Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
if we were to be the victors?’1
114 He said, ‘Of course!
And indeed you shall be among those near [to me].’
115 They said, ‘O Moses,
will you throw [first],
or shall we throw?’
116 He said, ‘Throw [yours].’
So when they threw,
they bewitched the people’s eyes
and overawed them,
producing a tremendous magic.
117 And We signalled to Moses:
‘Throw down your staff.’
And behold, it was swallowing what they had faked.
118 So the truth came out,
and what they had wrought was reduced to naught.
119 Thereat they were vanquished,
and they retreated, humiliated.
120 And the magicians fell down in prostration.
121 They said,
‘We have believed in the Lord of all the worlds,
122 the Lord of Moses and Aaron.’
123 Pharaoh said,
‘Do you profess faith in Him before I may permit you?
It is indeed a plot you have devised in the city
to expel its people from it.
1 This is in accordance with the reading of Ḥafṣ and that of the Ḥijāzī qārīs. However, in accordance with an alternate reading (with an interrogative hamzah before inna, exactly as in 26:41, a parallel verse) the translation will be, ‘Shall we indeed have a reward if we were to be the victors?’ (see Mu‘jam al-Qirā’āt al-Qur’āniyyah, ii, pp. 388-389).
