Quran — Page 497

“And exalt not yourselves against God: for, verily, I come unto you with a manifest authority [from Him];

and, behold, it is with my Sustainer - and your Sustainer - that I seek refuge against all your endeavours to revile me.

And if you do not believe me, [at least] stand away from me!”

But then, [when they beset him with their enmity,] he called out to his Sustainer, “These are [indeed] people lost in sin!”

And [God said]: “Go thou forth with My servants by night, for you will surely be pursued;

and leave the sea becalmed [between thee and Pharaoh’s men]: for, verily, they are a host destined to be drowned!”

[And so they perished: and] how many gardens did they leave behind, and water-runnels,

and fields of grain, and noble dwellings,

and [all that] life of ease in which they used to delight!

Thus it was. And [then] We made another people heirs [to what they had left],

and neither sky nor earth shed tears over them, nor were they allowed a respite.

And, indeed, We delivered the children of Israel from the shameful suffering

[inflicted on them] by Pharaoh, seeing that he was truly outstand­ing among those who waste their own selves;

and indeed, We chose them knowingly above all other people,

and gave them such signs [of Our grace] as would clearly presage a test.

[Now,] behold, these [people] say indeed:

“That [which is ahead of us] is but our first [and only] death, and we shall not be raised to life again.

So then, bring forth our forefathers [as witnesses], if what you claim is true!”

Are they, then, better than the people of Tubba and those before them, whom We destroyed because they were truly lost in [the same] sin?

For [thus it is:] We have not created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in mere idle play:

none of this have We created without [an inner] truth: but most of them under­stand it not.