'And throw' and he pointed to the right side of the staff and its blessing by his saying: 'What is in your right hand?' meaning of this staff which we said to you when we honored you with the conversation: 'And what is that in your right hand, O Musa?' [Ta-Ha: 17] Then we showed you from it what we showed you. 'It will swallow' with strength and effort along with speed that is hardly perceived - by which the omission of the 'ta' indicates 'what they made' [meaning they did it after great training on it and long practice -]; then he explained that by saying: 'Indeed' [meaning that what -] 'they made' meaning [that -] their making [is from what -] you saw and the matter of it astonished you. And since the aim was to belittle this army, he singled it out and made it indefinite to belittle the added thing, so he said: 'The plot of a magician' meaning a magical plot that has no reality and no stability, [whether it was singular or plural, and if it were plural, it would have seemed that the aim was the number, and since the estimation is -]: they will not succeed, he added to it his saying: 'And the magician will not succeed' meaning this type [wherever it comes] meaning however it moves and whichever [path it takes -] for indeed he only does what has no reality. So he complied with what his Lord commanded him to do by throwing down his staff, and what he was promised by Him, glorified and exalted is He, was that it would swallow what they made without any increase in thickness or otherwise, although their ropes and staffs were something considerable. So everyone who saw that knew its truth and the falsehood of what the magicians did. The magicians hastened among them to submit to the command of Allah, prostrating as if they were thrown down on their faces. And for that reason, Allah, the Exalted, said after mentioning their plotting and their effort in opposing Musa, blessings and peace be upon him, [and -] omitted the mention of the throwing down and what it caused from the swallowing because the aim of the surah is the power to soften the hard hearts.