His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿He said, 'I did it then, and I am among the misguided.'﴾ ﴿So I fled from you when I feared you, and my Lord granted me judgment and made me one of the messengers.'﴾ ﴿And that is a favor you bestow upon me, that you have enslaved the Children of Israel.'﴾ ﴿Pharaoh said, 'And what is the Lord of the worlds?'﴾ ﴿He said, 'The Lord of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them, if you should be convinced.'﴾ ﴿He said to those around him, 'Will you not listen?'﴾ ﴿He said, 'Your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers.'﴾ ﴿He said, 'Indeed, your messenger who has been sent to you is a madman.'﴾ ﴿He said, 'The Lord of the east and the west and whatever is between them, if you should understand.'﴾

The speaker here is Musa, blessings and peace be upon him, and the pronoun in his saying: ﴿I did it﴾ refers to his killing of the Egyptian. His saying: 'then' is a connector in the speech, as if it means: at that time. And his saying: ﴿and I am among the misguided﴾ Ibn Zayd said: Its meaning is: among those who are ignorant that my striking him affects his life. Abu Ubaidah said: Its meaning is: among those who forget that. He referred to His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿lest one of them go astray﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 282]. And in the reading of Ibn Mas'ud and Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them: 'and I am among the ignorant,' and it seems that this reading is in the context of interpretation.

And his saying: 'judgment' means prophethood and its wisdom. Isa read: 'judgment' with the 'ha' and 'kaf' pronounced. And his saying: ﴿and made me one of the messengers﴾ is a second degree of prophethood, for there may be a prophet who is not a messenger.

Then he argued with him, blessings and peace be upon him, regarding his favor upon him by raising him and refraining from killing him by saying: ﴿And that is a favor you bestow upon me, that you have enslaved the Children of Israel.﴾ And the people differed in interpreting this speech. Qatadah said: This is from him in the context of denying that it is a favor, as if he said: 'Is it right for you to count as a favor upon me your refraining from killing me while you have wronged the Children of Israel and killed them?' That is: it is not a favor; for the obligation was that you should not kill me and not kill them, and not enslave me nor enslave them by killing or by servitude or otherwise. And Al-Dahhak read: 'And that is a favor you have no right to bestow.' And this reading supports this interpretation. And Al-Akhfash said: It is said that the 'wa' (and) is an interrogative 'alif' that is omitted, and the meaning is: 'Is that?' And this is not permissible except if it is matched by 'am' (or) as he said:

؎ ................ Do you leave the neighborhood or do you innovate?

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And in this saying there is an effort, and the saying of Musa, blessings and peace be upon him, is an affirmation without an 'alif,' and it is correct as Qatadah said, and Allah is the Helper.

And Al-Suddi and Al-Tabari said: This speech from Musa, blessings and peace be upon him, is in the context of acknowledging the favor, as if he is saying: 'Yes, and your upbringing is a favor upon me in that you have enslaved others and left me, but that does not negate my message.'

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And for every argument, there is a direction of contention. The first is proceeding in the path of opposing Pharaoh and refuting his words. The second is showing from Musa, peace be upon him, that he is sincere to himself, acknowledging the truth. Whenever one of the disputants reaches this rank, and his argument is in opposition to it, the one who possesses that attribute prevails, and his words have a greater impact on the souls.

And when Pharaoh, may Allah curse him, did not find this path of affirming his purity and other than that, he returned to opposing Musa, peace be upon him, in his saying: "And what is the Lord of the worlds?" He sought to understand it as a question about something unknown. Al-Makki said: As he seeks to understand about kinds. Therefore, he asked with "what." And there has been a question for him with "who" in another place, and it seems that these are instances. Musa, peace be upon him, answered him with the attributes from which the listener can discern that there is no partnership for Pharaoh in them, and that they are the Lordship of the heavens and the earth. This argument from Pharaoh indicates that Musa, peace be upon him, called him to monotheism. Pharaoh then said: "Do you not listen?" meaning to incite or express astonishment at the ugliness of the statement; since the belief of the people was that Pharaoh was their lord and deity, and the Pharaohs before him likewise. This is a misguidance that remains in Egypt and its lands to this day. Musa, peace be upon him, increased in explanation by saying: "Your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers." Pharaoh then said at that moment - in a manner of belittlement -: "Indeed, your messenger who has been sent to you is surely insane." And the majority of the people read: "has been sent" in the form of the verb for the doer. Musa, peace be upon him, increased in clarifying the attributes that reveal Pharaoh's deficiency and show that he is far from having power over them, which is the Lordship of the east and the west. And Pharaoh had nothing but the kingdom of Egypt from the sea to Aswan and the land of Alexandria. In the reading of Ibn Mas'ud and his companions: "The Lord of the east and the west and what is between them."