ثُمَّ بَعَثْنَا مِنۢ بَعْدِهِم مُّوسَىٰ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَآ إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ وَمَلَإِي۟هِۦ فَظَلَمُوا۟ بِهَا فَٱنظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَٰقِبَةُ ٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ
Thumma baʿathnā min baʿdihim Mūsā bi-āyātinā ilā Firʿawna wa malaʾihī fa-ẓalamū bihā, fa'nẓur kayfa kāna ʿāqibatu'l-mufsidīn · Wa qāla Mūsā yā Firʿawnu innī rasūlun min rabbi'l-ʿālamīn · Ḥaqīqun ʿalā an lā aqūla ʿala'llāhi illa'l-ḥaqq, qad jiʾtukum bi-bayyinatin min rabbikum fa-arsil maʿiya banī Isrāʾīl · Qāla in kunta jiʾta bi-āyatin fa'ti bihā in kunta mina'ṣ-ṣādiqīn · Fa-alqā ʿaṣāhu fa-idhā hiya thuʿbānun mubīn · Wa nazaʿa yadahū fa-idhā hiya bayḍāʾu li'n-nāẓirīn
"Then, after them, We sent Moses with Our signs to Pharaoh and his notables. But they did wrong in the matter of those signs. See, then, what was the end of the corrupters! · Moses said: 'O Pharaoh! I am a messenger from the Lord of all the worlds. · It is incumbent on me to say nothing about God but the truth. I have brought you a clear proof from your Lord; so send the Children of Israel with me.' · He said: 'If you have brought a sign, produce it, if you are among the truthful.' · So he cast down his staff, and there it was, a plain serpent! · And he drew out his hand, and there it was, white to those who looked!"
The Moses block runs from verse 103 to verse 171: sixty-nine verses. More than a third of the sūra. It was recorded in the section on the structure; here it is treated.
And the point at which the block departs from the earlier ones in respect of pattern must be recorded, and it is a countable datum:
| Element | In the five stories | In the Moses block |
|---|---|---|
| Yā qawmi'budū'llāha mā lakum min ilāhin ghayruh | 4 times | absent |
| Akhāhum | 3 times | absent |
| Al-malaʾ | 5 times | present (103, 109, 127) |
| The name of the addressee | The name of a people (ʿĀd, Thamūd, Madyan) | A single person (Firʿawn) |
That is, the Moses block stands outside the shared opening. The same was recorded for al-Shuʿarāʾ in al-Shuʿarāʾ Table 2: there too the stories of Moses and Abraham stood outside the pattern of the opening. The two sūras make the same exception independently. This is an overlap that can be verified from the two texts, and I record it as an observation.
A point of word order must be recorded: the verb ẓalama is here made transitive with the preposition bi-.
The expected construction would be fa-ẓalamūhā ("they wronged them"). The lexicographers explain the usage with bi- as either "they did wrong on account of them" or "they behaved wrongfully towards them"; both explanations are transmitted.
And the same construction had occurred in the ninth verse of the sūra: bimā kānū bi-āyātinā yaẓlimūn. The same verb, the same preposition, the same object. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.
Two readings are transmitted of the expression at the head of the hundred and fifth verse, and I record it because the difference affects the meaning:
| Reading | Text | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ḥaqīqun ʿalā an lā aqūla | "It is incumbent to say nothing about God but the truth" — this is what falls to me |
| 2 | Ḥaqīqun ʿalayya an lā aqūla | "It falls to me to say nothing about God but the truth" — the ascription is expressly to the first person |
And the work of the sentence must be recorded: the messenger sets out the truth of his word not with a proof but first with an obligation. The proof comes one sentence later: qad jiʾtukum bi-bayyinatin min rabbikum.
ثُعْبَان — the root ث-ع-ب: according to the lexicographers, a great serpent. At 20/20 in Ṭāhā and 26/32 in al-Shuʿarāʾ the difference between this word and the words ḥayya and jānn was tabulated — the Qurʾān uses three different words for the same event. I rely on those treatments and do not repeat them.
The one thing that belongs here is which word al-Aʿrāf chooses: thuʿbānun mubīn — the same word as at al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/32.
And a point of word order was recorded at 26/32 in al-Shuʿarāʾ and holds here too: the verse does not describe a transformation. It does not say "the staff turned into a serpent"; it says "he cast it down — and there it was, a serpent" (fa-idhā hiya). The process in between is not in the text. I rely on that treatment.
بَيْضَآءُ لِلنَّٰظِرِينَ — "white to those who looked". And the qualification must be recorded: li'n-nāẓirīn — the whiteness is described with reference to those who look.
I record this as an observation about word order: the second sign is told not, like the first, by the condition of an object, but by what the beholder sees. And at 20/22 in Ṭāhā the same event occurs with the qualification min ghayri sūʾin (not from any defect). Al-Aʿrāf does not give that qualification; Ṭāhā does. This is a difference that can be verified from the two texts.