وَقَالَ ٱلْمَلَأُ مِن قَوْمِ فِرْعَوْنَ أَتَذَرُ مُوسَىٰ وَقَوْمَهُۥ لِيُفْسِدُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَيَذَرَكَ وَءَالِهَتَكَ ۚ قَالَ سَنُقَتِّلُ أَبْنَآءَهُمْ وَنَسْتَحْىِۦ نِسَآءَهُمْ وَإِنَّا فَوْقَهُمْ قَٰهِرُونَ
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.’
قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ ٱسْتَعِينُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱصْبِرُوٓا۟ ۖ إِنَّ ٱلْأَرْضَ لِلَّهِ يُورِثُهَا مَن يَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِۦ ۖ وَٱلْعَٰقِبَةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
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.’
قَالُوٓا۟ أُوذِينَا مِن قَبْلِ أَن تَأْتِيَنَا وَمِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا جِئْتَنَا ۚ قَالَ عَسَىٰ رَبُّكُمْ أَن يُهْلِكَ عَدُوَّكُمْ وَيَسْتَخْلِفَكُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَيَنظُرَ كَيْفَ تَعْمَلُونَ
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.’
وَلَقَدْ أَخَذْنَآ ءَالَ فِرْعَوْنَ بِٱلسِّنِينَ وَنَقْصٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَذَّكَّرُونَ
Certainly We afflicted Pharaoh’s clan with droughts and loss of produce, so that they may take admonition.
فَإِذَا جَآءَتْهُمُ ٱلْحَسَنَةُ قَالُوا۟ لَنَا هَٰذِهِۦ ۖ وَإِن تُصِبْهُمْ سَيِّئَةٌۭ يَطَّيَّرُوا۟ بِمُوسَىٰ وَمَن مَّعَهُۥٓ ۗ أَلَآ إِنَّمَا طَٰٓئِرُهُمْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
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.)
وَقَالُوا۟ مَهْمَا تَأْتِنَا بِهِۦ مِنْ ءَايَةٍۢ لِّتَسْحَرَنَا بِهَا فَمَا نَحْنُ لَكَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ
And they said, ‘Whatever sign you may bring us to bewitch us, we are not going to believe you.’
فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلطُّوفَانَ وَٱلْجَرَادَ وَٱلْقُمَّلَ وَٱلضَّفَادِعَ وَٱلدَّمَ ءَايَٰتٍۢ مُّفَصَّلَٰتٍۢ فَٱسْتَكْبَرُوا۟ وَكَانُوا۟ قَوْمًۭا مُّجْرِمِينَ
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.
وَلَمَّا وَقَعَ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلرِّجْزُ قَالُوا۟ يَٰمُوسَى ٱدْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ بِمَا عَهِدَ عِندَكَ ۖ لَئِن كَشَفْتَ عَنَّا ٱلرِّجْزَ لَنُؤْمِنَنَّ لَكَ وَلَنُرْسِلَنَّ مَعَكَ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ
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.’
فَلَمَّا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمُ ٱلرِّجْزَ إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلٍ هُم بَٰلِغُوهُ إِذَا هُمْ يَنكُثُونَ
But when We had removed the plague from them until a term that they should have completed, behold, they broke their promise.
فَٱنتَقَمْنَا مِنْهُمْ فَأَغْرَقْنَٰهُمْ فِى ٱلْيَمِّ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَا وَكَانُوا۟ عَنْهَا غَٰفِلِينَ
So We took vengeance on them and drowned them in the sea, for they denied Our signs and were oblivious to them.
وَأَوْرَثْنَا ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَانُوا۟ يُسْتَضْعَفُونَ مَشَٰرِقَ ٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَغَٰرِبَهَا ٱلَّتِى بَٰرَكْنَا فِيهَا ۖ وَتَمَّتْ كَلِمَتُ رَبِّكَ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ عَلَىٰ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ بِمَا صَبَرُوا۟ ۖ وَدَمَّرْنَا مَا كَانَ يَصْنَعُ فِرْعَوْنُ وَقَوْمُهُۥ وَمَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْرِشُونَ
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.
