۞ AND CONVEY unto them the story of Noah - when he said unto his people: "O my people! If my presence [among you] and my announcement of God's messages are repugnant to you - well, in God have I placed my trust. Decide, then, upon what you are going to do [against me,] and [call to your aid] those beings to whom you ascribe a share in God's divinity; and once you have chosen your course of action, let no hesitation deflect you from it; and then carry out against me [whatever you may have decided,] and give me no respite! 71 But if ye are averse I have asked of you no wage. My wage is the concern of Allah only, and I am commanded to be of those who surrender (unto Him). 72 But they rejected Noah, calling him a liar. So We saved him and those who were with him in the Ark, and made them successors (to the authority in the land), and drowned all those who had rejected Our signs as false. Consider, then, the fate of those who had been warned (and still did not believe). 73 Then did We raise up after him apostles to their people, so they came to them with clear arguments, but they would not believe in what they had rejected before; thus it is that We set seals upon the hearts of those who exceed the limits. 74 And after those [earlier prophets] We sent Moses and Aaron with Our messages unto Pharaoh and his great ones: but they gloried in their arrogance, for they were people lost in sin. 75 Then when there came unto them the truth from Us, they said: verily this is magic manifest. 76 Said Moses: "Do you speak thus of the truth after it has been brought to you? Can this be sorcery? But sorcerers can never come to a happy end!" 77 They said: "Hast thou come to us to turn us away from the ways we found our fathers following,- in order that thou and thy brother may have greatness in the land? But not we shall believe in you!" 78 And Pharaoh said (to his) men: 'Bring every skilled sorcerer to me.' 79 When all the magicians were brought to his court, Moses asked them to cast down what they wanted to. 80 Then when they had cast (their staffs), Moses said: 'What you have produced is sheer sorcery. Allah will certainly reduce it to naught. Surely Allah does not set right the work of the mischief-makers. 81 "And Allah will establish and make apparent the truth by His Words, however much the Mujrimun (criminals, disbelievers, polytheists, sinners, etc.) may hate it." 82