وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا مُوسَىٰ بِآيَاتِنَا وَسُلْطَانٍ مُّبِينٍ
Certainly We sent Moses with Our signs and a manifest authority
إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ وَهَامَانَ وَقَارُونَ فَقَالُوا سَاحِرٌ كَذَّابٌ
to Pharaoh, Haman and Korah, but they said, ‘A magician and a mendacious liar.’
فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُم بِالْحَقِّ مِنْ عِندِنَا قَالُوا اقْتُلُوا أَبْنَاءَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ وَاسْتَحْيُوا نِسَاءَهُمْ ۚ وَمَا كَيْدُ الْكَافِرِينَ إِلَّا فِي ضَلَالٍ
So when he brought them the truth from Us, they said, ‘Kill the sons of the faithful who are with him, and spare their women.’ But the stratagems of the faithless only go awry
وَقَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ ذَرُونِي أَقْتُلْ مُوسَىٰ وَلْيَدْعُ رَبَّهُ ۖ إِنِّي أَخَافُ أَن يُبَدِّلَ دِينَكُمْ أَوْ أَن يُظْهِرَ فِي الْأَرْضِ الْفَسَادَ
And Pharaoh said, ‘Let me slay Moses, and let him invoke his Lord. Indeed I fear that he will change your religion, or bring forth corruption in our land.’
وَقَالَ مُوسَىٰ إِنِّي عُذْتُ بِرَبِّي وَرَبِّكُم مِّن كُلِّ مُتَكَبِّرٍ لَّا يُؤْمِنُ بِيَوْمِ الْحِسَابِ
Moses said, ‘I seek the protection of my Lord and your Lord from every arrogant one who does not believe in the Day of Reckoning.’
وَقَالَ رَجُلٌ مُّؤْمِنٌ مِّنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَكْتُمُ إِيمَانَهُ أَتَقْتُلُونَ رَجُلًا أَن يَقُولَ رَبِّيَ اللَّهُ وَقَدْ جَاءَكُم بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ مِن رَّبِّكُمْ ۖ وَإِن يَكُ كَاذِبًا فَعَلَيْهِ كَذِبُهُ ۖ وَإِن يَكُ صَادِقًا يُصِبْكُم بَعْضُ الَّذِي يَعِدُكُمْ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي مَنْ هُوَ مُسْرِفٌ كَذَّابٌ
Said a man of faith from Pharaoh’s clan, who concealed his faith, ‘Will you kill a man for saying, ‘‘My Lord is Allah,’’ while he has already brought you manifest proofs from your Lord? Should he be lying, his falsehood will be to his own detriment; but if he is truthful, there shall visit you some of what he promises you. Indeed Allah does not guide someone who is a transgressor and liar
يَا قَوْمِ لَكُمُ الْمُلْكُ الْيَوْمَ ظَاهِرِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَمَن يَنصُرُنَا مِن بَأْسِ اللَّهِ إِن جَاءَنَا ۚ قَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ مَا أُرِيكُمْ إِلَّا مَا أَرَىٰ وَمَا أَهْدِيكُمْ إِلَّا سَبِيلَ الرَّشَادِ
O my people! Today sovereignty belongs to you, and you are dominant in the land. But who will save us from Allah’s punishment should it overtake us?’ Pharaoh said, ‘I just point out to you what I see [to be advisable for you], and I guide you only to the way of rectitude.’
وَقَالَ الَّذِي آمَنَ يَا قَوْمِ إِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُم مِّثْلَ يَوْمِ الْأَحْزَابِ
He who had faith said, ‘O my people! Indeed I fear for you [a day] like the day of the [heathen] factions
مِثْلَ دَأْبِ قَوْمِ نُوحٍ وَعَادٍ وَثَمُودَ وَالَّذِينَ مِن بَعْدِهِمْ ۚ وَمَا اللَّهُ يُرِيدُ ظُلْمًا لِّلْعِبَادِ
like the case of the people of Noah, of Ad and Thamud, and those who came after them, and Allah does not desire any wrong for [His] servants
وَيَا قَوْمِ إِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ يَوْمَ التَّنَادِ
O my people! I fear for you a day of mutual distress calls
يَوْمَ تُوَلُّونَ مُدْبِرِينَ مَا لَكُم مِّنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ عَاصِمٍ ۗ وَمَن يُضْلِلِ اللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُ مِنْ هَادٍ
a day when you will turn back [to flee], not having anyone to protect you from Allah, and whomever Allah leads astray has no guide
وَلَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ يُوسُفُ مِن قَبْلُ بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ فَمَا زِلْتُمْ فِي شَكٍّ مِّمَّا جَاءَكُم بِهِ ۖ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا هَلَكَ قُلْتُمْ لَن يَبْعَثَ اللَّهُ مِن بَعْدِهِ رَسُولًا ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يُضِلُّ اللَّهُ مَنْ هُوَ مُسْرِفٌ مُّرْتَابٌ
Certainly Joseph brought you manifest proofs earlier, but you continued to remain in doubt concerning what he had brought you. When he died, you said, ‘‘Allah will never send any apostle after him.’’ That is how Allah leads astray those who are unrestrained and skeptical
الَّذِينَ يُجَادِلُونَ فِي آيَاتِ اللَّهِ بِغَيْرِ سُلْطَانٍ أَتَاهُمْ ۖ كَبُرَ مَقْتًا عِندَ اللَّهِ وَعِندَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يَطْبَعُ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ قَلْبِ مُتَكَبِّرٍ جَبَّارٍ
Those who dispute the signs of Allah without any authority that may have come to them—[that is] greatly outrageous to Allah and to those who have faith. That is how Allah seals the heart of every arrogant tyrant.’
وَقَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ يَا هَامَانُ ابْنِ لِي صَرْحًا لَّعَلِّي أَبْلُغُ الْأَسْبَابَ
Pharaoh said, ‘O Haman! Build me a tower so that I may reach the routes
أَسْبَابَ السَّمَاوَاتِ فَأَطَّلِعَ إِلَىٰ إِلَـٰهِ مُوسَىٰ وَإِنِّي لَأَظُنُّهُ كَاذِبًا ۚ وَكَذَٰلِكَ زُيِّنَ لِفِرْعَوْنَ سُوءُ عَمَلِهِ وَصُدَّ عَنِ السَّبِيلِ ۚ وَمَا كَيْدُ فِرْعَوْنَ إِلَّا فِي تَبَابٍ
—the routes of the heavens—and take a look at the God of Moses, and indeed I consider him a liar.’ The evil of his conduct was thus presented as decorous to Pharaoh, and he was kept from the way [of Allah]. Pharaoh’s stratagems only led him into ruin
وَقَالَ الَّذِي آمَنَ يَا قَوْمِ اتَّبِعُونِ أَهْدِكُمْ سَبِيلَ الرَّشَادِ
And he who had faith said, ‘O my people! Follow me; I will guide you to the way of rectitude
يَا قَوْمِ إِنَّمَا هَـٰذِهِ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا مَتَاعٌ وَإِنَّ الْآخِرَةَ هِيَ دَارُ الْقَرَارِ
O my people! This life of the world is only a [passing] enjoyment, and indeed the Hereafter is the abiding home
مَنْ عَمِلَ سَيِّئَةً فَلَا يُجْزَىٰ إِلَّا مِثْلَهَا ۖ وَمَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَأُولَـٰئِكَ يَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ يُرْزَقُونَ فِيهَا بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
Whoever commits a misdeed shall not be requited except with its like, but whoever acts righteously, whether male or female, should he be faithful—such shall enter paradise, and they will be provided therein without any reckoning
وَيَا قَوْمِ مَا لِي أَدْعُوكُمْ إِلَى النَّجَاةِ وَتَدْعُونَنِي إِلَى النَّارِ
O my people! [Think,] what makes me invite you to deliverance, while you invite me toward the Fire
تَدْعُونَنِي لِأَكْفُرَ بِاللَّهِ وَأُشْرِكَ بِهِ مَا لَيْسَ لِي بِهِ عِلْمٌ وَأَنَا أَدْعُوكُمْ إِلَى الْعَزِيزِ الْغَفَّارِ
You invite me to defy Allah and to ascribe to Him partners of which I have no knowledge, while I call you to the All-mighty, the All-forgiver
لَا جَرَمَ أَنَّمَا تَدْعُونَنِي إِلَيْهِ لَيْسَ لَهُ دَعْوَةٌ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَلَا فِي الْآخِرَةِ وَأَنَّ مَرَدَّنَا إِلَى اللَّهِ وَأَنَّ الْمُسْرِفِينَ هُمْ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ
Undoubtedly, that to which you invite me has no invitation in the world nor in the Hereafter, and indeed our return will be to Allah, and indeed it is the transgressors who will be inmates of the Fire
فَسَتَذْكُرُونَ مَا أَقُولُ لَكُمْ ۚ وَأُفَوِّضُ أَمْرِي إِلَى اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ
Soon you will remember what I tell you, and I entrust my affair to Allah. Indeed Allah watches His servants.’
فَوَقَاهُ اللَّهُ سَيِّئَاتِ مَا مَكَرُوا ۖ وَحَاقَ بِآلِ فِرْعَوْنَ سُوءُ الْعَذَابِ
Then Allah saved him from their evil schemes, while a terrible punishment besieged Pharaoh’s clan
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Triangulated across five present sources: Ṭabarsī (Majmaʿ al-Bayān) [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan], Qummī [qummi], al-Ṭūsī (al-Tibyān) [tusi_al_tibyan], al-Baḥrānī (al-Burhān) [bahrani_al_burhan], al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī (al-Mīzān) [tabatabai_al_mizan], with the published Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary].
