'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "So when the truth came to them from Us, they said, 'Indeed, this is clear magic.'" "Moses said, 'Do you say about the truth when it has come to you, 'Is this magic?' And the magicians will not succeed.'" They said, 'Have you come to us to divert us from that which we found our forefathers upon, and that there be for you two great ones in the land? And we will never believe you.'

He means by 'the truth' the two signs of the staff and the hand. This is indicated by their saying regarding them: 'This is magic,' and they did not say that except in relation to them. They only engaged in resisting the staff, for it is the miracle of Moses, blessings and peace be upon him, in which the opposers were rendered incapable. The majority of the people read: 'Is magic?' while Sa'id ibn Jubayr and Al-A'mash read: 'Is a magician?'

Then the interpreters differed regarding His saying: 'Is this magic?' A group said: It is a narration from Moses about them, meaning that their saying was: 'Is this magic?' Then they differed in the meaning of the saying of the people of Pharaoh: 'Is this magic?' Some of them said: It was said by every questioner who is ignorant of the matter, so he is asking about it.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This interpretation is weakened by what Allah mentioned before about them, that they insisted it was magic by their saying: 'Indeed, this is clear magic.' Some of them said: Rather, they said that in the sense of glorifying the magic that they saw, as you would say to a horse that you see excelling in running: 'Is this a horse?' in the sense of astonishment at it and wonder, and you already know that it is a horse. Another group said: This is not a narration from Moses about them, rather the saying that he narrated from them is estimated as: 'Do you say about the truth when it has come to you, 'Is this magic?'

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Or something like this from the estimation. Then he began to confront them with his saying: 'Is this magic?' in the sense of reproach. Then he informed them from Allah, exalted and glorified is He, that the magicians will not succeed and will not attain their desires. And such an omitted estimation in this interpretation is found in the speech of the Arabs, and among it is the saying of Dhī al-Rummah:

When the night had enveloped us or when it set up for him from its ears while it was leaning.

He means: or when we approached that. And among it is the saying of Allah, exalted and glorified is He: "So when the promise of the Last Day comes to make your faces fearful" [Al-Isra: 7], the meaning is: We sent them to make them fearful. And such is very common.

And His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "They said, 'Have you come to us?'" The meaning is: The people of Pharaoh said to Moses: 'Have you come to us to divert us and twist us and turn us away from the religion of our forefathers?' It is said: 'The man diverted another' if he twisted him. And from their saying: 'He diverted,' for it is derived from 'he twisted his neck.' And from the saying of Ru'bah:

Twisting and turning, whether the twisting...

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And the seven reciters, except for Abu Amr - for there is a difference regarding him - read: "And it will be" with a ت from above, and this is the reading of the majority of the people. Al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan read - as Khārijah and Ismā'īl claimed -: "And it will be" with a ي from below, and it was narrated from Abu Amr and from 'Āsim, and this is the reading of Ibn Mas'ūd. And "the greatness": it is a source of exaggeration from الكِبْر, and what is meant by it - in this context - is dominion. Mujahid, al-Dhahhak, and most of the interpreters said the same, because it is the greatest arrogance of the world, and from it is the saying of the poet:

A nobility that is not excessive, nor does it have arrogance or greatness in it.

And His saying: "with believers" means: with those who affirm.