Quran — Page 470

And Pharaoh said: “Leave it to me to slay Moses - and let him invoke his [alleged] sustainer! Behold, I fear lest he cause you to change your religion, or lest he cause corruption to prevail in the land!”

But Moses said: “With [Him who is] my Sus­tainer as well as your Sustainer have I indeed found refuge from everyone who, immersed in false pride, will not believe in [the coming of] the Day of Reckon­ing!”

At that, a believing man of Pharaoh’s family, who [until then] had concealed his faith, exclaimed: “Would you slay a man because he says, ‘God is my Sustainer’ - seeing, withal, that he has brought you all evidence of this truth from your Sustainer? Now if he be a liar, his lie will fall back on him; but if he is a man of truth, something [of the punishment] whereof he warns you is bound to befall you: for, verily, God would not grace with His guidance one who has wasted his own self by lying [about Him].

“O my people! Yours is the dominion today, [and] most eminent are you on earth: but who will rescue us from God’s punishment, once it befalls us?” Said Pharaoh: “I but want to make you see what I see myself; and I would never make you follow any path but that of rectitude!”

Thereupon exclaimed he who had attained to faith: “O my people! Verily, I fear for you the like of what one day befell those others who were leagued together [against God’s truth] –

the like of what happened to Noah’s people, and to [the tribes of] Ad and Thamud and those who came after them! And, withal, God does not will any wrong for His crea­tures.

“And, O my people, I fear for you [the coming of] that Day of [Judgment - the Day when you will be] calling unto one another [in distress] –

the Day when you will [wish to] turn your backs and flee, having none to defend you against God: for he whom God lets go astray can never find any guide.