Surah Ghafir, Ayah 35

يقَوْمِ إِنِّى أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ مِّثْلَ يَوْمِ الاٌّحْزَابِ

(O my people! Verily, I fear for you an end like that day (of disaster) of the groups (of old)!) meaning, those of the earlier nations who disbelieved the Messengers of Allah, such as the people of Nuh, `Ad, Thamud and the disbelieving nations who came after them, how the punishment of Allah came upon them and they had no one to protect them or ward off that punishment.

وَمَا اللَّهُ يُرِيدُ ظُلْماً لِّلْعِبَادِ

(And Allah wills no injustice for (His) servants.) means, Allah destroyed them for their sins and for their disbelief in and rejection of His Messengers; this was His command and His decree concerning them that was fulfilled. Then he said:

In verse 35, it was said: كَذَٰلِكَ يَطْبَعُ اللَّـهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ قَلْبِ مُتَكَبِّرٍ‌ جَبَّارٍ‌ (That is how Allah stamps a seal on the entire heart of an arrogant tyrant), that is, the way the hearts of Pharaoh and Haman remained unaffected by the good counsel of Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) and the believer from the House of Pharaoh, similarly, Allah Ta’ ala cancels out or puts a seal on the heart of every such person who is arrogant and tyrannical (someone proud and arrogant, someone unjust and oppressive). When this happens, the effect is that the light of faith does not enter that heart, and one is rendered unable to distinguish between good and bad. In one قِرَأت (qira'ah: rendition of the Qur'an), the words for 'arrogant' and 'tyrant' have been identified as attributes of the heart for the reason that the heart is the reservoir of all morals and deeds. Every deed, good or bad, is born in the heart. Therefore, it has been said in Hadith that there is a piece of flesh (heart) in the human body which, when it works right, it makes the whole body work right, and when it goes bad, it makes the whole body go bad. (Qurtubi)

During the life of Joseph, majority of the people of Egypt did not accept his prophethood. It was only after his death, when the administrative system of the country began to deteriorate, that the Egyptians came to realise his greatness. Then, they started saying that Joseph’s existence had been a great boon to Egypt. And they said that such a prophet would never come again. Though Joseph was a prophet of God, he was also a human being. This gave people the scope to say, ‘It is not necessary that the feats performed by Joseph were on the basis of his being a prophet. It is quite possible that as a brilliant man, he was able to put up this excellent performance.’ Under the influence of such opinions, the people of Egypt began to have doubts about his prophethood. However clear and obvious the Truth may be, in this world of trial, it is always possible for a man to find shadows of doubt in it and then deny it. Those who are by nature arrogant and haughty, and those who think that by admitting the Truth, they will lose their greatness, can never overcome their doubts. Rather they nurture and exaggerate these doubts to such an extent that they come to prevail over their minds and souls. Consequently, they are unable to think about the Truth in an unbiased and objective manner. They remain its rejecters till the day they die.