Is it not a lesson for the successors of the past generations that had We wanted, We could have punished them for their sins, sealed their hearts and deprived them of hearing? 100 We have told you the stories of those towns: their messengers came to them with clear signs, but they were never going to believe in something they had already rejected. Thus God seals up the hearts of those who deny the truth. 101 And We found no covenant in most of them; and most of them We found ungodly. 102 AND AFTER those [early people] We sent Moses with Our messages unto Pharaoh and his great ones, and they wilfully rejected them: and behold what happened in the end to those spreaders of corruption! 103 Moses said, "Pharaoh, I am a messenger from the Lord of the Universe, 104 incumbent upon me is that I say nothing of Allah except the truth. I bring you a clear proof from your Lord. So let the Children of Israel depart with me' 105 [Pharaoh] said, "If you have come with a sign, then bring it forth, if you should be of the truthful." 106 Then (Moses) threw his rod, and behold! it was a serpent, plain (for all to see)! 107 Then he uncovered his hand and it appeared sheer white to the onlookers. 108