Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
50 But when We lifted the punishment from them,
behold, they would break their pledge.
51 And Pharaoh proclaimed amongst his people.
He said, ‘O my people!
Does not the kingdom of Egypt belong to me
and these rivers that run at my feet?
Do you not perceive?
52 Am I not better than this humble 1 one
who cannot even speak clearly?
53 Why have no bracelets of gold been cast upon him,
nor have the angels come with him as escorts?’
54 So he misled his people and they obeyed him.
Indeed they were a transgressing lot.
55 So when they roused Our wrath,
We took vengeance on them
and drowned them all.
56 Thus We made them the vanguard 2
and an example for posterity.
57 When the Son of Mary was cited as an example,
behold, your people raise an outcry.3
58 They say, ‘Are our gods better or he?’
They only cite him to you for the sake of contention.
Rather they are a contentious lot.
59 He was just a servant whom We had blessed
1 Or ‘vile.’
2 That is, of those who enter hell.
3 Or ‘laughed at it.’ (Ma‘ānī al-akhbār, p. 220) Or ‘turn away,’ in accordance with an alternate reading (yaṣuddūn instead of yaṣiddūn) narrated from many authorities. (Mu‘jam al-Qirā’āt al-Qur’āniyyah, vol. 6, p. 121)
