Traditions: Qur’an Motif: Wealth and power fail to protect a person Connection verdict: Related named figure with different narrative breadth Article status: Expanded Date: 2026-10-30
Summary
Al-Qaṣaṣ tells a long account of Qārūn’s wealth, display, and being swallowed by the earth; al-ʿAnkabūt names him among figures overtaken for wrongdoing.
Read the two scenes
Al-Qaṣaṣ tells a long account of Qārūn’s wealth, display, and being swallowed by the earth; al-ʿAnkabūt names him among figures overtaken for wrongdoing. The shorter passage groups Qārūn with Pharaoh and Hāmān; the longer has spectators revise their judgment after his downfall. The detail about observers matters: a community can envy wealth before the collapse and condemn it after. The shorter list uses the named fate as one example among several.
What connects—and what does not
The shorter passage groups Qārūn with Pharaoh and Hāmān; the longer has spectators revise their judgment after his downfall.
The detail about observers matters: a community can envy wealth before the collapse and condemn it after. The shorter list uses the named fate as one example among several.
Why read them side by side?
A full narrative examines envy as well as arrogance; a compact list turns the same fate into a warning.
Sources and reading notes
- Qur’an 28:76-82 — Read the Arabic and a translation in the full sūra.
- Qur’an 29:39-40 — Read the Arabic and a translation in the full sūra.
Research limit
A named parallel can establish literary reuse or related tradition; a general resemblance alone cannot prove borrowing. Linked editions and translations vary. Where a source is identified as secondary orientation, the comparison does not claim direct close reading of that tradition’s primary text.