4إِنَّ فِرعَونَ عَلا فِي الأَرضِ وَجَعَلَ أَهلَها شِيَعًا يَستَضعِفُ طائِفَةً مِنهُم يُذَبِّحُ أَبناءَهُم وَيَستَحيي نِساءَهُم ۚ إِنَّهُ كانَ مِنَ المُفسِدينَMuhammad AsadBehold, Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and divided its people into castes.1 One group of them he deemed utterly low; he would slaughter their sons and spare [only] their women:2 for, behold, he was one of those who spread corruption [on earth].Lit,, "parties" or "sects" - here undoubtedly referring to the division of people into "high" and "low-born": a division which the Qur'an utterly condemns. The group which, as mentioned in the next sentence, Pharaoh "deemed utterly low" were the Israelites, who had been placed on the lowest rung of the Egyptian social scale and were deprived of almost all human rights.See note 7.