Hûd
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[11:97]
unto Pharaoh and his great ones: but these followed [only] Pharaoh’s bidding – and Pharaoh’s bidding led by no means to what is right.

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* v.97 : Lit., “was not right-guided (rashīd).” The short passage dealing with Pharaoh and his followers (verses 96-99) connects with, and amplifies, the reference to the tribe of ‘ād, who “followed the bidding of every arrogant enemy of the truth” (verse 59 of this sūrah). Thus, the main point of this passage is the problem of immoral leadership and, arising from it, the problem of man’s individual, moral responsibility for wrongs committed in obedience to a “higher authority.” The Qur’ān answers this question emphatically in the affirmative: the leader and the led are equally guilty, and none can be absolved of responsibility on the plea that he was but blindly following orders given by those above him. This indirect allusion to man’s relative free will – i.e., his freedom of choice between right and wrong – fittingly concludes the stories of the earlier prophets and their wrongdoing communities as narrated in this sūrah.