Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 254
THE NATURE OF REVELATION. Moses as swallowed what the magicians had fabricated – that is the false images of ropes turned into snakes. . The same episode is covered in another Surah which throws more light on what actually happened: قَالَ بَلْ الْقُواْ فَإِذَا حِبَالُهُمْ وَعِصِيُّهُمْ يُخَيَّلُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ سِحْرِهِمْ أَنَّهَا تَسْعَى فَأَوْجَسَ فِي نَفْسِهِ خِيْفَةً مُّوْسَى قُلْنَا لَا تَخَفْ أَنَّكَ أَنْتَ الأعلى* 69-20:67. Moses said to them: 'You throw your cast first', and lo their cords and staves appeared to him as though they were moving (like snakes) under the influence of their spell, as if they ran about. . At this, Moses conceived fear. . We (God) said: 'Fear not, it is you who will emerge victorious. "². In this verse, the Quran speaks of Moses as himself having been influenced by the psychic powers of the magicians. This implies that Moses as could not have broken the spell of the magicians by the power of his own mind when he threw his staff. Psychologically it is impossible for the mind to break the spell of a mesmerizer who has already succeeded in subjugating it. Hence it could not have been Moses who countered the magicians' spell with his own will. . It was this aspect of the whole incident which turned it into a miracle. Otherwise any man with stronger willpower could have directly frustrated the efforts of the magicians. No one could judge better than the magicians themselves, who were in a position to realize that it had to be the Hand of God working on the side of Mosesas. They had witnessed Moses as to have fallen under their sway like all other spectators. How then could his mind liberate itself as well as the minds of the spectators from the magicians' 248