⁵⁰ He said: “Our Lord is He who gave everything its creation, then guided.”

⁵¹ Said he: “And what is the case of the former generations?”

⁵² He said: “The knowledge thereof is with my Lord in a writ;¹ my Lord neither errs, nor forgets.”

⁵³ (Who made the earth for you as a bed,¹ and inserted roads for you therein; and sent down from the sky water, and thereby have We brought forth diverse kinds² of plants:

⁵⁴ “Eat, and pasture¹ your cattle.” In that are proofs² for possessors of intelligence.³

⁵⁵ Therefrom¹ did We create you, and thereto will We return you, and therefrom will We bring you forth another time.)

⁵⁶ And We showed him¹ all Our proofs,² but he denied and refused.

⁵⁷ Said he: “Hast thou come to turn us out of our land by thy sorcery,¹ O Moses?

⁵⁸ “Then will we bring thee sorcery the like thereof; so make thou an appointment between us and thee, which neither we nor thou shall fail to keep — an equal¹ place.”

⁵⁹ He said: “Your appointment is the day of the festival;¹ and let the people be gathered at midday.”

⁶⁰ And Pharaoh¹ turned away, and gathered his plan; then he came.

⁶¹ Moses said to them: “Woe to you! Invent not a lie against God lest He utterly destroy¹ you with a punishment; and he has failed who invents.”

⁶² And they disputed about their affair among themselves, and kept secret their¹ private conversation.

⁶³ (They said: “These are two sorcerers¹ who want to turn you out of your land by their sorcery,² and take away your exemplary tradition.³

⁶⁴ “So resolve upon your plan, then come with one accord;¹ and he has succeeded who prevails this day.”)

⁶⁵ They said: “O Moses: either thou wilt cast, or we will be the first who cast.”

⁶⁶ He said: “Nay,¹ you cast.” And then their ropes and their staffs seemed to him, by their sorcery, to be moving,

⁶⁷ And Moses conceived a fear within him.

⁶⁸ We said: “Fear thou not; thou art the uppermost.

⁶⁹ “And cast thou what is in thy right hand; it will swallow up what they have wrought. They have wrought but the plan of a sorcerer,¹ and the sorcerer² will not be successful, no matter where he goes.”³

⁷⁰ And the sorcerers¹ cast themselves down² in submission.³ They said: “We have believed in⁴ the Lord of Aaron and Moses.”

⁷¹ Said he: “You have believed him¹ before I gave you leave. He is your chief who taught you sorcery;² then will I will cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and crucify³ you on the trunks of date-palms; and you will know which of us is severer in punishment and more enduring.”

⁷² They said: “We will not prefer thee over what has come to us of clear signs, or Him who created us. So decide thou what thou wilt decide; thou canst but decide this worldly life.

⁷³ “We have believed in¹ our Lord, that He might forgive us our offences,² and what thou didst compel us to of sorcery;³ and God is better and more enduring.”

⁷⁴ (Whoso comes to his Lord as a lawbreaker, for him is Gehenna; he will neither die therein nor live.

⁷⁵ And whoso comes to Him as a believer,¹ having done righteous deeds, those have the high degrees:

⁷⁶ Gardens of perpetual abode, beneath which rivers flow, they abiding eternally therein. And that is the reward of him who purifies himself.)

⁷⁷ And We instructed¹ Moses: “Travel thou by night with My servants; and strike thou for them a dry path in the sea, neither fearing overtaking nor being afraid.”

⁷⁸ And Pharaoh¹ followed² them with his forces, and there covered them of the sea³ what covered them.⁴

⁷⁹ And Pharaoh¹ led his people astray, and did not guide.

⁸⁰ O children of Israel: We delivered you from your enemy; and We made an appointment with you on the right side of the mount;¹ and We sent down upon you manna and quails:²

⁸¹ “Eat of the good things that We have provided you, and transgress not therein lest My wrath descend upon you; and he upon whom My wrath descends has fallen.”¹

⁸² And I am all-forgiving¹ towards him who repents and believes and works righteousness; then is he guided.

⁸³ “And what made thee hasten from thy people, O Moses?”

⁸⁴ Said he: “They were close, in my footsteps,¹ so I hastened to Thee, my Lord, that Thou be pleased.”

⁸⁵ He said: “We have subjected thy people to means of denial¹ in thy absence,² and the Sāmiriyy³ has led them astray.”

⁸⁶ So Moses returned to his people, wrathful and grieved. He said: “O my people: did not your Lord promise you a fair promise? Was the covenant long in coming¹ for you, or did you wish that wrath from your Lord should descend upon you, so failed in your promise² to me?”³

⁸⁷ They said: “We failed not to keep our promise¹ to thee² of our own accord, but we were given to bear burdens of the adornment of the people³ — so we hurled them. (And⁴ thus the Sāmiriyy⁵ cast,

⁸⁸ And he brought forth for them a calf as a body that lowed; and they¹ said: “This is your god, and the god of Moses, but he forgot.”²

⁸⁹ Did they then not¹ see that it returned no word² to them, nor possessed for them harm or benefit!

⁹⁰ And Aaron had said to them before: “O my people: you are but subjected to means of denial¹ thereby, and your Lord is the Almighty;² so follow me, and obey my command.”

⁹¹ They said: “We will not cease to be devoted to¹ it until Moses returns to us.”)

⁹² He¹ said: “O Aaron: what prevented thee, when thou sawest them going astray,

⁹³ “From following me? Didst thou then disobey my command?”

⁹⁴ Said he: “O son of my mother: seize thou me not by my beard, nor by my head! I feared lest thou say: ‘Thou hast caused division among the children of Israel, and hast not observed my word.’”

⁹⁵ He said: “And what is thy case, O Sāmiriyy?”¹

⁹⁶ Said he: “I saw what they saw not; so I took a handful¹ from the track² of the Messenger, and did throw it;³ and thus my soul enticed me.”

⁹⁷ He said: “Then go thou, for in this life it is for thee to say: ‘Outcast!’¹ And there is for thee an appointment thou canst not fail to keep. And look thou upon thy god to which thou remainedst devoted!² We will burn it; then will we scatter it in the sea³ with a blast.”⁴

⁹⁸ Your God is but God. There is no god¹ save He.² He encompasses all things in knowledge.

⁹⁹ Thus do We relate to thee from reports of what has gone before, and have given thee a remembrance¹ from Us.