Moses said to them: “Throw whatever you are going to throw!” So they threw their ropes and staffs, and said: “By Pharaoh’s might, it is we indeed who will prevail.” Then Moses threw his staff, and it swallowed up their false devices. The sorcerers fell down prostrating themselves, and said: “We believe in the Lord of all the worlds, the Lord of Moses and Aaron.” (Pharaoh) said: “You believe in him even before I have given you permission! Surely, this one must be your master who has taught you witchcraft! But in time you shall come to know. I shall most certainly have your hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, and I shall most certainly crucify you all.” They said: “No harm (can you cause us). To our Lord we shall indeed return. We certainly hope that our Lord will forgive us our sins, since we are the first who have believed.” (The Poets: Al-Shu’ara: 26: 43-51)
We explained last week how the encounter between Pharaoh’s sorcerers and Moses ended in total defeat for sorcery and tyranny. This prompted the sorcerers to declare their belief in God, the Lord of all the worlds, despite the fact that, up to that moment, their role was to defend the status quo that enabled Pharaoh to claim the position of a deity and establish his tyrannical rule. The transformation that affected the sorcerers represented a serious threat to Pharaoh and his authority. Hence, his chiefs and nobles encouraged him to suppress this revolt before it ended his rule.
Enraged, Pharaoh issued his clear warning of inflicting all sorts of punishment and torture on the sorcerers, accusing them of conspiring with Moses against him and his people: “You believe in him even before I have given you permission! Surely, this one must be your master who has taught you witchcraft! But in time you shall come to know. I shall most certainly have your hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, and I shall most certainly crucify you all.”
The Qur’anic text places special emphasis on Pharaoh’s first words, “you believe in him,” so as to make it a surrender to Moses without first obtaining Pharaoh’s permission. Thus, he is accusing them of a conspiracy that has definite aims in which they willingly participated, knowing fully well its outcome. He could not appreciate what touched their hearts. How could a tyrant feel the effect of faith on people’s minds and hearts? He then delivered his hasty accusation to explain the transformation in their attitude: “Surely, this one must be your master who has taught you witchcraft!” This is a very strange accusation which has no explanation unless one says that some of these priest sorcerers — since the religion that made Pharaoh a deity relied on magic-practicing priests — attended to Moses’ education as he was brought up in Pharaoh’s palace, or that he might have attended them in their temples. Hence, Pharaoh manipulates this distant relation, putting it upside down. Thus, instead of saying that Moses was their disciple, he said that he was their master, to make the situation look even more horrendous.
Pharaoh then threatens them with severe torture, and magnifies what punishment he would be inflicting on those believers: “I shall most certainly have your hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, and I shall most certainly crucify you all.” It is the same stupid measures to which every tyrant resorts when he feels his position or his life threatened. Pharaoh resorts to this stupidity in an arrogant, vicious manner and without compunction. He utters his words knowing that in his position of absolute power he can carry out his threats to the letter. What would the small group of believers who have seen the light of faith say in reply?
What they say is inspiring indeed. Their reply comes from hearts that have found true faith and will not change it for anything else. They realize that their newly found relation with God gives them an honor that enables them to place tyranny in total disregard. They now aspire to the true life of the hereafter, paying no heed whatsoever to what they may have to face in this life: “They said: No harm (can you cause us). To our Lord we shall indeed return. We certainly hope that our Lord will forgive us our sins, since we are the first who have believed.”
“You can cause us no harm!” That you may be able to cut our hands and feet on alternate sides, or you may crucify us and inflict torture on us does not mean that you can harm us. Indeed, even if you kill us all, you will not harm us, because we will return to our Lord. Whatever happens on this earth will end here. Our hopes and aspirations are all centered on what will happen in the life to come where we “certainly hope that our Lord will forgive us our sins, since we are the first who have believed.”
What splendid effect faith has on a believer’s mind, and how it brightens his soul, pouring on it reassurance and contentedness. Thus man, who originates from an essence of clay can attain the sublime. When faith settles in the heart, it enriches it to the extent that all that this world can offer seems trivial, worthless.
Here the curtains fall to retain the effect of this splendid scene and its majestic rhythm. It is given here in this way so as to make it a lesson to be fully appreciated by the new Muslims in Makkah as they faced torture and persecution inflicted by the unbelievers of the Quraysh. It remains a lesson to all advocates of faith as they suffer persecution anywhere and in every generation.
What happened afterward was that God looked after his faithful servants as Pharaoh began to raise his army, putting his plans together: “Then We revealed to Moses: ‘Set forth with My servants by night, for you will be pursued.’ Pharaoh sent heralds to all cities, (saying): ‘These are but a small band, and most certainly they have enraged us; but we are all united, and well prepared.’”
We have here a gap in the story during which certain events took place but are omitted here. Moses and the Israelites lived for a period in Egypt during which the signs mentioned in Surah 7, The Heights, took place. It was later that God instructed Moses to leave Egypt with his people. All these events are omitted here so that the historical account serves the theme of the surah better, putting its message most clearly.