158. Majid quotes: ‘The priests and military men held the highest position in the country after the family of the King, and from them were chosen his ministers and confidential advisers,' "the wise counsellors of Pharaoh" (HHW: I. p. 200).

159. Sayyid Qutb comments: "This was the fear that Fir`awn and his counselors felt in the wake of the message .. and this is how the rebels of every age feel threatened. We might at this point recall what a bedouin had remarked in a set of neat words when he heard the Prophet invite the people to bear testimony to Allah's oneness and to his own messengership. He had said: ‘These are words that the kings despise.' Another bedouin also in a neat set of words quipped: ‘If that is so then the Arabs and the non Arabs will declare war on you.' The two Arabs knew the implication of the call. They knew that the testimony: ‘there is no god save Allah,' falls like a hammer-blow on the heads of the kings and rulers who rule not by the Law of Allah be they Arabs or non Arabs. The testimony touched the Arabs' psyche with gravity, for they knew their language well enough. There was not one among them who thought that the testimony ‘there is no god save Allah,' and rule by the laws of other than Allah, could be brought to dwell together in the heart of a man, or on any single piece of land ... that there could be any other deity where belief in Allah was established. There was not anyone then who would understand the meaning and implication of the testimony ‘there is no god save Allah' as understood today by those who call themselves Muslims."

160. It has been said that this sentence is from Fir`awn. That is, when they expressed their concern, he asked them for advice on the course of action (Ibn Jarir).

Mawdudi comments: "The above account raises the question as to how a destitute member of the slave Israeli nation could pose such a serious threat to an emperor as mighty as Pharaoh. This is especially so when one considers that Pharaoh was not only an absolute ruler over the territory which stretched in one direction from Syria to Libya and in the other direction from the Mediterranean coast to Ethiopia, but was even considered a deity deserving of worship... The answer lies in the fact that Moses's claim to prophethood implied the call to total change, obviously including political change. For, if a person lays claim to be God's Messenger, it implies that people obey him unreservedly. For God's Messengers are not sent to the world to obey other human beings and live in subordination to them... It is this which explains why Pharaoh and his coterie felt threatened by an all out revolution political, economic and social when Moses came forth with his call."

The immediate threat, of course, was to their economy. The Israelites were in tens of thousands, deployed in homes, farms, fields and industries. Their sudden freedom or departure from the Kingdom, spelled doom to its economy. Pharaoh and his counselors could not have failed to imagine the impact (Au.).

161. The words "send across the cities musterers" suggest that every magician of some merit was brought to the capital, implying that several thousands of them must have gathered (Razi).

162. Majid quotes once again: "Egypt was then ‘the true home of all kinds of magic' (EBi.c. 1221)."

Yusuf Ali writes: "The advice of the Council to Pharaoh shows a misreading of the situation. They were in a panic about what the magic of this evidently powerful sorcerer could do against them. So they advised the Pharaoh to summon their most powerful sorcerers from all over the country, and in the meantime to hold Moses and Aaron to suspense, neither to yield to them nor definitely oppose them."

163. Asad writes: "The particle la preceding the noun ajr ("reward") indicates an emphasis which gives to this combination the meaning of "great reward."

Yusuf Ali comments: "Their (the magicians') art was built on trickery and imposture, and the first thing they could think of was to make a selfish bargain for themselves. The Pharaoh and his Council would in their state of panic agree to anything. And so they did."

164. Ibn `Abbas has been reported as saying that when the magicians were collected from all over the kingdom, they enquired about the kind of magic Musa performed. When they learnt that his rod became a snake, they repaired to a city called "Furma" which housed an institute of magic. There they received special training in converting rods to snakes. When they returned they assured Fir`awn that, unless a miracle from God Himself intervened, there was no one in the earth who could beat them in turning rods into snakes (Ibn Jarir).

165. The Sufiya have said that the magicians showed respect to Musa by asking him this question and were duly rewarded by Allah who led them to faith (Razi).

