Qarun

As the above-quoted verse maintains, the treasures and status Qarun possessed in Egypt made him grow arrogant and insolent towards his people. To test him, Allah granted him an enormous fortune, and as is the case with all arrogant people, he was spoilt by them. He forgot that all possessions belong to Allah, and that He can take them back any time He wishes, and failed to recognise that these were granted to him as a test. Due to his arrogance, he thought that they were all given to him because he had "knowledge" and possessed superior qualities:

This is the deviant outlook of the arrogant. Although it is Allah Who has given man whatever he has, the arrogant boast of their possessions and do not feel grateful to Allah or ask forgiveness from Him. They do not bother themselves with thinking, even for a second, that they could lose all these gifts in an instant. However, as we are to understand from this verse, many people, who were wealthier or more powerful than Qarun, perished on account of their arrogance. Like those of the past, Qarun received his punishment in this world. If he had been as powerful as he assumed himself to be, he would have been able to rescue himself. Yet, neither his status, nor his possessions, nor the people who admired him, nor the knowledge for which he boasted, could save him from Allah' s punishment: