Quran — Page 493

although each sign that We showed them was weigh­tier than the preceding one: and [each time] We took them to task through suffering, so that they might return [to Us].

And [every time] they exclaimed: “O thou sorcerer! Pray for us to thy Sustainer on the strength of the covenant [of prophethood] which He has made with thee: for, verily, we shall now follow the right way!”

But whenever We removed the suffering from them, lo! they would break their word.

And Pharaoh issued a call to his people, say­ing: “O my people! Does not the dominion over Egypt belong to me, since all these running waters flow at my feet? Can you not, then, see [that I am your lord supreme]?

Am I not better than this contemptible man who can hardly make his meaning clear?

“And then - why have no golden armlets been bestowed on him? or why have no angels come together with him?”

Thus he incited his people to levity, and they obeyed him: for, behold, they were people depraved!

But when they continued to challenge Us, We inflicted Our retribution on them, and drowned them all:

and so We made them a thing of the past, and an example to those who would come after them.

NOW WHENEVER [the nature of] the son of Mary is set forth as an example, [O Muhammad,] lo! thy people raise an outcry on this score,

and say, “Which is better - our deities or he?” [But] it is only in the spirit of dispute that they put this comparison before thee: yea, they are conten­tious folk!

[As for Jesus,] he was nothing but [a human being -] a servant [of Ours] whom We had graced [with prophethood], and whom We made an example for the children of Israel.

And had We so willed, [O you who worship angels,] We could indeed have made you into angels succeeding one another on earth!