Part 77

By him gird up my loins,7

And make him a colleague in my work,

That we may praise thee oft and oft remember thee,

For thou regardest us."

He said, "O Moses, thou hast obtained thy suit:

Already, at another time, have we showed thee favour,

When we spake unto thy mother what was spoken:

'Cast him into the ark:8 then cast him on the sea [the river], and the sea shall throw him on the shore: and an enemy to me and an enemy to him shall take him up.' And I myself have made thee an object of love,

That thou mightest be reared in mine eye.

When thy sister went and said, 'Shall I shew you one who will nurse him?'9 Then We returned thee to thy mother that her eye might be cheered, and that she might not grieve. And when thou slewest a person, We delivered thee from trouble, and We tried thee with other trial.

For years didst thou stay among the people of Midian; then camest thou hither by my decree, O Moses:

And I have chosen thee for Myself.

Go thou and thy brother with my signs and be not slack to remember me.

Go ye to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds:

But speak ye to him with gentle speech; haply he will reflect or fear."

They said, "O our Lord! truly we fear lest he break forth against us, or act with exceeding injustice."

He said, "Fear ye not, for I am with you both. I will hearken and I will behold.

Go ye then to him and say, 'Verily we are Sent ones of thy Lord; send therefore the children of Israel with us and vex them not: now are we come to thee with signs from thy Lord, and, Peace shall be on him who followeth the right guidance.

For now hath it been revealed to us, that chastisement shall be on him who chargeth with falsehood, and turneth him away."'

And he said, "Who is your Lord, O Moses?"

He said, "Our Lord is He who hath given to everything its form and then guideth it aright."

"But what," said he, "was the state of generations past?"10

He said, "The knowledge thereof is with my Lord in the Book of his decrees. My Lord erreth not, nor forgetteth.

He hath spread the earth as a bed, and hath traced out paths for you therein, and hath sent down rain from Heaven, and by it we bring forth the kinds11 of various herbs:

-'Eat ye, and feed your cattle.' Of a truth in this are signs unto men endued with understanding.

From it have we created you, and into it will we return you, and out of it will we bring you forth a second time."12

And we shewed him all our signs: but he treated them as falsehoods, and refused to believe.

He said, "Hast thou come, O Moses, to drive us from our land by thine enchantments?