Az-Zukhruf (Ornaments of gold)

53. “[If Moses is in the right] why then are not golden bracelets bestowed on him or [as a proof of his prophethood] angels sent along with him?”

54. Thus he [Pharaoh] belittled his people and they obeyed him. Indeed they were a people who were disobedient [to Allah].

One who lacks sensibility resorts to worldly possessions and adornments and regards such possessions as a token of truthfulness and the lack of the same as a sign of falsehood:

(“[If Moses is in the right] why then are not golden bracelets bestowed on him”).

It is the job of tyrants to make attempts at weakening Divine leadership and resorting to befooling others.

Blind devotion and obedience have their roots in cultural poverty, narrow mindedness, and superficiality:

(“Thus he belittled his people and they obeyed him”).

Verse 53 says that Pharaoh adds to his idle words saying that if Moses (as) is Divinely appointed to prophethood, why is he not wearing gold bracelets.

It is said that whoever was vested with governorship at the hand of Pharaoh, he would receive a gold bracelet and necklace and such adornments served as tokens of his rule.

He uttered such baseless words to show that Moses (as) did not deserve prophethood since he neither had worldly possessions nor did invisible beings like angels accompanied him to render him aid thereby he questioned adherence to him.

According to Verse 54, having deceived his people and hindered them from using their reason by his baseless words, they compared Divine honor with mundane glory as the majority of common people at any time make no distinction between true spiritual honor and the mundane and untrue one unaware of the truth that Divine honor whose perfect representation is prophethood springs from another source.