Surah Ash-Shu'ara, Ayah 43

Between Musa, peace be upon him, and the Sorcerers Allah describes the actual encounter between Musa, peace be upon him,and the Egyptians in Surat Al-A` raf, Surah Ta Ha, and in this Surah

The Egyptians wanted to extinguish the Light of Allah with their words, but Allah insisted that His Light should prevail even though the disbelievers disliked that. This is the issue of disbelief and faith; they never confront one another but faith always prevails:

بَلْ نَقْذِفُ بِالْحَقِّ عَلَى الْبَـطِلِ فَيَدْمَغُهُ فَإِذَا هُوَ زَاهِقٌ وَلَكُمُ الْوَيْلُ مِمَّا تَصِفُونَ

(Nay, We fling the truth against the falsehood, so it destroys it, and behold, it disappears. And woe to you for that which you ascribe.) (21:18)

وَقُلْ جَآءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَـطِلُ

(And say: "Truth has come and falsehood has vanished.") (17:81) The sorcerers of Egypt were the most skilled in the art of illusion, but when a huge group of them gathered from all corners of the land, and the people came together on that day whose exact numbers are known to Allah Alone, one of them said:

Commentary.

أَلْقُوا مَا أَنتُم مُّلْقُونَ

Musa (علیہ السلام) said to them, "Throw you down what you are to throw." (26:43)

Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) said to the magicians ` You show the magic you wish to show'. With a cursory look one might be inclined to think that Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) ordered them to perform their magic. But with a little deep thinking it becomes clear that actually it was not an order from Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) to 'show magic, but the real intention was to demonstrate the fallacy of magic. This demonstration was not possible without the magic shown by them. Therefore, he asked them to show their tricks or magic. It is exactly like a zindiq (an extreme heretic) is asked to put forward his arguments, so that they may be countered. It is obvious that such an invitation cannot be treated as an acceptance of infidelity.

Pharaoh and his courtiers considered Moses’s feats as magical in nature. So, they planned to counter them by magic. Their imagination took them no further than thinking that if Moses could change a rod into a snake, their magicians could also change sticks into snakes. They had no knowledge beyond that. They considered Moses’s actions as those of a human being and that is why they wanted to counter them by human means. They did not know the secret that Moses’s mission was a divine mission, and which human being can clash with God? The annual national festival day of the Egyptians was appointed the day for the competition between Moses and the magicians. And for this purpose, a big open area was chosen so that a large number of people could gather and give as much encouragement to the magicians as possible.