166. It is said that they turned up in thousands, everyone armed with ropes, rods, staffs, and so forth. They threw in all that they had and lo, they appeared to the people as snakes, the whole ground teeming with them in a dreadful sight (Ibn Jarir).

167. When Musa's snake had systematically swallowed their snakes, one after another, he picked it up and it turned back into his staff (Ibn Jarir).

168. The verse is speaking of Fir`awn and his folk (and not of the magicians) Ibn Jarir.

169. (Skilled magicians themselves) they realized that what Musa had performed could only have heavenly power behind it (since, otherwise, the ropes, staffs, etc., should not have disappeared altogether: Zamakhshari). Therefore, they were involuntarily thrown into prostration and belief in the Lord God to whom Musa had invited them Ibn `Abbas (Ibn Jarir).

Compare them, Hasan al Busri has said, with those born and brought up as Muslims, who sell their religion for a paltry price (Zamakhshari).

Imam Razi has said that the verse demonstrates, as many commentators have pointed out, the superiority of knowledge. Had not the magicians been fully knowledgeable, they would have never embraced the faith. Incomplete in the knowledge of magic, they would have remained doubting Musa's miracle as another kind of magic, albeit a superior one. How virtuous not then, asks Razi, the knowledge of Tawhid?

170. It is said that when they said, "We believed in the Lord of the worlds," Fir`awn asked, "Do you mean I?" They replied, "(Not you, but) the Lord of Musa and Harun" (Razi).

171. Sayyid Qutb writes: "Such then was the response... ‘Have you believed in him before I gave you leave?' .. As if they were bound to take his permission before opening their hearts to the truth. As if they did not own their hearts... Did he think that they should seek his permission for their hearts to tremble? when they themselves had no control over them? .. Should they have sought his leave that their hearts be filled with light? .. when they themselves had no power over their hearts? .. Or, were they required to suppress the faith that was growing in their hearts? .. Or trample down upon a conviction rising from the depths of their souls? Or, were they required to veil the light that was radiating from their faith?

"But the problem is that those who rebel against God are ignorant, idiotic, and abstruse while at the same time they are presumptuous, proud, and conceited."

172. Ibn Mas`ud, Ibn `Abbas and several others have said that back in the city, before the contest, Musa had asked the chief of the magicians whether he would embrace the truth if he lost the contest. The man irritably replied, "By God. I will put forward a feat of magic tomorrow that no one will be able to overcome. Yes, to be sure. If you can overcome, I will believe in you." Fir`awn was a witness to the conversation and was referring to it when he alleged that the two had conspired against him (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

173. "Pharaoh and his Court were doubly angry: first because they were made to look small when confronted by the power of Allah, and secondly, because their dupes and instruments were snatched away from them" (Yusuf Ali).

174. Sayyid comments: "This was a decisive point in the history of humankind when the impoverishment of materialism was demonstrated. This little group ... a moment ago looking for rewards from Fir`awn, and seeking nearness to power .. this little group has now risen above Fir`awn .. it belittles the threats of violence against it .. accepts the news of crucifixion with cool courage .. and, the interesting point is, nothing has altered in their lives .. nothing has changed around them – that is, in the physical world. But a subtle contact took place, the contact that relates the lone star to the galaxy, and pulls back a flying particle to place it in a fixed orbit .. that connects the mortal with the Eternal .. That specific touch took place which works upon the indicator, after which the heart begins to work in a rhythm .. the inner self begins to hear the echoes of guidance .. and the sight begins to pick up the radiance of light. That contact took place which does not wait for any change in the physical world, rather, it causes changes to it, and raises Man from the physical world to those horizons that the mind had not envisaged earlier."

175. Mujahid, Qatadah and others have said that Fir`awn accomplished what he had threatened with, so that those who were magicians in the morning turned martyrs by the evening (Ibn Jarir, Zamakhshari, Ibn Kathir).