Quran Universe
23:46

إِلَىٰ فِرۡعَوۡنَ وَمَلَإِيْهِۦ فَٱسۡتَكۡبَرُواْ وَكَانُواْ قَوۡمًا عَالِينَ

Ila firAAawna wamalaihi faistakbaroo wakanoo qawman AAaleena

To Pharaoh and his establishment, but they were arrogant and were a haughty people.

Word by word
  1. إِلَىٰTo
  2. فِرۡعَوۡنَFiraun
  3. وَمَلَإِيْهِۦand his chiefs
  4. فَٱسۡتَكۡبَرُواْbut they behaved arrogantly
  5. وَكَانُواْand they were
  6. قَوۡمًاa people
  7. عَالِينَhaughty
Al-Mu'minun · 23:46Makkah

Pharaoh's court was too proud to listen.

Arrogance as the real barrier

The response
Pharaoh and chiefs
were
arrogant
haughtyself-exalting
What blocked them
confusion
pridetoo great to follow

Ibn Kathir says Pharaoh and his people were too arrogant to follow them and obey their commands, because Musa and Harun were human beings, just as previous nations had denied. Same mentality, different century.

Your teenager corrects your grammar. A junior colleague has a better idea in the meeting. Something in you bristles before you even think. That bristle is where pride lives.

I am not arrogant; I just know better.

Pride can hide inside the feeling that I am above being told.

Try this

Accept one correction today without defending yourself. Just say thank you.

Simplified reflection. Read the tafsir for scholarship.draft
Tafsir Ibn Kathir (shared passage from 23:45)

Then We sent Musa and his brother Harun, with Our Ayat and manifest authority (45)To Fir'awn and his chiefs, but they behaved insolently and they were people self-exalting (by disobeying their Lord)(46)They said: "Shall we believe in two men like ourselves, and their people are obedient to us with humility! (47)So, they denied them both and became of those who were destroyed (48)And indeed We gave Musa the Scripture, that they may be guided (49)

The Story of Musa, Peace Be upon Him, And Fir'awn

Allah tells us that He sent Musa, peace be upon him, and his brother Harun to Fir'awn and his chiefs with decisive evidence and definitive proof, but Fir'awn and his people were too arrogant to follow them and obey their commands because they were human beings, just as previous nations had denied the Message of the human Messengers. They were of a similar mentality, so Allah destroyed Fir'awn and his chiefs, drowning them all in one day. He revealed the Book to Musa, i.e., the Tawrah, in which were rulings, commands and prohibitions, after He had destroyed Fir'awn and the Egyptians and seized them with a punishment of the All-Mighty, All-Capable to carry out what He wills. After Allah revealed the Tawrah, Allah did not destroy any nation with an overwhelming calamity; instead, He commanded the believers to fight the disbelievers, as He says:

وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ مِن بَعْدِ مَا أَهْلَكْنَا الْقُرُونَ الْأُولَىٰ بَصَائِرَ لِلنَّاسِ وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةً لَّعَلَّهُمْ يَتَذَكَّرُونَ

(And indeed We gave Musa – after We had destroyed the generations of old – the Scripture as an enlightenment for mankind, and a guidance and a mercy, that they might remember.)(28:43)