Surah 10. Yunus, Ayah 90

Lit., "until, when drowning overtook him, he said". For the full story of Moses and Pharaoh, the latter's tyrannical oppression of the Israelites and their ultimate deliverance, see Exodus i-xiv, and especially (with reference to the above Qur'an-verse), ch. xiv, which narrates in great detail the miraculous escape of the Israelites and the doom of Pharaoh and his forces. It should always be remembered that all Qur'anic references to historical or legendary events - whether described in the Bible or in the oral tradition of pre-Islamic Arabia - are invariably meant to elucidate a particular lesson in ethics and not to narrate a story as such: and this explains the fragmentary character of these references and allusions.

Notice the swiftness of the action in the narrative. The execution of poetic justice could not have been described in fewer words.

That is, in the One True God. This was death-bed repentance, and even so it was forced by the terror of the catastrophe. So it was not accepted (cf. iv. 18) in its entirety. Only the body was saved from the sea, and presumably, according to Egyptian custom, it was embalmed and the mummy was given due rites of the dead. But the story commemorated forever Allah's working, in mercy for His people, and in just punishment of oppressors.