The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 77
PT. 11 YŪNUS CH. 10 وَقَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ ائْتُونِي بِكُلِّ سُحِرٍ And Pharaoh said, “Bring. 80 عَليْم to me every expert magic- ian. '1353 فَلَمَّا جَاءَ السَّحَرَةُ قَالَ لَهُمْ مُّوسَى And when the magicians. 81 الْقَوْا مَا أَنْتُمْ مُلْقُوْنَ لا came, Moses said to them, b‘Cast ye what you would cast. '1354 فَلَمَّا الْقَوْا قَالَ مُوسى مَا جِئْتُمْ بِهِ ,And when they had cast. 82 b السّحْرُ اِنَّ اللهَ سَيُبْطِلُهُ إِنَّ اللهَ لَا ,brought is mere sorcery. Surely "Moses said, 'What you have a7:113; 26:37, 38. 07:117; 20:67; 26:44. 7:119; 20:70. مبين سحر in the words (manifest enchantment) in v. 77 have been explained in the present verse. The first charge implied in the word > (enchantment) was that Moses wanted to turn his people away from the truth. In this verse the opponents of Moses are described as saying that he wanted to turn them away from the religion of their forefathers which, in their opinion, as also in the opinion of all enemies of God's Prophets, was the truth. Their second objection is hinted at in the word i. e. he sought to sow dissensions among the people. This charge has been expressed here in the allegation that Moses and Aaron desired to have dominion in the land, which could be secured only by creating disruption in the existing order of things. 1353. Commentary: they set about finding out sorcerers to oppose him and thus were caught in the very net which they thought they had laid for Moses. 1354. Commentary: This verse, as may be wrongly construed, does not mean that on seeing the sorcerers Moses became prepared to meet them in the contest. that they were mere He knew sorcerers and that whatever they might do would be useless and unworthy of his notice. He therefore treated them with the contempt they deserved by saying, Cast ye what you would cast, hinting that their sorcery not worthy of notice. He, however, did not think it proper to was refuse to accept their challenge outright, knowing that when the actual contest began the hollowness of their work would itself become One error leads to another. Pharaoh exposed and it would then be time for and his people called Moses an him to bring home to them the falsity enchanter (v. 77), and the result was of their work. This he actually did, as that, instead of following the right is announced by him in the course for the investigation of truth, | succeeding verse, What you have 1285