The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 583
PT. 9 AL-A'RĀF 121. And the magicians were impelled to fall down 1011 prostrate. 122. And b. they said, 'We believe in the Lord of the worlds, 1012 123. The Lord of Moses and Aaron. ' CH. 7 وَأُلْقِيَ السَّحَرَةُ سَجِدِينَ قَالُوا أَمَنَّا بِرَبِّ الْعَلَمِينَ رَبِّ مُوسَى وَهُرُونَ قَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ أمَنتُم بِهِ قَبْلَ أَنْ اذَنَ Pharaoh said, “You have. 124 believed in him before I gave لَكُمْ إِنَّ هَذَا لَمَكْرُ مَّكَرْتُمُوهُ فِي you leave. Surely, this is a plot الْمَدِينَةِ لِتُخْرِجُوا مِنْهَا أَهْلَهَا that you have plotted in the city فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ that you may turn out therefrom its inhabitants, but you shall soon know the consequences. 1013 "20:71;26:47. 20:71; 26:48. 20:71; 26:49. 20:72; 26:50. have been spoken of in the next verse. So the words, and they returned humiliated, do not evidently apply to them. Moreover, the word (humiliated) could not have been used about men who had evinced such regard for truth as to have accepted it without even waiting to see what Pharaoh had to say about it. The word, "humiliated" has also been elsewhere used in the Quran about the disbelievers (9:29). The word (they returned) does not simply mean, "they became". The expression becomes much more powerful if taken in its literal sense, the meaning being that those who, a few moments before, had come to the scene of combat with a most proud and arrogant attitude and confident of success, now returned to their places humbled and crest-fallen. 1011. Commentary: The passive voice in the words, were impelled to fall down prostrate, is full of meaning. The discomfiture of the magicians was so complete that it appeared that some hidden power had taken the ground from under their feet. They were, as it were, made to fall down prostrate on the ground in an attitude of prayer and humility before God. 1023 1012. Commentary: Their discomfiture proved to the magicians that the Lord of the worlds was on the side of Moses; so they hastened to believe in Him. 1013. Commentary: The sudden change in the magicians, brought about by the powerful hand of God, gave rise to