10. Yunus

Then, when they had cast, their ropes and staffs, Moses said, ‘What (mā is interrogative and the subject, its predicate being [the following, ji’tum bihi]) have you brought? Sorcery? (ā’l-sihru [a-al-sihru] is a substitute [for the predicate ji’tum bihi, ‘have you brought’]; a variant reading has al-sihru with a single hamza, making it predicative, in which case mā is the relative particle of the subject) Verily God will bring it to nothing, He will efface it. Truly God does not make right the work of those who do corruption.

But with Moses, none believed save a few descendants, a party, of, the children of, his, that is, Pharaoh’s, folk, out of fear of Pharaoh and their council, that he [Pharaoh] might persecute them, turn them away from his [Moses’s] religion by torturing them; and truly Pharaoh was despotic, arrogant, in the land, the land of Egypt, and truly he was of the prodigal, [of] those who transgress the bounds by claiming to be Lords.

And Moses said, ‘O my people, if you have believed in God then put your trust in Him, if you have [truly] submitted [to Him]’.

So they said, ‘In God we have put our trust. Our Lord, make us not a [cause of] temptation for the evildoing folk, that is, do not make them prevail over us, lest they then think that they are upon the right path and so end up succumbing to [the] temptation [of thinking that they are upon the right path] because of us;

and deliver us by Your mercy from the unbelieving folk’.

And We inspired Moses and his brother [saying]: ‘Appoint houses for your people in Egypt and make your houses oratories, places in which to perform prayers, so that you might be secure from fear — for Pharaoh had prohibited them from performing prayers — and establish, fulfil, worship; and give good tidings to the believers’, of victory and Paradise.

And Moses said, ‘Our Lord, You have indeed given Pharaoh and his council splendour and riches in the life of this world. Our Lord, You have given them this, that they may lead [people] astray, as a consequence thereof, from Your way, [from] Your religion. Our Lord, obliterate, transform, their riches and harden their hearts, stamp upon them and shackle [them], so that they do not believe until they see the painful chastisement’: he [Moses] invoked God against them and Aaron said ‘Amen’ at the end of his invocation.

He, [God] exalted be He, said, ‘Your prayer has been answered: thus their riches were transformed into stones and Pharaoh did not believe until he was about to drown. So the two of you remain upright, with the Message and the Call until such time as chastisement befalls them, and do not follow the way of those who have no knowledge’, when they seek to hasten on My judgement — it is reported that he [Moses] remained [alive] a further forty years thereafter.

And We brought the Children of Israel across the sea; and Pharaoh pursued them, he caught up with them, together with his hosts, in insolence and transgression (baghyan wa-‘adwan: these constitute the [direct] object denoting reason), until, when the [fate of] drowning overtook him, he said, ‘I believe that (annahu is [to be understood as] bi-annahu; a variant reading has innahu, ‘truly it is …’ indicating a new sentence) there is no god save Him in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am of those who submit [to Him]’: he reiterated this [his submission to God] so that it might be accepted from him, but it was not; and Gabriel thrust mud from the sea into his mouth, lest [God’s] mercy embrace him. And he [Gabriel] said to him: