10 Preface وَفِرعَونَ ذِي الأَوتادِYusuf AliAnd with Pharaoh, Lord of Stakes?1For “Lord of Stakes”, see 38:12, second n. For Pharaoh’s arrogance and his fall, see 20:43, 78-79. The three examples given, ‘Ād, Thamūd, and Pharaoh, show that neither nations nor individuals, however mighty, prosperous, or firmly established they may be, can live if they transgress the Law of God. The Law of God, which is also the law of the higher nature which He has bestowed on us, made them in the first place great and glorious: when they fell from it and “heaped mischief on mischief”, they were swept away.