everybody also just... There's a population of people who do not look at the reality on the ground and then decide. They look at reality through his mouth. Their understanding of reality does not come from the news, or from investigation, or from talking to people, or no, not from opening your eyes.

Reality will come from what Pharaoh says. And there will always be a group of fanatics in the world who will be so in love with their political leader that doesn't matter what reality they see in front of them, when he speaks, that's it. That's it. That's all I need. He said it.

How can you question it? Anybody who questions him is a liar. They're all jealous. They're all jealous.

Those people might be... There could be somebody who's starving. They could come to the president and say, hey, look, I voted for you. And you said groceries will become cheaper.

But they became double the price. But I voted for you, help me. And the president will listen to that in a live television broadcast and say, no, actually you're wrong.

Prices have gone down. And everybody's like, yay. He said prices have gone down. They can see prices have doubled.

But now that he said it, no questioning it. He can feed you a different reality so you don't believe your eyes, you don't believe your ears, you just believe what he tells you. أَلَيْسَ لِي مُلْكُ مِصْرَ وَهَٰذِهِ الْأَنْهَارُ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِي ۖ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ — "Why don't you people see?" If the people were seeing, they would see that what he's saying is false.

But he's saying, I want you to see things the way I want you to see them. Put my glasses on. Put the Pharaoh glasses on, and then see reality.

Develop an alternative fact for yourself. An alternative reality for yourself. This is the first part of his campaign.

Second Attack: Attacking Musa's Status and Speech

Then of course he knows the biggest problem against his campaign is Musa. The message that is destroying his propaganda is the message of Islam, is the message of Musa. So he has to attack Musa.

But the previous attacks have failed. First he called him insane, that didn't work. He called him a magician, which was not a problem because the Egyptians actually respect magicians.

They actually respect magicians. And he defeated all of their magicians. So he stopped calling him a magician.

Pharaoh no longer — you'll find later on, he does not call him a magician. That's done.

He gave up that campaign. He has to come up with a new campaign. And at this point, Pharaoh, Musa has defeated his religious leadership.

He's shaken up his military leadership. He's impressed the entire population of the Israelites and the Egyptians. How is he going to undo all of this damage and take away from the power behind Musa.

By the way, in politics, we don't call this military power. We call this soft power. So Pharaoh — Musa has developed a huge amount of soft power.

And Pharaoh has lost all of his soft power. He's losing more of it very quickly. So he has to regain it.

So he comes up with the next campaign against Musa. He said, أَمْ أَنَا خَيْرٌ مِّنْ هَٰذَا الَّذِي هُوَ مَهِينٌ وَلَا يَكَادُ يُبِينُ — "Am I not better than this one? This humiliated one?" He comes from the slave class. He's an immigrant.

He's from the lower class. He's not superior genetics like us. He's not an original from this country.

He doesn't actually belong here. These are people that don't deserve any respect. They live off of our land.

They live off of our money. These people are beggars. And you think he's gonna lead us? One of these immigrants is going to lead us? مَهِينٌ — humiliated.

How can these people, who are not the same skin color as us, they don't come from this land originally, how can these people, they came here as slaves, or they live as slaves, that's the best they will ever get. That's actually their original state. They don't deserve any respect.

So why are you respecting him? How are you respecting a slave? You should respect, if you love your country, you'll love the heroes of this country like me, Pharaoh. الَّذِي هُوَ مَهِينٌ. And then he says, even if you, fine, if you wanna listen to this slave, and this humiliated one, from Banu Isra'il, then how about this, وَلَا يَكَادُ يُبِينُ.

You know, Musa used to have a speech impediment. He used to stutter. So if you know people that stutter, they sometimes get stuck on a word. So they're saying prayer, they say p-p-p-prayer, like that. Sometimes Musa would do that.

He says, you wanna follow someone who can't even say a word properly? Ha! Look at the way I speak, and look at the way he speaks. He found a physical defect, and he said, this is the reason you shouldn't follow him. Look, Musa was already humiliated in public multiple times.

He's already shaken up the entire country. You got nothing else left. So you say, oh, look at his pronunciation problem.

That's the best you could do? There's nothing else left for you to, come on, come on, give me something better than this. But you know what? There is a population of people that say, well, I mean, he is right. I mean, how can we have someone in such a high position of leadership, and they don't even sound good by our standards.

We need to have someone with a little bit of entertainment, celebrity value. Because in a society like that, if you look good, if you look like a celebrity, if you sound like a celebrity, if you have the show value, the PR value, then you're more valuable. He doesn't have the it factor.

So he says, وَلَا يَكَادُ يُبِينُ.

Third Attack: The Gold and Angels Argument

And he goes for the third attack against Musa. Notice he's saying nothing about the message of Musa. Nothing.

It doesn't speak about Allah. It doesn't speak about Risalah or Wahi (revelation). Doesn't attack any of it because all of those attacks have already failed.

All of that's failed. This is the last attempts. So now he has to come up with one more attack against Musa.

