Hizb 17

The elite of his people who were arrogant said, ‘O Shu'ayb, we will surely expel you and the faithful who are with you from our town, or else you shall revert to our creed.’ He said, ‘What! Even if we should be unwilling?!

We would be fabricating a lie against Allah should we revert to your creed after Allah had delivered us from it. It does not behoove us to return to it, unless Allah, our Lord, should wish so. Our Lord embraces all things in [His] knowledge. In Allah we have put our trust.’ ‘Our Lord! Judge justly between us and our people, and You are the best of judges!’

The elite of his people who were faithless said, ‘If you follow Shu'ayb, you will indeed be losers.’

So the earthquake seized them, and they lay lifeless prostrate in their homes.

Those who impugned Shu'ayb became as if they had never lived there. Those who impugned Shu‘ayb were themselves the losers.

So he abandoned them [to their fate] and said, ‘O my people! Certainly, I communicated to you the messages of my Lord, and I was your well-wisher. So how should I grieve for a faithless lot?’

We did not send a prophet to any town without visiting its people with stress and distress so that they might entreat [for Allah’s forgiveness].

Then We changed the ill [conditions] to good until they multiplied [in numbers] and said, ‘Adversity and ease befell our fathers [too].’ Then We seized them suddenly while they were unaware.

If the people of the towns had been faithful and Godwary, We would have opened to them blessings from the heaven and the earth. But they denied; so We seized them because of what they used to earn.

Do the people of the towns feel secure from Our punishment overtaking them at night while they are asleep?

Do the people of the towns feel secure from Our punishment overtaking them at midday while they are playing around?

Do they feel secure from Allah’s devising? No one feels secure from Allah’s devising except the people who are losers.

Does it not dawn upon those who inherited the earth after its [former] inhabitants that if We wish We will punish them for their sins, and set a seal on their hearts so they would not hear?

These are the towns some of whose accounts We recount to you. Their apostles certainly brought them manifest proofs, but they were not the ones to believe in what they had denied earlier. Thus does Allah put a seal on the hearts of the faithless.

We did not find in most of them any [loyalty to] covenants. Indeed, We found most of them to be transgressors.

Then after them We sent Moses with Our signs to Pharaoh and his elite, but they wronged them. So observe how was the fate of the agents of corruption!

And Moses said, ‘O Pharaoh, I am indeed an apostle from the Lord of all the worlds.

It behooves me to say nothing about Allah except the truth. I certainly bring you a manifest proof from your Lord. So let the Children of Israel go with me.’

He said, ‘If you have brought a sign, produce it, should you be truthful.’

Thereat he threw down his staff, and behold, it became a manifest python.

Then he drew out his hand, and behold, it was white to the onlookers.

The elite of Pharaoh’s people said, ‘This is indeed an expert magician;

he seeks to expel you from your land.’ ‘So what do you advise?’

They said, ‘Put him and his brother off for a while, and send heralds to the cities,

to bring you every expert magician.’

And the magicians came to Pharaoh. They said, ‘We shall indeed have a reward if we were to be the victors?’

He said, ‘Of course! And indeed you shall be among those near [to me].’

They said, ‘O Moses, will you throw [first], or shall we throw?’

He said, ‘Throw [yours].’ So when they threw, they bewitched the people’s eyes and overawed them, producing a tremendous magic.

And We signalled to Moses: ‘Throw down your staff.’ And behold, it was swallowing what they had faked.

So the truth came out, and what they had wrought was reduced to naught.

Thereat they were vanquished, and they retreated, humiliated.

And the magicians fell down in prostration.

They said, ‘We have believed in the Lord of all the worlds,

the Lord of Moses and Aaron.’

Pharaoh said, ‘Do you profess faith in Him before I may permit you? It is indeed a plot you have devised in the city to expel its people from it. Soon you will know [the consequences]!

Surely I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and then I will surely crucify all of you.’

They said, ‘Indeed we shall return to our Lord.

You are vindictive toward us only because we have believed in the signs of our Lord, when they came to us.’ ‘Our Lord! Pour patience upon us, and grant us to die as Muslims.’