Human-review flags: al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] is one coarse unit covering vv. 21–54; its exegesis of vv. 23–45 is translated in full, but the stretch on vv. 45b–54 (the barzakh reading of v. 46, the Fire-dispute, naṣr al-rusul, vv. 52–54) is condensed with no added content — hence flagged.
What the passage says. God sends Moses with "signs and a manifest authority" to the triad Pharaoh–Hāmān–Qārūn, who answer "a lying sorcerer" (23–24). When the truth comes they decree the killing of believers' sons (25); Pharaoh resolves to kill Moses (26); Moses seeks refuge (27). The narrative pivot is the believer of Pharaoh's people, concealing his faith (28), whose five-stage sermon (28–44) defends Moses, warns of the factions' fate and the Day of Mutual Calling, recalls Joseph, exposes idolatry, and ends in tafwīḍ — committing his affair to God — whereupon God guards him while the evil punishment encompasses Pharaoh's people (45).
The signs vs. the authority. All three exegetical sources gloss the pair. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and al-Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] read "signs" as the proofs of tawḥīd and "authority" as the miracles (staff, hand), the conjunction being for emphasis through differing wording; al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] prefers the "authority" to be the dominating divine power that prevented Pharaoh from killing Moses, citing the same protective theme that recurs at v. 45.
Why the triad. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] explains Pharaoh as chief, Hāmān as vizier, Qārūn as treasurer; al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] sharpens this — they are "the roots to whom every corruption traces back" — and uniquely infers from "those who believed with him" that Qārūn, an Israelite, joined the killing-decree out of hatred of Moses.
Who stayed Pharaoh's hand. A distinctively Shīʿī thread surfaces only in the ḥadīth sources. al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] (9343–9345, via al-Ṣādiq and al-ʿAyyāshī) and al-Mīzān's baḥth riwāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] both report that Pharaoh's intent at v. 26 was checked because "none kill the prophets save the children of fornication," and his courtiers that day were all of lawful birth — rendered here strictly as-attributed.
The believer's identity. The sources converge that "of Pharaoh's people" describes the man (al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] argues the context refuses making it the object of "concealed," since he repeatedly says "O my people"). On naming, Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] gives Ibn ʿAbbās (only three believers existed), al-Suddī/Muqātil (Pharaoh's cousin), and the names Ḥabīb or Ḥizbīl; al-Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] lays out cousin / Israelite / Copt views. al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] is most explicit: he was Pharaoh's treasurer who hid his faith six hundred years (9346, via al-Bāqir) and Pharaoh's maternal cousin (9347, via al-Riḍā). Qummī [qummi] and al-Burhān (9350) add that he was a leper with maimed fingers who gestured with his shrivelled hand. Crucially, al-Burhān (9349) carries the ḥadīth of the three Ṣiddīqs — Ḥabīb al-Najjār of Yā-Sīn, Ḥizqīl the believer of Pharaoh's people, and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, "the most excellent of them" (chain: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Laylā). (Web cross-check confirms this tradition is attested in both Shīʿī and Sunnī chains and that Ḥizqīl = Ezekiel, Pharaoh's cousin-treasurer.)
Taqiyya. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] both cite al-Ṣādiq: "Taqiyya is my religion and my forefathers' … God's shield in the earth, for had the believer disclosed his Islam he would have been killed." al-Burhān's long al-ʿAskarī tradition (9361) frames Ḥizqīl's testimony before Pharaoh as a tawriya (double-meaning oath) — "their Lord is my Lord" — the exemplar of protective equivocation, given the Imāmī coloring (preferment of Muḥammad and ʿAlī) as the source has it.
The Day of Mutual Calling (32). Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and al-Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] offer the wrongdoers crying woe, or Garden-folk and Fire-folk calling across (Aʿrāf 50); al-Burhān (9352, via al-Zuhrī) fixes it as the Fire-folk's call for water; al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] reads it as Resurrection.
The tower and tabāb (36–37). The sources agree ṣarḥ is a conspicuous tower and tabāb is ruin through severance (web-confirmed). al-Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] notes Pharaoh's anthropomorphism (tashbīh), while al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] floats that he may have wanted an observatory, and that no idolatrous doctrine actually fits — so it was deception or ignorance.
The fifth sermon and rescue (38–45). On v. 40 al-Burhān (9357) reports al-Ṣādiq correcting Abū l-Khaṭṭāb: not "do as you wish," but "do as you wish of good — it will be accepted." On tafwīḍ (44) al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] ranks it subtler than tawakkul but below taslīm. On the rescue (45) the sources diverge: Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and al-Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] (via Qatāda) say he escaped with Moses across the sea; but Qummī [qummi], al-Burhān (9359–9361) and al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] (via al-Maḥāsin) carry al-Ṣādiq's striking reading — "they cut him limb from limb, but God guarded him from being seduced in his religion" — the guarding being of faith, not of life.
Sources present: tabarsi_majma_al_bayan, qummi, tusi_al_tibyan, bahrani_al_burhan, tabatabai_al_mizan, enlightening_commentary; silent: none.