44. The stubbornness of Pharaoh and the chiefs of his people can be judged from the fact that when distressed by the torment they wanted the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) to pray for its removal, even then they did not recognize him as a Prophet but addressed him as a magician, whereas they were not unaware of the truth about magic, and they also knew that those miraculous things could not be brought about by the power of magic. The most that a magician can do is that in a limited area he can so influence the people present in front of him as to make them feel that water has become blood, or frogs are coming out in large numbers or swarms of locusts are advancing. And within this limited place also no water will actually become blood, but water will remain water as soon as it comes outside it; no frog will be produced in actual fact, but will prove to be an imaginary thing as soon as brought outside the circle; locusts also would be imaginary: they would not be able to destroy any crop. As for this that a famine appears throughout a country, or that the canals and springs and wells of the country are filled with blood, or that swarms of locusts spread over thousands of square miles and eat up crops growing over thousands of acres, this has neither been accomplished by a magician so far, nor can it ever happen by the power of magic. Should such magicians be there in the service of a king, he need not keep forces and fight wars; he could conquer the whole world by the power of magic. Even if the magicians possessed such power, they would not seek service under the kings, but would assume kingship themselves.
The commentators in general have been perplexed as to why Pharaoh and his courtiers addressed the Prophet Moses as “O sorcerer”, when they requested him to pray for the removal of the calamity, for the one who seeks another’s help in a hard time flatters him and does not condemn him. They have given the interpretation that sorcery in the Egypt of those days was held as a very respectable art, and when they addressed Moses as “O sorcerer” they did not condemn him, but honored him because it amounted to calling him as “O Learned man” But this interpretation is absolutely wrong on the ground that wherever at other places in the Quran Pharaoh’s sayings have been cited in which he had called the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) a sorcerer and the miracles presented by him sorcery, the sense of condemnation and contempt becomes apparent, and it becomes manifestly clear that sorcery was false in his sight, which he imputed to the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) so as to prove his claim to the Prophethood to be false! Therefore, it cannot be acceptable that suddenly at this time “sorcerer” became the title of an honorable and learned man in his sight. As for the question: Why did the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) accede to his request at all when even while requesting him for the prayer, Pharaoh insulted him publicly, the answer is that the object before the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) was to strengthen the case against those people by Allah’s command. Their request to him to pray for the removal of the torment by itself proved that in their hearts they had come to know why the torments were occurring, who was sending them and who could avert them. In spite of that, when they called him a “sorcerer” stubbornly, and went back on their word of following the right way as soon as the torment was averted, they in fact, did not do any harm to Allah’s Prophet, but only caused the case and argument to be strengthened against themselves, which Allah at last decided against them with their total destruction. When they called him a sorcerer, this did not mean that they believed in their hearts as well that the torments against them were coming by the power of sorcery, but they realized it fully that those were Allah’s signs and yet they denied them deliberately. The same thing has been said in (Surah An-Naml, Ayat 14): They rejected those signs out of sheer injustice and vanity, whereas in their hearts they were convinced.