The saying of Allah, the Exalted:

﴿Then We sent after them Musa with Our signs to Fir'aun and his people, so they wronged themselves with it. So look at how was the end of the corruptors﴾ ﴿And Musa said, O Fir'aun, indeed I am a messenger from the Lord of the worlds﴾ ﴿It is a duty upon me to not say about Allah except the truth. I have come to you with a clear proof from your Lord, so send with me the Children of Israel﴾ ﴿He said, If you have come with a sign, then bring it forth if you are among the truthful﴾ ﴿So he threw down his staff, and behold, it was a clear serpent﴾ ﴿And he drew out his hand, and behold, it was white for the observers﴾

The pronoun in His saying, the Exalted: (from after them) refers back to the previous prophets mentioned and to their nations. The signs in this verse are general for the nine and others. And His saying, the Exalted: ﴿So they wronged themselves with it﴾ means: they wronged themselves in it and because of it, and they also wronged its manifestation and the followers of its manifestation. It is said: When

'And 'haqiq' - on this - its meaning is: deserving and worthy. Al-Tabari said: Some people said: 'haqiq' means: eager, and for that reason it was connected with 'ala'. In this saying, there is a distance. And some people said: 'haqiq' is an attribute of 'rasul', and the speech is complete at that point. And 'alayya' is a preceded news, and 'an la aqula' is an initiation whose news has preceded. The grammatical analysis of 'an' according to the reading of those who kept the ya silent is genitive, and according to the reading of those who opened it with a shadda is nominative. Al-Kisai said: In the reading of Abdullah: 'haqiq bi an la aqula'. And Abu Amr said: In the reading of Abdullah: 'haqiq an aqula', and with it al-Amash read. This address - if you reflect - is the utmost in gentleness in the soft words that he was commanded to say, blessings and peace be upon him.

And His saying: 'Indeed, I have come to you with a clear sign from your Lord' - the verse. The clear sign here refers to all of His signs, and it is more indicative of the miracle here. This is from Musa presenting his prophethood, and from Fir'aun the invitation to a miraculous occurrence that indicates the truth.

And the apparent meaning of the verse and others is that Musa, peace be upon him, did not establish his Shari'ah except for Bani Israel only, and he did not call Fir'aun and his people except to send Bani Israel. He mentioned it so that he might fear or purify himself and affirm the Oneness, as he reminds every disbeliever. For every prophet calls to Oneness even if he does not adhere to it and fight for it. As for him calling him to believe and adhere to all of the Shari'ah, he did not intend this textually. The matter is open to interpretation, and in general, the difference between Bani Israel and Fir'aun and the Copts appears. Do you not see that the remainder of the Copts, who are the majority, were never returned to by Musa, peace be upon him, nor did he oppose them? And the Copts were like the worshippers of the cow and others? He only needed to converse with Fir'aun to have dominion over Bani Israel.

And His saying, the Exalted: 'So he threw down his staff' - the verse. It has been narrated that Musa, peace be upon him, was anxious about it and about his conversation. Fir'aun said to his aides: 'Take him.' So Musa threw down the staff and it became a serpent, and it rushed towards Fir'aun, and he fled from it. Al-Suddi said: He created it and said: 'O Musa, keep it away from me,' and he kept it away. And something similar was said by Sa'id ibn Jubair.

And 'if' is a locative adverb in this context according to Al-Mubarrid, as it was a report about a body. The correct view held by the people is that it is a temporal adverb in every context. It is said that the serpent placed its lower jaw on the ground and its upper jaw on the balconies of the palace. And the serpent is the male snake, and it is more terrifying and bolder, as said by Al-Dahhak. And Qatadah said: It became a white male snake. And Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, said: It thrust its tail into the ground and raised its chest towards Fir'aun. And His saying: 'Mubin' means: there is no deception in it; rather, it is clear that it is a reality, and it is from 'abana' meaning 'to become clear' or from 'ban' meaning 'to strip away from its parts.'

And His saying: ﴿And he withdrew his hand﴾ means: from his pocket or sleeve, according to the disagreement in that matter. And His saying: ﴿And behold, it is white﴾ Mujahid said: like milk or whiter than it. It has been narrated that it would appear luminous and transparent like the sun, shining brightly. And Moses, peace be upon him, had a red blood color mixed with black. Then he would return his hand and it would return to the color of his body.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

These two verses were presented by Moses, peace be upon him, for opposition. He called to Allah with them, and he broke the norm with them, and he challenged the people to the religion with them. If we consider the challenge as the call to the religion absolutely, then he challenged with them. If we consider the challenge as the call after the inability to oppose the miracle and the appearance of that, then the staff would stand alone in that, because the opposition and the inability in it occurred.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

It is said that the challenge is the call to bring something like the miracle. This is a third aspect, and upon this, Moses challenged with both verses together, because it appears from his matter that he presented them for consideration together, even if he did not specify the call to bring something like them. It has been narrated from Farqad al-Sabakhi that the mouth of the snake would open forty cubits.