“Do not exalt yourselves against Allah. I bring you clear proof. I have sought refuge in my Lord and your Lord from your stoning me. If you do not believe me, then leave me alone. Then he called upon his Lord, saying, ‘These are a guilty people.’ ‘Set out by night with My servants; you will surely be pursued. Leave the sea undisturbed; they are an army destined to be drowned.’ How many gardens and springs they left behind, and fields, and splendid places of assembly, and comforts in which they took delight!” (19–27)

“Do not exalt yourselves against Allah”: do not behave arrogantly toward Him by abandoning obedience to Him. “I bring you clear proof”: that is, a manifest proof of the truthfulness of what I say. When he said this, they threatened to kill him, so he said:

“I have sought refuge in my Lord and your Lord from your stoning me.” “From your stoning me” means: from your killing me. Ibn ‘Abbas said: from your reviling me and saying, “He is a sorcerer.” Qatadah said: from your pelting me with stones.

“If you do not believe me, then leave me alone”: leave me, neither supporting me nor opposing me. Ibn ‘Abbas said: refrain from harming me by hand or tongue. But they did not believe.

“Then he called upon his Lord, saying, ‘These are a guilty people’”: that is, polytheists. Allah answered him and commanded him to set out by night, saying:

“Set out by night with My servants”: that is, with the Children of Israel. “You will surely be pursued”: Pharaoh and his people will pursue you.

“Leave the sea,” after you and your companions have crossed it, “undisturbed”: leave it calm, in the condition and form in which it remained after you struck it and entered it. Its meaning is: do not command it to return; leave it until Pharaoh’s people enter it. The basic meaning of the expression is stillness. Muqatil said: it means, “Leave the sea still” (1), that is, calm; the verbal noun is used adjectivally, meaning “possessing stillness.” Ka‘b said: leave it as a road. Qatadah said: as a dry road.

Qatadah said: When Moses had crossed the sea, he turned back, intending to strike the sea with his staff so that it would close again, for he feared that Pharaoh [and his troops] (2) would follow him. But he was told, “Leave the sea undisturbed, as it is. They are an army destined to be drowned.” Allah informed Moses that He would drown them, so as to reassure his heart about leaving the sea as it was when he crossed through it. He then mentioned what they left behind in Egypt.

He said: “How many” [after their drowning] (3) “gardens and springs, fields, and splendid places of assembly” they left behind. This means a dignified gathering place. Qatadah said: “Splendid” means beautiful.

“And comforts”: that is, enjoyment and an easy life, “in which they took delight,” living at ease; and this denotes people who were exultant and insolently ungrateful.