﴿ وَتِلْكَ نِعْمَةٌۭ تَمُنُّهَا عَلَىَّ أَنْ عَبَّدتَّ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ ﴾

“And [as for] that favour of which thou so tauntingly remindest me - [was it not] due to thy having enslaved the children of Israel?””

And the blessing that you have laid on me as a favor is that you have enslaved the Chil- dren of Israel. When Moses came to Pharaoh, inviting him to tawḤīd and making manifest a few signs and mira- cles for him, Pharaoh refused to accept tawḤīd, and then he laid gratitude and obligation on Moses: “Was it not I who brought you up from childhood and conveyed you to adulthood?” In denial Moses answered, “Why are laying gratitude on me for the fact that you took the Children of Israel into servanthood? Indeed, who can take servants and act as a lord other than the God of the world's folk, the Enactor of the universe and its folk?”