'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, exalted and glorious is He: "Do they not see that Allah, who created the heavens and the earth, is capable of creating the like of them? And He has set for them an appointed term, there is no doubt about it. Yet the wrongdoers refuse except disbelief." "Say, 'If you possessed the treasures of the mercy of my Lord, you would hold back for fear of spending. And man is stingy.'" "And We certainly gave Moses nine clear signs. Ask the Children of Israel when he came to them, and Pharaoh said to him, 'I certainly think you, O Moses, are bewitched.'" This verse is an argument against them regarding what they have distanced themselves from concerning resurrection. This is because they have confirmed the creation of Allah, the Exalted, and His invention of this whole entity of which mankind is a part. They do not deny that. So how is it correct for them to acknowledge His creation of all and bringing it forth from the obscurity of non-existence, while denying His returning it for some? Thus, the matter falls within the realm of possibility. And the truthful one, whose miraculous signs have established the occurrence of that which is possible, has informed us. The vision in this verse is the vision of the heart, and

'And His saying, the Exalted: "And We certainly gave Moses nine clear signs." The interpreters and narrators have agreed that the five signs in Surah Al-A'raf are among these nine, which are: the flood, the locusts, the lice, the frogs, and the blood. They differed regarding the four - Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: They are his hand, and his tongue when his knot was loosened, his staff, and the sea. Muhammad ibn Kab al-Qurazi said: They are: the sea, the staff, the blinding, and the stone. He said: Umar ibn Abdul Aziz, may Allah be pleased with him, asked me about that, and I informed him, and he said: And what is the blinding? I said: Moses prayed and Aaron, peace be upon them, said 'Ameen,' and Allah blinded their wealth and turned it into stones. Umar said: And can there be understanding except like this? Then he called for a map that contained rare items that were collected by Abdul Aziz ibn Marwan in Egypt, and he extracted from it the stone, the egg, and the lentil, all of which were stones that were remnants of the wealth of Pharaoh. Al-Dahhak said: It is the throwing of the staff twice, and the hand, and the knot of his tongue. Ikrimah, Matar the scribe, and Al-Sha'bi said: It is the staff, the hand, the years of famine, and the decrease of fruits. Al-Hasan said: It is the staff in its being a serpent, and the hand, and the years of famine, and the staff swallows what they fabricate. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: It is the years of famine in their pastures, and the decrease of fruits in their villages, and the hand, and the staff. A source reported from Malik that it is the staff, the hand, the mountain when it shook, and the sea. Ibn Wahb narrated from him in place of the sea the stone. What is required from the verse is that Allah, the Exalted, specified nine of the signs of Moses - as they are very numerous, exceeding twenty-four - by mention, and described them as clear without specifying them. The scholars differed in identifying them according to their efforts in explaining them, or their narrations in that regard. A group said: The signs of Moses, peace be upon him, refer to the signs of the Torah, which are commands and prohibitions. In this, Safwan ibn Assal narrated that a Jew from the Jews of Medina said to another: 'Let us go to this Prophet and ask him about the signs of Moses, peace be upon him.' The other said to him: 'Do not say that he is a Prophet, for if he hears you, he will have four eyes.' So they went to the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and asked him, and he said: 'They are that you do not associate anything with Allah, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not kill the soul that Allah has forbidden except by right, do not bring an innocent person to a ruler to kill him, do not mock, do not consume usury, do not slander the chaste, do not flee on the day of battle, and specifically for you, O Jews: do not violate the Sabbath.'

And the majority read: "So ask the Children of Israel," and it was narrated from al-Kisai: "So ask" in the language of the one who said: "He asked, he asks." All of this is in the meaning of the command to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, that is: ask your contemporaries about what We have informed you of the unseen of the story. Then He said: ﴿When there came to them﴾ [Al-Isra: 94], meaning: their forefathers, and He included them in the pronoun since they are from them. It is also possible that He means: "So ask the earlier Children of Israel who were brought to them by Musa, peace be upon him," and His reference to them is regarding their inquiry by requesting their information and looking into their conditions and what is in their books, similar to His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿And ask those We sent before you of Our messengers﴾ [Az-Zukhruf: 45]. This is like saying to someone you are advising: ask the past nations if any of them remain immortal? And similar to this is what is considered looking into it instead of asking. Al-Hasan said: Your question is your looking into the Qur'an.

And Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with both of them, read: "So he asked the Children of Israel," meaning: Musa asked Fir'aun about the Children of Israel, that is, he requested them to save them from the punishment.

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "sorcerer," the interpreters have differed about it. A group said: it is a passive participle in its form, meaning: indeed, you have been bewitched, so your words are confused and what you bring is not straight. Al-Tabari said: it is a passive participle meaning an active one, as He, glorified and exalted is He, said: ﴿a concealed veil﴾ [Al-Isra: 45], and as they said: ominous and auspicious, and it is actually: ominous and auspicious.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This can only be derived from lineage, meaning: you have a magic that you possess and know, so you bring these oddities because of that. And this address is diminishing, so it is correct that "sorcerer" is a passive participle in its apparent meaning, and that it means: a sorcerer who opposes us. As for what has been reported from them that they said to him - in a manner of praise -: ﴿O you sorcerer, invoke for us your Lord﴾ [Az-Zukhruf: 49], then either those who said this do not include Fir'aun, or he is among them but it is a transition from belittling him to glorifying him. And there is consideration in this.