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Tā sīn mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

Those, namely, these signs, are the signs of the Manifest Book, the Qur’ān (the genitive annexation [āyātu’l-kitābi] conveys the [partitive] meaning of min), [the Manifest meaning] the one that manifests what is truth from what is falsehood.

Perhaps, O Muhammad (s), you might kill yourself, out of distress for the reason, that they, namely, the people of Mecca, will not become believers (la‘alla here expresses sympathy, in other words [what is meant is] ‘have pity on it [your self] by alleviating [the burden of] this distress’).

If We will We will send down to them a sign from the heaven before which their necks will remain (fa-zallat, [although grammatically in the past tense] is being used in the sense of the imperfect tense) bowed in humility, and they will believe (since ‘necks’ are described as ‘bowed in humility’, [a status] which in fact refers to those who possess them, the adjectival form [khādi‘ūn, ‘bowed in humility’] used therein is the one [normally] used for rational beings).

And there would never come to them from the Compassionate One any remembrance, any [revelation from the] Qur’ān, that is new (muhdathin, is an explicative adjective) but that they used to disregard it.

Verily then they have denied, it; but soon there will come to them the news, the consequences, of that which they used to deride.

Have they not contemplated, observed, the earth, how many We have caused to grow therein, in other words, [We have caused to grow therein] many, of every splendid kind [of vegetation], [of every] fair species.

Surely in that there is a sign, an indication of the perfection of His power, exalted be He; but most of them, in God’s knowledge, are not believers (kāna here according to Sībawayhi is extra).

And surely your Lord, He is the Mighty One, Who will exact vengeance from the disbelievers, the Merciful, Who shows mercy to believers.

And, mention, O Muhammad (s), to your people, when your Lord called to Moses, on the night he saw the fire and the bush, [saying]: ‘Go to the wrongdoing folk, as a messenger,

Pharaoh’s folk, to them as well as him — they wronged their souls by disbelieving in God and [wronged] the Children of Israel by enslaving them — Will they not (a-lā: the hamza indicates a negation meant as a rebuke) show fear?’, of God by being obedient to Him and affirm His Oneness?

He, Moses, said, ‘My Lord, I fear they will deny me,

and that anguish will constrain my breast, because of their denial of me, and that my tongue will not utter clearly, to deliver the Message, because of the knot in it. So give the Mission to, my brother, Aaron, alongside me.

And I have sinned against them, by my slaying of the Egyptian man, and I fear they will slay me’, for this.

Said He, exalted be He: ‘Certainly not!, they shall not slay you. Go both of you, you and your brother — this address [although in the dual form] is predominantly for the person present as opposed to the absent one — with Our signs. We will indeed be with you, hearing, what you say and what is said to you (ma‘akum: the two [Moses and Aaron] are referred to here with the plural pronoun).

So the two of you approach Pharaoh and say, “Indeed We are — [indeed] each of the two of us is, the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds, to you,

that you should let go forth with us, to Syria, the Children of Israel” ’. So they approached him and said to him that which has been mentioned.

He, Pharaoh, said, to Moses, ‘Did we not rear you among us, in our homes, as a child?, as an infant, only recently born but weaned, and did you not stay with us for years of your life?, for thirty years — he would dress from Pharaoh’s clothes and ride chariots of his, and was referred to as Pharaoh’s son.

And you committed that deed of yours — namely, his slaying of the Egyptian — being an ingrate’, a denier of my favours to you in having reared you [among us] and not enslaved you.

He, Moses, said, ‘I did that then, when I was astray, from the knowledge and the Message which God would later give me.

So I fled from you, as I was afraid of you. Then my Lord gave me judgement, knowledge, and made me one of the messengers.

That is a favour with which you now reproach me that you have enslaved the Children of Israel’ (an ‘abbadta banī Isrā’īl, is explicative of tilka, ‘that’) in other words, you have enslaved them but not me: there is no favour in that, for your enslavement of them is wrong (some [scholars] have reckoned there to be an interrogative hamza of denial at the beginning of this verse [a-tilka ni‘matun, ‘is that a favour?’]).

Pharaoh said, to Moses, ‘And what is “the Lord of the Worlds” ’, the One Whose Messenger you say you indeed are? In other words: what exactly is He? And since there is no way for creation to know the true nature of God, but only to know Him through [an articulation of] His attributes, Moses, blessings and peace be upon him, responds to him with [mention of] some of these [attributes]:

He said, ‘The Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, in other words, the Creator of [all] that — should you have conviction’, that He, exalted be He, is their Creator, then believe in Him alone.

He, Pharaoh, said to those, noblemen among his folk, who were around him, ‘Did you not hear?!’, his response, how it does not correspond to the question [I asked]?