وَجَٰوَزْنَا بِبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ ٱلْبَحْرَ فَأَتَوْا۟ عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍۢ يَعْكُفُونَ عَلَىٰٓ أَصْنَامٍۢ لَّهُمْ ۚ قَالُوا۟ يَٰمُوسَى ٱجْعَل لَّنَآ إِلَٰهًۭا كَمَا لَهُمْ ءَالِهَةٌۭ ۚ قَالَ إِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌۭ تَجْهَلُونَ
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.
إِنَّ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ مُتَبَّرٌۭ مَّا هُمْ فِيهِ وَبَٰطِلٌۭ مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
What they are engaged in is indeed bound to perish, and what they have been doing shall come to naught.’
قَالَ أَغَيْرَ ٱللَّهِ أَبْغِيكُمْ إِلَٰهًۭا وَهُوَ فَضَّلَكُمْ عَلَى ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
He said, ‘Shall I find you a god other than Allah, while He has graced you over all the nations?’
وَإِذْ أَنجَيْنَٰكُم مِّنْ ءَالِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوٓءَ ٱلْعَذَابِ ۖ يُقَتِّلُونَ أَبْنَآءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَآءَكُمْ ۚ وَفِى ذَٰلِكُم بَلَآءٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌۭ
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.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
After the magicians' faith, the sūra follows the long siege of Pharaoh's obstinacy. His chiefs goad him — "will you leave Mūsā and his people to corrupt the land and forsake you and your gods?" — and al-Ṭūsī notes the irony the commentators all feel: "they faulted him, though they worshipped him," reading his reduced threat ("we will slaughter their sons") as the bluster of one who has "despaired of Mūsā himself." Against this Mūsā plants the passage's great promise: "the earth is God's, He bequeaths it to whom He wills, and the end is for the godfearing" (128). al-Ṭabarsī reads it as consolation toward patience — but al-Burhān and al-Qummī hear in it the whole Imāmī theology of inheritance. From the "Book of ʿAlī": "I and my household are those to whom God bequeathed the earth; we are the godfearing… until the Qāʾim of my household rises with the sword," and al-Bāqir flings the same verse at Hishām's court — "after our kingdom there is none, for we are the people of the end" — naming himself "the Remnant of God" (11:86).
The plagues themselves (130–135) are read first as moral pedagogy: God seized Pharaoh's people "that they might take heed," which al-Ṭabarsī turns against the determinists — "He made plain He desired of them return to Him." Their reflex — crediting good to themselves and blaming evil on "an ill omen from Mūsā" — draws the rebuke that "their omen is with God." All four Arabic sources then carry the same year-by-year narrative (which al-Ṭabarsī himself credits to al-Qummī from al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq): the flood, locusts, lice, frogs, and the Nile-turned-blood, each lifted at Pharaoh's promise and each followed by his breaking faith at Hāmān's urging, until the rijz — which al-Burhān and al-Qummī, on al-Riḍā's authority, gloss as "the snow." al-Burhān alone adds the sweeping parallel of Imam al-ʿAskarī, matching every sign of Mūsā with a sign of Muḥammad — "there is no sign God gave Mūsā but God gave Muḥammad its like or greater."
The deliverance (136–137) drowns Pharaoh "in the sea" and bequeaths "the easts and wests of the land We blessed" to "the people who had been oppressed" — the mustaḍʿafīn — fulfilling "your Lord's good word… for their patience." Yet the sūra ends the cycle on a sobering note: scarcely across the sea, the Israelites beg, "make for us a god like their gods" (138), and Mūsā's "you are an ignorant people" exposes how shallow the lesson had sunk. al-Burhān sharpens the point with ʿAlī's retort to the Jewish Exilarch — "your feet had not dried of the sea's water before you said it" — so that the inheritance of the oppressed and their immediate ingratitude stand together as the double truth of the deliverance: the end belongs to the godfearing, but the road to it runs through trial, "a tremendous trial from your Lord" (141).