Al Qaṣaṣ

وَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ أَئِمَّةً يَدْعُونَ إِلَي النَّارِ وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ لاَ يُنصَرُونَ

وَأَتْبَعْنَاهُمْ فِي هَذِهِ الدُّنْيَا لَعْنَةً وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ هُم مِنَ الْمَقْبُوحِينَ

41. “And We appointed them leaders who invite unto the (Hell) Fire and on the Day of Judgment they shall not be helped.”
42. “And in this world, we made a curse to follow them; and on the Day of Judgment they will be of those made to appear hideous.”

This holy verse indicates that Allah set the people of Pharaoh as leaders who invited others to the Hell, and on the Hereafter Day no one will help them. The verse says:

This meaning is a question for some commentators that how it is possible that Allah appoints some people as leaders of falsehood, since His job is to invite to goodness and appointing leaders of the truth, not falsehood. But this is not a very complicated matter, because: firstly, they are the leading members of the hellish people and when some groups of these people are going towards Hell Fire, they walk in front of them. It will be in the same manner that they were the leaders of misguidance here in this world, then, they will be also the leaders of hellish people there, because next world is the place of embodiment of this world.

Secondly, it is in fact, the result of their own deeds that they are the leaders of misguidance, and we know that the effect of any cause is under the command of Allah. They paved a way that ended to being the leaders of the misguided ones. This is their position in Hereafter, too. Again, for more emphasis, the Qur’an illustrates their feature in this world and the next, as follows.

The curse of Allah is the same as exclusion from His Mercy, and the curse of angels and believers is the curse that they send for them every morning and evening, and every now and then. Sometimes all the unjust and oppressors are involved in a general curse, and sometimes they are cursed particularly, because whoever studies history about their lives will curse them. However, those who have ugly way of life in this world will have ugly face in the next world.

Here, the Qur’an has divided the leaders into two groups: the leaders of ‘light’, and the leaders of Fire. In the logic of the Qur’an, we have two kinds of leader. The leaders who are in front of the pious ones on the path of guidance, as Surah Al-’Anbiya’, No. 21, verse 73, concerning some divine prophets, says:

These are the leaders with clear bright programs, because pure Monotheism, invitation to goodness, truth and justice have formed the content of their program. These are the leaders of Light whose manner has been continued by all prophets and their vicegerents up to the Seal of the Prophets (S) and his vicegerents (as). The second group are the leaders of misguidance, and as the Qur’an introduces them in the verses under discussion, they are the leaders of Fire.

A tradition narrated from Imam Sadiq (as) about the qualities of these two groups of leaders indicates that the first group give priority to the command of Allah rather than the command of people and their own will,⁷ and consider His Commandment as the highest ordinances, while the second group give priority to their own command before the command of Allah (s.w.t.) and consider their own command before His commandment.⁸ Thus, by this criterion, the recognition of these two groups of leaders will be very clear.

On the Day of Resurrection when the rows of people will be specified, every group will be at the back of their leader. The hellish people follow the hellish ones, and the people of light follow the people of light, as the Qur’an says:

We have repeatedly said that Resurrection is a great embodiment from this small world, and those who have loved a leader and practically followed his way of treatment here, in Hereafter will be on his line, too. Bushr-ibn-Qalib says that once he asked Hadrat Imam Abu-‘Abdillah-il-Husayn (as) about the commentary of the Qur’anic sentence:

and he (as) answered:

“A leader invites to guidance and a group accept him, and a leader invites to misguidance and a group accept him, too.

The former are in Heaven and the latter are in Hell Fire, and this is the meaning of the word of Allah Who says:

It is interesting that Pharaoh who moved in front of his followers and caused them to be drowned in the waves of Nile, on the Hereafter Day he will walk in front of them and will make them enter into the sea of Hell Fire.¹³ We put an end to this discussion with a statement narrated from Hadrat Amir-ul-Mu’minin Ali (as) who said about a group of hypocrites:

“…they have continued after the holy Prophet. They gained positions with the leaders of misguidance and callers towards Hell through falsehood and slandering. So, they put them in high posts and made them officers over the heads of the people…” ¹⁴