at death and burial; and, “from it We shall bring you forth once more,” means on the Day of Resurrection.

“We certainly showed him all Our signs, but he denied them and refused. (56) He said, ‘Moses, have you come to drive us out of our land by your magic? (57) We shall surely bring you magic like it. So set a time and place of meeting between us and you, which neither we nor you will fail to keep.’ (58) He said, ‘Your appointed time is the Day of Adornment, and let the people be assembled at midmorning.’ (59)

His saying, exalted is He, “We certainly showed him”—meaning Pharaoh—“all Our signs,” refers to the nine signs Allah gave Moses. “But he denied them,” claiming that they were magic, “and refused” to submit to Islam.

“He said”—that is, Pharaoh—“Have you come to drive us out of our land,” meaning Egypt, “by your magic, Moses?” That is, you intend to gain dominion over our land and drive us out of it.

“We shall surely bring you magic like it. So set a time and place of meeting between us and you”: that is, fix a date and an appointed time between us. “Which neither we nor you will fail to keep.” Abu Jafar recited it as “which we will not fail to keep,” in the jussive form, meaning: we will not go beyond it. (1)

“A place equally convenient to us both.” Ibn Amir, Asim, Hamzah, and Yaqub recited “suwan” with a dammah on the letter sin, while the others recited it with a kasrah. Both are dialectal variants, like ‘idan and ‘udan, and tiwan and tuwan.

Muqatil and Qatadah said: “A just place between us and you.” Ibn Abbas said: “A midway place,” meaning that the distance to it would be equal for both parties. Mujahid said: “An equitable place.” Al-Kalbi said: It means a place other than this one.

“He said, ‘Your appointed time is the Day of Adornment.’” Mujahid, Qatadah, Muqatil, and al-Suddi said: It was one of their festival days, on which they adorned themselves and gathered every year. It was also said that it was the day of Nowruz.

Ibn Abbas and Said ibn Jubayr said: It was the day of Ashura. (2)

“And that the people be assembled at midmorning”: that is, at the time of duha, openly in broad daylight, so that there would be less cause for doubt.