Or two more actually. فَلَوْلَا أُلْقِيَ عَلَيْهِ أَسْوِرَةٌ مِّن ذَهَبٍ — "How come he wasn't covered in gold?" Look at me. I got gold bracelets.

I got a golden robe. I got a golden throne. Clearly, the gods have given me this much because I am endorsed by the multi-billionaire gods.

What are his endorsements? Where's his campaign funding? Who's even endorsing him? Because in politics, if you have wealth, that means you have legitimacy. Even in modern day politics, if there's an election, and one candidate was able to raise several million dollars for their campaign, and the other candidate doesn't raise enough money for their campaign, this is more successful because they have more money. Doesn't matter what their policies are.

Doesn't matter who's speaking the truth, who's speaking falsehood. The only thing that decides who's legitimate and who's not legitimate, is who's got the money. That's what decides rightfulness.

So he says, if I was wrong, why would I be covered in gold? فَلَوْلَا أُلْقِيَ عَلَيْهِ أَسْوِرَةٌ مِّن ذَهَبٍ — "How come he's not covered in gold?" And if he talks about these angels and revelation, أَوْ جَاءَ مَعَهُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ مُقْتَرِنِينَ — "How come angels don't come with him?" Every time he goes somewhere, when I go somewhere, my security is with me. When Pharaoh goes somewhere, his soldiers are with him. But he says, he speaks on behalf of Allah, and Allah sends the angel to give him revelation.

How come when he walks somewhere, I don't see the angels creating a security detail around? Where's security? Where are these angels he's talking about? He's basically saying, show me a miracle, show me the angels. If I don't see the angels, how can you be true? After he sees the staff turn into a snake, the hand turn white, the sky start raining locusts, and the earth start sprouting frogs, and the river turn into blood. How many more miracles you want to see, bro? And he still says, no, but you know, I came up with a new request.

Show me angels. If you can't show me angels, how can we believe this guy? And he says it enough times.

The Result: Exploiting the Gullible

And look at what Allah says next.

فَاسْتَخَفَّ قَوْمَهُ — He was able to capitalize on the stupidity of his people. That's what Allah says. I'm paraphrasing here, istikhaff.

Istikhaff is two things. Loss of intellect, istikhaff. And obedience quickly without thinking.

If you follow someone quickly without thinking about it. Man, I heard his speech. I'm voting Pharaoh. I'm with Pharaoh. Have you heard his speech? Oh my God, I saw his tweet.

That's it. That's all you need. So he came up with a campaign to take the least intelligent people and to make them... Whatever he says is what I'm gonna say.

فَاسْتَخَفَّ قَوْمَهُ فَأَطَاعُوهُ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَوْمًا فَاسِقِينَ — "Those were truly corrupt people. Those were inherently corrupt people." In other words, even after all of that evidence, in the end, he was still able to take a significant population of Egypt and turn them against Musa with this weak speech.

Every part of the speech that I shared with you, any logical person would find no weight in any part of the speech. No, in any part of it. When he starts by saying, I alone own the kingdom of Egypt.

Who decided? These rivers flow under my feet. Says who? Then he says, Am I better than this one? Am I not better than this one? In what way are you better? He can't even speak properly, but his message is louder than yours and clearer than yours. For someone who can't speak or pronounce properly, his message is actually causing a lot more impact than any speech you've ever given.

So how is he not clear? How come he's not covered in gold? Well, your nation is covered in blood and thirst and hunger. Why are you worried about gold right now? And what is him being covered in gold going to do for the rest of the nation? You're covered in gold. And look, the nation is still starving.

How is this any validity? And how come angels aren't coming with him? You don't even believe in angels. Why are you talking about angels? That's not even your religion. Why are you making that demand? So he makes this, but the power of propaganda is when you even say the dumbest thing, but you say it loud enough, and you say it with enough emphasis, and you pump it from every platform you properly can, there will always be a population of people that will listen to that and hand over their brain to you and outsource it to you and say whatever he says.

Whatever he says, and they will become your mouthpiece. فَاسْتَخَفَّ قَوْمَهُ فَأَطَاعُوهُ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَوْمًا فَاسِقِينَ.

The Sign of a Desperate Tyrant

Allah is teaching us that when that happens, this is the last thing I'll share with you today, that when that happens, when this kind of propaganda happens, this is a sign that the people in power know that they have nothing else left to hold on to their power. The only weapon they have left is the gullibility and the stupidity of a segment of their population.

That's all they got left. Everything else is gone. The money is not gonna work anymore, the military is not gonna work anymore, nothing else.

The propaganda against the least intelligent people of your society will be the best and last effort you have left. This is actually bad, but in a sense it's also good, because it shows you the end of an era. This is actually very soon after this is when Pharaoh actually drowns.

But as I was trying to show you, he was already drowning. He was already pretty much drowning.

Closing Du'a

May Allah help us recognize the world around us with the lens that Allah has given us in His profound book. And may Allah give us clarity and sincerity in understanding His book and the wisdom that He has given us. And may Allah protect us from the people that fall into propaganda.

May Allah bless me and you with the Wise Quran, and may He benefit me and you with the verses and the wise remembrance.