The elite of Pharaoh’s people said, ‘Will you leave Moses and his people to cause corruption in the land, and to abandon you and your gods?’ He said, ‘We will kill their sons and spare their women, and indeed we are dominant over them.’

Moses said to his people, ‘Turn to Allah for help and be patient. The earth indeed belongs to Allah, and He gives its inheritance to whomever He wishes of His servants, and the outcome will be in favour of the Godwary.’

They said, ‘We were tormented before you came to us and [also] after you came to us.’ He said, ‘Maybe your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you successors in the land, and then He will see how you act.’

Certainly We afflicted Pharaoh’s clan with droughts and loss of produce, so that they may take admonition.

But whenever any good came to them, they would say, ‘This is our due.’ And if any ill visited them, they took it for ill omens attending Moses and those who were with him. (Look! Indeed the cause of their ill omens is from Allah, but most of them do not know.)

And they said, ‘Whatever sign you may bring us to bewitch us, we are not going to believe you.’

So We sent against them a flood and locusts, lice, frogs and blood, as distinct signs. But they acted arrogantly, and they were a guilty lot.

Whenever a plague fell upon them, they would say, ‘O Moses, invoke your Lord for us by the covenant He has made with you. If you remove the plague from us, we will certainly believe in you and let the Children of Israel go along with you.’

But when We had removed the plague from them until a term that they should have completed, behold, they broke their promise.

So We took vengeance on them and drowned them in the sea, for they denied Our signs and were oblivious to them.

We made the people who were abased the heirs to the east and west of the land which We had blessed, and your Lord’s best word [of promise] was fulfilled for the Children of Israel because of their patience, and We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people had built and what they used to erect.

We carried the Children of Israel across the sea, whereat they came upon a people cleaving to certain idols that they had. They said, ‘O Moses, make for us a god like the gods that they have.’ He said, ‘You are indeed an ignorant lot.

What they are engaged in is indeed bound to perish, and what they have been doing shall come to naught.’

He said, ‘Shall I find you a god other than Allah, while He has graced you over all the nations?’

And when We delivered you from Pharaoh’s clan who inflicted on you a terrible torment, slaughtering your sons and sparing your women, and there was a great test in that from your Lord.

We made an appointment with Moses for thirty nights, and completed them with ten [more]; thus the tryst of his Lord was completed in forty nights. And Moses said to Aaron, his brother, ‘Be my successor among my people, and set things right and do not follow the way of the agents of corruption.’

When Moses arrived at Our tryst and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show [Yourself] to me, that I may look at You!’ He said, ‘You shall not see Me. But look at the mountain: if it abides in its place, then you will see Me.’ So when his Lord disclosed Himself to the mountain, He levelled it, and Moses fell down swooning. When he recovered, he said, ‘Immaculate are You! I turn to You in penitence, and I am the first of the faithful.’

He said, ‘O Moses, I have chosen you over the people with My messages and My speech. So take what I give you, and be among the grateful.’

We wrote for him in the tablets advice concerning all things and an elaboration of all things, [and We said], ‘Hold on to them with power, and bid your people to hold on to the best of [what is in] them. Soon I shall show you the abode of the transgressors.

Soon I shall turn away from My signs those who are unduly arrogant in the earth: [even] though they should see every sign, they will not believe in it, and if they see the way of rectitude they will not take it as [their] way, and if they see the way of error they will take it as [their] way. That is because they deny Our signs and are oblivious to them.’

Those who deny Our signs and the encounter of the Hereafter, their works have failed. Shall they not be requited for what they used to do?

The people of Moses took up in his absence a calf [cast] from their ornaments—a body that gave out a lowing sound. Did they not regard that it did not speak to them, nor did it guide them to any way? They took it up [for worship] and they were wrongdoers.

But when they became remorseful and realised they had gone astray, they said, ‘Should our Lord have no mercy on us, and forgive us, we will be surely among the losers.’

When Moses returned to his people, angry and indignant, he said, ‘Evil has been your conduct in my absence! Would you hasten on the edict of your Lord?’ He threw down the tablets and seized his brother by the head, pulling him towards himself. He said, ‘Son of my mother, indeed this people thought me to be weak, and they were about to kill me. So do not let the enemies gloat over me, and do not take me with the wrongdoing lot.’

