20. Sura Taha, Mecca 45
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
قَالَ
فَمَا بَالُ
الْقُرُونِ
الْأُولَى ﴿٥١﴾
20: 51. (Pharaoh) said: "What then is the condition of previous generations?"
C2574. But Pharaoh was not the man to accept teaching from the despised Israelite- one, too, who in his eyes was a renegade from the higher Egyptian civilisation.
"If," he says in effect, "there is only one God, to Whom all things are referred, this is a new religion.
What of the religion of our ancestors?
Were they wrong in worshipping the Egyptian gods?
And if they were wrong, are they in misery now?
He wanted to trap Moses into a scathing denunciation of his ancestors, which would at once have deprived him of the sympathy or the hearing of the Egyptian crowd.
Asad’s Version:
20:51
Said [Pharaoh]: "And what of all the past generations?" 32 (20:52) [Moses] answered:
"Knowledge thereof rests with my Sustainer [alone, and is laid down] in His decree; 33 my Sustainer does not err, and neither does He forget." 34
Other Versions:
20:51
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