Surah Al-A'raf, Ayah 110

Fir`awn's People say that Musa is a Magician!

The chiefs and noblemen of the people of Fir`awn agreed with Fir`awn's statement about Musa. After Fir`awn felt safe and returned to his throne, he said to the chiefs of his people,

إِنَّ هَـذَا لَسَـحِرٌ عَلِيمٌ

(This is indeed a well-versed sorcerer) and they agreed. They held counsel to decide what they should do about Musa. They conspired to extinguish the light that he brought and bring down his word. They plotted to portray Musa as a liar and fake. They feared that he might lure people to his side by his magic, they claimed, and thus prevail over them and drive them away from their land. What they feared occured, just as Allah said,

وَنُرِىَ فِرْعَوْنَ وَهَـمَـنَ وَجُنُودَهُمَا مِنْهُمْ مَّا كَانُواْ يَحْذَرونَ

(And We let Fir`awn and Haman and their hosts receive from them that which they feared.) 28:6 After they conferred about Musa, they agreed on a plot, as Allah said about them,

The Arabic word 'Mala" is used for influential chiefs. After seeing these miracles they said to the people he was a great sorcerer. Being ignorant of divine powers of Allah they could say nothing else as they believed Pharaoh to be their god and had seen nothing but the magical charms of the sorcerers in their life. They, however, added the word "alim' signifying the one who knows, showing their impression that the miraculous acts of Musa (علیہ السلام) were of the kind that could not be performed by an ordinary magician. So, they said that he was a sorcerer of great knowledge.

The difference between miracle and sorcery

God has blessed man with the powers of observation, hearing and thinking, so that he may learn lessons and, with their help, may understand the signs of God. But when a man does not utilize these powers for the purpose for which they were intended, then it inevitably happens that the sensitivity of his heart starts waning until his feelings become blunted; the seal of insensitivity is thus fixed on his heart and mind. Now, his position becomes that of one who does not see in spite of having eyes, does not hear in spite of having ears and does not understand in spite of having a mind; and in spite of being a human being, he loses his humanity. The human race began with the followers of Adam. Thereafter, when they fell into wrong ways, the prophets of God came to admonish them. Now those who reformed themselves on the advent of the prophets were saved and those who refused to be reformed were destroyed. Again the following generations forgot the vows of submission to God made to their prophets, and they suffered the same consequences as those of the later generations of Adam’s followers. Such a state of affairs has occurred again and again, so much so that the history of the greater part of the human race has become that of disobedience and the breaking of pledges.