So when they said, it was as if it were said: What did he respond to them? He informed that he denied them, by his saying: ﴿Moses said﴾. And since their repetition of that saying was more deserving of denial, he expressed it in the present tense, indicating that they repeated it to nullify what was established in the hearts of the people regarding its greatness: ￿Do you say of the truth﴾. And he pointed out that they hastened to deny without any consideration or pause by saying: ￿When it came to you﴾, meaning: this saying that you have said, which is that it is magic. For the saying is applied to what is disliked; you say: So-and-so spoke about So-and-so, meaning he disparaged him, and So-and-so fears the saying, and among the people there is talk. Then he repeated the denial by saying: ￿Is this magic?﴾ meaning: that which is in the utmost degree of firmness and opposition to magic in all its attributes, until you say that about it. The verse is from the type of implication: mentioning the saying in the first indicates the omission of something similar in the second, and mentioning magic in the second indicates the omission of something similar in the first.

And since the implication is: Do you say this while you have seen its success? He built upon that his saying: ￿And the magicians will not succeed﴾, meaning: they will not attain what they desire at any time. ￿The magicians﴾ [meaning: those who are experienced in it], for the outcome of their affair is deception and delusion in falsehoods, so success is far from them. And it is permissible that this sentence be connected to his saying: ￿Is this magic?﴾ because it is a denial in the sense of negation.