"We believe in the Lord of Aaron and of Moses."

Said Pharaoh, "Believe ye on him ere I give you leave? He, in sooth, is your
Master who hath taught you magic. I will therefore cut off your hands and
your feet on opposite sides, and I will crucify you on trunks of the palm,
and assuredly shall ye learn which of us is severest in punishing, and who is
the more abiding."14

They said, "We will not have more regard to thee than to the clear tokens
which have come to us, or than to Him who hath made us: doom the doom thou
wilt: Thou canst only doom as to this present life: of a truth we have
believed on our Lord that he may pardon us our sins and the sorcery to which
thou hast forced us, for God is better, and more abiding than thou.15

As for him who shall come before his Lord laden with crime-for him verily is
Hell: he shall not die in it and he shall not live.

But he who shall come before Him, a believer, with righteous works,-these!
the loftiest grades await them:

Gardens of Eden, beneath whose trees16 the rivers flow: therein shall they
abide for ever. This, the reward of him who hath been pure."

Then revealed we to Moses, "Go forth by night with my servants and cleave for
them a dry path in the sea;

Fear not thou to be overtaken, neither be thou afraid."

And Pharaoh followed them with his hosts, and the whelming billows of the sea
overwhelmed them,17 for Pharaoh misled his people, and did not guide them.

O children of Israel! we rescued you from your foes; and We appointed a
meeting with you on the right side of the mountain; and We caused the manna
and the quail to descend upon you:

"Eat," said We, "of the good things with which we have supplied you; but
without excess, lest my wrath fall upon you; for on whom my wrath doth fall,
he perisheth outright.

Surely however will I forgive him who turneth to God and believeth, and
worketh righteousness, and then yieldeth to guidance.

But what hath hastened thee on apart from thy people,18 O Moses?"

He said, "They are hard on my footsteps: but to thee, O Lord, have I
hastened, that thou mightest be well pleased with me."

He said, "Of a truth now have we proved thy people since thou didst leave
them, and Samiri19 had led them astray."

And Moses returned to his people, angered, sorrowful.

He said, "O my people! did not your Lord promise you a good promise? Was the
time of my absence long to you? or desired ye that wrath from your Lord
should light upon you, that ye failed in your promise to me?"

They said, "Not of our own accord have we failed in the promise to thee, but
we were made to bring loads of the people's trinkets, and we threw them into
the fire and Samiri likewise cast them in, and brought forth to them a
corporeal lowing20 calf: and they said, "This is your God and the God of
Moses, whom he hath forgotten."'

What! saw they not that it returned them no answer, and could neither hurt
nor help them?

And Aaron had before said to them, "O my people! by this calf are ye only
proved: surely your Lord is the God of Mercy: follow me therefore and obey my
bidding."

They said, "We will not cease devotion to it, till Moses come back to us."

He said, "O Aaron! when thou sawest that they had gone astray, what hindered
thee from following me? Hast thou then disobeyed my command?"

He said, "O Son of my mother! seize me not by my beard, nor by my head:
indeed I feared lest thou shouldst say,

Thou hast rent the children of Isreal asunder, and hast not observed my
orders."'

He said, "And what was thy motive, O Samiri?" He said, "I saw what they saw
not: so I took a handful of dust from the track21 of the messenger of God,
and flung it into the calf, for so my soul prompted me."

He said, "Begone then: verily thy doom even in this life shall be to say,
'Touch me not.'22 And there is a threat against thee, which thou shalt not
escape hereafter. Now look at thy god to which thou hast continued so
devoted: we will surely burn it and reduce it to ashes, which we will cast
into the sea.

Your God is God, beside whom there is no God: In his knowledge he embraceth
all things."

Thus do We recite to thee histories of what passed of old; and from ourself
have we given thee admonition.

Whoso shall turn aside from it shall verily carry a burden on the day of
Resurrection:

Under it shall they remain: and grievous, in the day of Resurrection, shall


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