أَمْ أَنَا خَيْرٌ مِّنْ هَذَا الَّذِي هُوَ مَهِينٌ ...

Am I not better than this one who is despicable?

As-Suddi said,

"He was saying, `indeed I am better than this one, who is despicable'.''

Some of the grammarians of Basrah said that Fir`awn -- may the curse of Allah be upon him -- was saying that he was better than Musa, peace be upon him. But this is an obvious lie, may continued curses be upon him until the Day of Resurrection.

By describing Musa as despicable he meant -- as Sufyan said -- insignificant.

Qatadah and As-Suddi said, "He meant, weak.''

Ibn Jarir said, "He meant, he had no power, authority or wealth.''

... وَلَا يَكَادُ يُبِينُ ﴿٥٢﴾

and can scarcely express himself clearly.

means, he cannot speak clearly, he stammers and cannot speak well.

Fir`awn's description of Musa as "despicable'' is a lie; rather it is he who was despicable and insignificant, lacking in physical, moral and religious terms, and it is Musa who was noble, truthful, righteous and upright.

وَلَا يَكَادُ يُبِينُ (and can scarcely express himself clearly).

This was also a lie. Although something happened to Musa's tongue when he was a child, when it was burnt by a coal. He asked Allah to loosen the knot from his tongue (i.e., to correct his speech defect) so that they could understand what he said, and Allah had answered his prayer and said:

قَدْ أُوتِيتَ سُؤْلَكَ يمُوسَى

You are granted your request, O Musa, (20:36).

It may be the case that some problem remained which he had not asked to be relieved of, as Al-Hasan Al-Basri suggested, and that he had asked only to be relieved of that which stood in the way of his conveying the Message. A person cannot be blamed for physical matters over which he has no control. Even though Fir`awn had the intelligence to understand that, he wanted to confuse and mislead his people, who were ignorant and stupid. So he said: