ثُمَّ بَعَثْنَا مِنۢ بَعْدِهِم مُّوسَىٰ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَآ إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ وَمَلَإِي۟هِۦ فَظَلَمُوا۟ بِهَا ۖ فَٱنظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَٰقِبَةُ ٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ
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!
وَقَالَ مُوسَىٰ يَٰفِرْعَوْنُ إِنِّى رَسُولٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
And Moses said, ‘O Pharaoh, I am indeed an apostle from the Lord of all the worlds.
حَقِيقٌ عَلَىٰٓ أَن لَّآ أَقُولَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ إِلَّا ٱلْحَقَّ ۚ قَدْ جِئْتُكُم بِبَيِّنَةٍۢ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ فَأَرْسِلْ مَعِىَ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ
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.’
قَالَ إِن كُنتَ جِئْتَ بِـَٔايَةٍۢ فَأْتِ بِهَآ إِن كُنتَ مِنَ ٱلصَّٰدِقِينَ
He said, ‘If you have brought a sign, produce it, should you be truthful.’
فَأَلْقَىٰ عَصَاهُ فَإِذَا هِىَ ثُعْبَانٌۭ مُّبِينٌۭ
Thereat he threw down his staff, and behold, it became a manifest python.
وَنَزَعَ يَدَهُۥ فَإِذَا هِىَ بَيْضَآءُ لِلنَّٰظِرِينَ
Then he drew out his hand, and behold, it was white to the onlookers.
قَالَ ٱلْمَلَأُ مِن قَوْمِ فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّ هَٰذَا لَسَٰحِرٌ عَلِيمٌۭ
The elite of Pharaoh’s people said, ‘This is indeed an expert magician;
يُرِيدُ أَن يُخْرِجَكُم مِّنْ أَرْضِكُمْ ۖ فَمَاذَا تَأْمُرُونَ
he seeks to expel you from your land.’ ‘So what do you advise?’
قَالُوٓا۟ أَرْجِهْ وَأَخَاهُ وَأَرْسِلْ فِى ٱلْمَدَآئِنِ حَٰشِرِينَ
They said, ‘Put him and his brother off for a while, and send heralds to the cities,
يَأْتُوكَ بِكُلِّ سَٰحِرٍ عَلِيمٍۢ
to bring you every expert magician.’
وَجَآءَ ٱلسَّحَرَةُ فِرْعَوْنَ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّ لَنَا لَأَجْرًا إِن كُنَّا نَحْنُ ٱلْغَٰلِبِينَ
And the magicians came to Pharaoh. They said, ‘We shall indeed have a reward if we were to be the victors?’
قَالَ نَعَمْ وَإِنَّكُمْ لَمِنَ ٱلْمُقَرَّبِينَ
He said, ‘Of course! And indeed you shall be among those near [to me].’
قَالُوا۟ يَٰمُوسَىٰٓ إِمَّآ أَن تُلْقِىَ وَإِمَّآ أَن نَّكُونَ نَحْنُ ٱلْمُلْقِينَ
They said, ‘O Moses, will you throw [first], or shall we throw?’
قَالَ أَلْقُوا۟ ۖ فَلَمَّآ أَلْقَوْا۟ سَحَرُوٓا۟ أَعْيُنَ ٱلنَّاسِ وَٱسْتَرْهَبُوهُمْ وَجَآءُو بِسِحْرٍ عَظِيمٍۢ
He said, ‘Throw [yours].’ So when they threw, they bewitched the people’s eyes and overawed them, producing a tremendous magic.
۞ وَأَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَىٰ مُوسَىٰٓ أَنْ أَلْقِ عَصَاكَ ۖ فَإِذَا هِىَ تَلْقَفُ مَا يَأْفِكُونَ
And We signalled to Moses: ‘Throw down your staff.’ And behold, it was swallowing what they had faked.
فَوَقَعَ ٱلْحَقُّ وَبَطَلَ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
So the truth came out, and what they had wrought was reduced to naught.
فَغُلِبُوا۟ هُنَالِكَ وَٱنقَلَبُوا۟ صَٰغِرِينَ
Thereat they were vanquished, and they retreated, humiliated.
وَأُلْقِىَ ٱلسَّحَرَةُ سَٰجِدِينَ
And the magicians fell down in prostration.
قَالُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا بِرَبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
They said, ‘We have believed in the Lord of all the worlds,
رَبِّ مُوسَىٰ وَهَٰرُونَ
the Lord of Moses and Aaron.’
قَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ ءَامَنتُم بِهِۦ قَبْلَ أَنْ ءَاذَنَ لَكُمْ ۖ إِنَّ هَٰذَا لَمَكْرٌۭ مَّكَرْتُمُوهُ فِى ٱلْمَدِينَةِ لِتُخْرِجُوا۟ مِنْهَآ أَهْلَهَا ۖ فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ
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]!
لَأُقَطِّعَنَّ أَيْدِيَكُمْ وَأَرْجُلَكُم مِّنْ خِلَٰفٍۢ ثُمَّ لَأُصَلِّبَنَّكُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
Surely I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and then I will surely crucify all of you.’
قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّآ إِلَىٰ رَبِّنَا مُنقَلِبُونَ
They said, ‘Indeed we shall return to our Lord.
وَمَا تَنقِمُ مِنَّآ إِلَّآ أَنْ ءَامَنَّا بِـَٔايَٰتِ رَبِّنَا لَمَّا جَآءَتْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَآ أَفْرِغْ عَلَيْنَا صَبْرًۭا وَتَوَفَّنَا مُسْلِمِينَ
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.’
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The longest of the sūra's narratives turns from the destroyed nations to the confrontation at Pharaoh's court — and, uniquely, ends not in destruction but in conversion. al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī open on Mūsā's embassy: "I am a messenger from the Lord of the Worlds… so send the Children of Israel with me," a demand to release the Israelites from the forced labour of "brick-making and hauling earth." The two signs — the staff that becomes "a manifest serpent (thuʿbān)" and the radiant white hand — prompt al-Ṭabarsī's long staff-lore (Adam's staff from the Garden, inherited through Shuʿayb to Mūsā) and his careful reconciliation of thuʿbān (great serpent) here with jānn (small snake) elsewhere as two distinct occasions.
The contest with the magicians yields the passage's most-cited theological point. When the magicians throw, "they bewitched the eyes of the people" — and both al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī seize on the wording: "in this is proof that magic has no reality, for had the ropes truly become snakes God would not have said 'they bewitched the eyes' but 'they became snakes'" (cf. 20:66). Mūsā's staff then "swallows what they faked," "the truth comes to pass, and what they did is nullified." The magicians, recognizing "a heavenly matter beyond human power," are "cast down prostrate" — and the commentators note they specified "the Lord of Mūsā and Hārūn" precisely to dispel any thought that they bowed to Pharaoh, who "claimed to be lord of the worlds."
al-Burhān enriches the scene with its narrations (qummi and al-Mizan being silent here): al-ʿAyyāshī's vivid account of Pharaoh's seven fortified cities whose guardian lions "cowered and turned away" before Mūsā, and of the staff with two prongs filling the eighty-cubit dome with fire so that "Pharaoh cried, 'O Mūsā, take it!'" Two distinctively Imāmī notes attach to the verses: a pun making "delay him and his brother (arjih wa akhāh)" the ancestral creed of the Murjiʾa — "I bear witness the Murjiʾa are upon the creed of those who said it" — and the claim that Mūsā's very staff "is with us" (the Imams), "green as when plucked from its tree… reserved for our Qāʾim, who will do with it what Mūsā did." Pharaoh's furious sentence — "I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides and crucify you all" — meets the magicians' serene resolve: "you take vengeance on us only because we believed… our Lord, pour patience upon us and take us as those who submit." So, as al-Ṭabarsī records and the Enlightening Commentary underscores, they were "magicians and disbelievers at the day's start, and righteous martyrs at its end" — the one episode in the whole roll of warners where the threatened crowd crosses over to faith. ʿAlī's word in al-Burhān is its epitaph: "Pharaoh's magicians went out seeking might for Pharaoh, and returned believers."