He, Moses, said, ‘Your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers’. Now, even though this [fact] is comprised by what was [said] before it enrages Pharaoh, and therefore:

He said, ‘Verily this messenger of yours sent to you is a madman!’

He, Moses, said, ‘The Lord of the east and the west and all that is between them — should you comprehend,’, that He is such [a Lord] then believe in Him alone.

He, Pharaoh, said, to Moses: ‘If you choose any god other than me, I will surely make you a prisoner!’. His [Pharaoh’s] prison was very harsh, for a person would be shut up [in a dungeon] underground alone, where he could neither see nor hear anyone else.

He, Moses, said, to him: ‘What, would you do this even, if I bring you something manifest?’, patent proof of my Mission?

He, Pharaoh, said, to him: ‘Then bring it, if you are truthful’, in this.

So he threw down his staff, and lo! it was a manifest serpent, a great snake.

Then he drew out his hand, he brought it out of his pocket, and lo! it was white, glowing, before the onlookers, and not its usual skin colour.

He, Pharaoh, said to the council around him, ‘Surely this man is a cunning sorcerer, an expert in the art of magic,

who seeks to expel you from your land by his sorcery. So what do you advise?’

They said, ‘Put him and his brother off for a while, postpone [judgement of] their affair, and send musterers into the cities

to bring you every cunning sorcerer’, to surpass Moses in the art of magic.

So the sorcerers were assembled at a fixed time of a known day, which was the morning of the Festival Day.

And it was said to the people, ‘Will you assemble!’

Maybe we will follow the sorcerers, should they be the victors’ (the interrogative [of the previous verse] is an incitement to assemble and the optative sense [implicit in la‘alla] is due to their anticipation of victory, and hence their continued adherence to their religion and rejection of Moses).

So when the sorcerers came, they said to Pharaoh, ‘Shall we indeed (read a-inna either by pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second, but in both cases inserting an alif) have a reward if we were to be the victors?’

He said, ‘Yes [of course]! And you shall then be among those closest [to me]’.

Moses said to them, after they had said to him, Either you cast, or we shall be the casters [Q. 7:115]: ‘Cast what you have to cast’ — the command to do this signifies an authorisation for them to cast and a means whereby the truth will be made to prevail.

So they cast their ropes and their staffs, and said, ‘By the power of Pharaoh we shall surely be the victors!’

Thereat Moses cast his staff and lo! it was swallowing (talqafu: one of the original two tā’ letters [of taltaqifu] has been assimilated) what they had faked, [what they had] transformed through illusion, making their ropes and staffs appear to be moving serpents.

So the sorcerers fell down prostrating.

They said, ‘We believe in the Lord of the Worlds,

the Lord of Moses and Aaron’, for they realised that what they had witnessed in the case of the staff could not have been the result of [mere] sorcery.

Pharaoh said, ‘Do you believe (a-āmantum, read pronouncing both hamzas or replacing the second one with an alif) him, Moses, though I have not given you leave? He is indeed your chief, the one who has taught you sorcery — so that he only taught you some [tricks] and then surpassed you with others. Soon you will know, what I will do with you! I will assuredly cut off your hands and legs on opposite sides — in other words, the right hand of each one together with his left leg — then I shall surely crucify you all.’

They said, ‘There is no harm [in that], no damage will be done to us thereby. Surely to our Lord, after we die, whichever way that may be, we shall return, in the Hereafter.

Indeed We hope our Lord will forgive us our iniquities, for being the first to believe’, in our time.

And We revealed to Moses, after many years which he spent among them calling them to the truth with God’s signs but all of which only increased them in insolence, [saying], ‘Journey with My servants, the Children of Israel, by night (a variant reading [for an asri] is an isr, from the verb sarā, one form of asrā) go with them by night in the direction of the sea, for indeed you will be pursued’. Pharaoh and his armies will pursue you, but when they enter the sea in pursuit of you, I will deliver you and drown them.

Then Pharaoh, having been informed of their night departure, sent to the cities — it is said that he ruled a thousand cities and twelve thousand villages — musterers, to assemble the army, saying:

‘Lo! these are but a small gang. It is said that they [the Children of Israel] numbered 670,000, while his [Pharaoh’s] vanguard alone numbered 700,000 and so he deemed their number insignificant in comparison to his huge army.

And indeed they have enraged us, their actions infuriate us,

and indeed we are all on our guard’, ready (a variant reading [for hadhirūna] has hādhirūn, meaning ‘alert’).

God, exalted be He, says: So We made them, Pharaoh and his folk, go forth, out of Egypt, in order to pursue Moses and his people, from gardens, orchards on either side of the Nile, and springs, streams running from the Nile through their dwellings,

and treasures, visible riches of gold and silver — these [riches] are called kunūz [as opposed to amwāl, ‘riches’] because that [portion] which is [always] due to God, exalted be He, from them had not been paid — and splendid places, exquisite residences for princes and ministers surrounded by their retinues.