He said, ‘My Lord, forgive me and my brother, and admit us into Your mercy, for You are the most merciful of the merciful.

Indeed those who took up the calf [for worship] shall be overtaken by their Lord’s wrath and abasement in the life of the world.’ Thus do We requite the fabricators [of lies].

Yet [to] those who commit misdeeds but repent after that, and believe—indeed, after that, your Lord shall surely be all-forgiving, all-merciful.

When Moses’ indignation abated, he picked up the tablets whose inscriptions contained guidance and mercy for those who are in awe of their Lord.

Moses chose seventy men from his people for Our tryst, and when the earthquake seized them, he said, ‘My Lord, had You wished, You would have destroyed them and me before. Will You destroy us because of what the fools amongst us have done? It is only Your test, by which You lead astray whomever You wish and guide whomever You wish. You are our master, so forgive us and have mercy on us, for You are the best of those who forgive.

And appoint goodness for us in this world and the Hereafter, for indeed we have come back to You.’ Said He, ‘I visit My punishment on whomever I wish, but My mercy embraces all things. Soon I shall appoint it for those who are Godwary and give the zakat and those who believe in Our signs

—those who follow the Apostle, the untaught prophet, whose mention they find written with them in the Torah and the Evangel, who bids them to do what is right and forbids them from what is wrong, makes lawful to them all the good things and forbids them from all vicious things, and relieves them of their burdens and the shackles that were upon them—those who believe in him, honour him, and help him and follow the light that has been sent down with him, they are the felicitous.’

Say, ‘O mankind! I am the Apostle of Allah to you all, [of Him] to whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. There is no god except Him. He gives life and brings death.’ So have faith in Allah and His Apostle, the untaught prophet, who has faith in Allah and His words, and follow him so that you may be guided.

Among the people of Moses is a nation who guide [the people] by the truth and do justice thereby.

We split them up into twelve tribal communities, and We revealed to Moses, when his people asked him for water, [saying], ‘Strike the rock with your staff,’ whereat twelve fountains gushed forth from it. Every tribe came to know its drinking-place. And We shaded them with clouds, and We sent down to them manna and quails: ‘Eat of the good things We have provided you.’ And they did not wrong Us, but they used to wrong [only] themselves.

And when they were told, ‘Settle in this town and eat thereof whence you wish; and say, ‘‘Relieve [us of the burden of our sins],’’ and enter prostrating at the gate, that We may forgive your iniquities, and soon We shall enhance the virtuous.’

But the wrongdoers changed the saying with other than what they had been told. So We sent against them a plague from the sky because of the wrongs they used to commit.

Ask them about the town that was situated on the seaside, when they violated the Sabbath, when their fish would come to them on the Sabbath day, visibly on the shore, but on days when they were not keeping Sabbath they would not come to them. Thus did We test them because of the transgressions they used to commit.

When a group of them said, ‘Why do you advise a people whom Allah will destroy, or punish with a severe punishment?’ They said, ‘As an excuse before your Lord, and [with the hope] that they may be Godwary.’

So when they forgot what they had been reminded of, We delivered those who forbade evil [conduct] and seized the wrongdoers with a terrible punishment because of the transgressions they used to commit.

When they defied [the command pertaining to] what they were forbidden from, We said to them, ‘Be you spurned apes.’

And when your Lord proclaimed that He would surely send against them, until the Day of Resurrection, those who would inflict on them a terrible punishment. Indeed your Lord is swift in retribution, and indeed, He is all-forgiving, all-merciful.

We dispersed them into communities around the earth: some of them were righteous, and some of them otherwise, and We tested them with good and bad [times] so that they may come back.

Then they were succeeded by an evil posterity, which inherited the Book: they grab the transitory gains of this lower world, and say, ‘It will be forgiven us.’ And if similar transitory gains were to come their way, they would grab them too. Was not the covenant of the Book taken with them that they shall not attribute anything to Allah except the truth? They have studied what is in it, and [know that] the abode of the Hereafter is better for those who are Godwary. Do you not exercise your reason?

As for those who hold fast to the Book and maintain the prayer—indeed, We do not waste the reward of those who bring about reform.