فَمَآ ءَامَنَ لِمُوسَىٰٓ إِلَّا ذُرِّيَّةٌ مِّن قَوْمِهِۦ عَلَىٰ خَوْفٍ مِّن فِرْعَوْنَ وَمَلَإِي۟هِمْ أَن يَفْتِنَهُمْ · وَقَالَ مُوسَىٰ يَٰقَوْمِ إِن كُنتُمْ ءَامَنتُم بِٱللَّهِ فَعَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلُوٓا۟ · فَقَالُوا۟ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ تَوَكَّلْنَا رَبَّنَا لَا تَجْعَلْنَا فِتْنَةً لِّلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
"None believed in Moses but a group of the young from among his people — in fear that Pharaoh and his notables would put them to the test. Pharaoh had indeed gained the upper hand in the land, and he was among those who overstep the bounds. · Moses said: 'My people! If you have believed in God and submitted to Him, then put your trust in Him.' · They said: 'We have put our trust in God. Our Lord! Do not make us a trial for the wrongdoing people; and deliver us by Your mercy from the denying people.'"
| Reading | To whom the pronoun qawmihī refers |
|---|---|
| 1 | Moses's people — a group from the Children of Israel |
| 2 | Pharaoh's people — a group from the Egyptians |
Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. The wording of the verse suits either, because the referent of the pronoun is not stated.
ذُرِّيَّة — root ذ-ر-ر / ذ-ر-و: offspring, lineage; and in most uses the word is used of children and the young.
And the smallness of the number must be recorded: fa-mā āmana … illā — the pattern of restriction. The verse, that is, gives the fewness of the believers with a pattern of exception.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the contrast with the ninety-eighth verse: from the people of Moses a handful believe; from the people of Jonah all of them. The sūra keeps the two extreme cases in the same section.
I record this as an observation, and it may be compared with the sixty-second verse: there it was said lā khawfun ʿalayhim. The two verses do not contradict one another: the one states a ruling about the final outcome, the other a condition in this world. And the difference is visible at the level of the particle too: lā khawfun ʿalayhim (no fear is upon them) — āmana ʿalā khawfin (he believed upon fear).
فِتْنَة — root ف-ت-ن: to melt gold in fire and separate out what is pure. The word was treated in the index; the core sense is testing, a burning sifting.
And how the prayer is built must be recorded: lā tajʿalnā fitnatan li'l-qawmi'ẓ-ẓālimīn — "do not make us a trial for the wrongdoing people."
| Reading | What is asked |
|---|---|
| 1 | Do not deliver us into their hands — do not allow them to torment us |
| 2 | Do not make us material for a test for them — let them not look at us and say "if it were true this would not have befallen them" |
| 3 | Do not test us by their means — let their oppression not be a trial for us |
And the link with the word in the eighty-third verse must be recorded: there what was feared was an yaftinahum. What is feared in the eighty-third verse, that is, becomes the subject of the prayer in the eighty-fifth. It is a link that can be verified within the sūra.
فَعَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلُوٓا۟ — and tawakkul occurs twice in the sūra: in the seventy-first verse in Noah's mouth (fa-ʿala'llāhi tawakkaltu), here in Moses's mouth and in his people's answer. The same verb, two prophets, in the same position: when the other side is strong.