So [it was], that is, Our expulsion [of them] was as We have described, and We made the Children of Israel to inherit these, after drowning Pharaoh and his folk.

Then they pursued them, they caught them up, at sunrise.

And when the two hosts sighted each other, the companions of Moses said, ‘We have been caught!’, Pharaoh’s hosts have caught us up and we have no power against them.

He, Moses, said, ‘Certainly not!, they shall not catch us up; indeed I have my Lord with me, to provide assistance. He will guide me’, to the route of deliverance.

God, exalted be He, says: Thereupon We revealed to Moses: ‘Strike the sea with your staff’, and he struck it, whereupon it parted, it split into twelve parts, and each part was as a mighty mountain, between each of these parts were paths which they followed, such that not even the saddles or the felts of the riders were touched by water.

And there We brought near the others, Pharaoh and his folk, until they followed them across the same paths.

And We delivered Moses and all those who were with him, by bringing them out of the sea while it was in the state mentioned [above].

Then We drowned the others, Pharaoh and his folk by closing the sea on them after they had entered the sea and the Children of Israel had exited therefrom.

Surely in that, drowning of Pharaoh and his folk, there is a sign, a lesson for those [generations] who would come after them; but most of them are not believers, in God. The only ones to believe were Āsiya — Pharaoh’s wife — Hizqīl, the believing man of Pharaoh’s family, and Maryam daughter of Nāmūsī, she who pointed out the bone remains of [the prophet] Joseph, peace be upon him.

And surely your Lord, He is the Mighty, for He wrought vengeance upon the disbelievers by drowning them, the Merciful, to believers, delivering them from drowning.

And recite to them, the disbelievers of Mecca, the tiding, the tale, of Abraham (Ibrāhīma is substituted by [the following, idh qāla, ‘when he said’])

when he said to his father and his people, ‘What do you worship?’

They said, ‘We worship idols — they reiterate the verb [in the response] in order to supplement it with [the following remark] — and remain cleaving to them’, we remain worshipping them all day; they give a longer response to indicate their [misplaced] pride in such [an act].

He said, ‘Do they hear you when you supplicate?

Or do they bring you benefit, when you worship them, or harm?, to you, if you do not?

They said, ‘Rather, we found our fathers so doing’, that is, doing the same as we do.

He said, ‘Have you considered what you have been worshipping,

you and your ancestors?

They are indeed hateful to me, I do not worship them; but the Lord of the Worlds, I do worship Him,

[He] Who created me, it is He Who guides me, to [the proper] religion,

and provides me with food and drink,

and when I am sick, it is He Who cures me;

and Who will make me die, then give me life,

and Who, I hope, will forgive me my iniquity on the Day of Judgement, [the Day] of Requital.

My Lord! Grant me [unerring] judgement, knowledge, and unite me with the righteous, the prophets.

And confer on me a worthy repute, excellent praise, among posterity, those who will come after me up to the Day of Resurrection.

And make me among the inheritors of the Garden of Bliss, among those who will be given it.

And forgive my father, for indeed he is one of those who are astray, by Your relenting to him and forgiving him: this was before it became clear to him [Abraham] that he [his father] was an enemy of God, as mentioned in sūrat Barā’a [Q. 9:114].

And do not disgrace me, do not expose me, on the day when they, mankind, are resurrected;

of which [day] God, exalted be He, says [the following]: the day when neither wealth nor children will avail, anyone,

except him who comes to God with a heart that is sound, [free] from idolatry and hypocrisy — and this is the heart of the believer, whom such [things] will avail.

And Paradise will be brought near for the God-fearing, and they will [be able to] see it,

and Hell will be revealed [plainly] for the perverse, the disbelievers.

And it will be said to them, ‘Where is that which you used to worship

besides God?, that is, other than Him, in the way of idols. Do they help you, by averting from you the chastisement, or do they help one another?’, by averting it from themselves? No [neither]!

Then they will be hurled, cast, into it, they and the perverse,

and the hosts of Iblīs, his followers and those jinn and humans who were obedient to him, all together.

They, the perverse, shall say, as they wrangle therein, with those whom they used to worship:

‘By God, we had indeed (in, softened in place of the hardened form, with its subject omitted, in other words [it would usually be] innahu) been in manifest error,

when we equated you, in worship, with the Lord of the Worlds.

And it was none other than the sinners, the devils or our predecessors, whose example we were following, that led us astray, from guidance.

So [now] we have no intercessors, as the believers have, in the way of angels, prophets and [other] believers,

nor any sympathetic friend, who might be concerned for us.