قَالَ فَمَا بَالُ ٱلْقُرُونِ ٱلْأُولَىٰ

He said: What then is the state of the generations of old?

قَالَ عِلْمُهَا عِندَ رَبِّى فِى كِتَٰبٍۢ ۖ لَّا يَضِلُّ رَبِّى وَلَا يَنسَى

He said: The knowledge thereof is with my Lord in a Record. My Lord neither erreth nor forgetteth,

ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلْأَرْضَ مَهْدًۭا وَسَلَكَ لَكُمْ فِيهَا سُبُلًۭا وَأَنزَلَ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءًۭ فَأَخْرَجْنَا بِهِۦٓ أَزْوَٰجًۭا مِّن نَّبَاتٍۢ شَتَّىٰ

Who hath appointed the earth as a bed and hath threaded roads for you therein and hath sent down water from the sky and thereby We have brought forth divers kinds of vegetation,

كُلُوا۟ وَٱرْعَوْا۟ أَنْعَٰمَكُمْ ۗ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَءَايَٰتٍۢ لِّأُو۟لِى ٱلنُّهَىٰ

(Saying): Eat ye and feed your cattle. Lo! herein verily are portents for men of thought.

۞ مِنْهَا خَلَقْنَٰكُمْ وَفِيهَا نُعِيدُكُمْ وَمِنْهَا نُخْرِجُكُمْ تَارَةً أُخْرَىٰ

Thereof We created you, and thereunto We return you, and thence We bring you forth a second time.

وَلَقَدْ أَرَيْنَٰهُ ءَايَٰتِنَا كُلَّهَا فَكَذَّبَ وَأَبَىٰ

And We verily did show him all Our tokens, but he denied them and refused.

قَالَ أَجِئْتَنَا لِتُخْرِجَنَا مِنْ أَرْضِنَا بِسِحْرِكَ يَٰمُوسَىٰ

He said: Hast come to drive us out from our land by thy magic, O Moses?

فَلَنَأْتِيَنَّكَ بِسِحْرٍۢ مِّثْلِهِۦ فَٱجْعَلْ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكَ مَوْعِدًۭا لَّا نُخْلِفُهُۥ نَحْنُ وَلَآ أَنتَ مَكَانًۭا سُوًۭى

But we surely can produce for thee magic the like thereof; so appoint a tryst between us and you, which neither we nor thou shall fail to keep, at a place convenient (to us both).

قَالَ مَوْعِدُكُمْ يَوْمُ ٱلزِّينَةِ وَأَن يُحْشَرَ ٱلنَّاسُ ضُحًۭى

(Moses) said: Your tryst shall be the day of the feast, and let the people assemble when the sun hath risen high.

فَتَوَلَّىٰ فِرْعَوْنُ فَجَمَعَ كَيْدَهُۥ ثُمَّ أَتَىٰ

Then Pharaoh went and gathered his strength, then came (to the appointed tryst).