His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿So when good came to them, they said, 'This is ours.' But if an evil afflicts them, they would attribute it to Moses and those with him. Indeed, their omen is with Allah, but most of them do not know.﴾

﴿And they said, 'Whatever sign you bring us to bewitch us, we will not believe in you.'﴾

﴿So We sent upon them the flood, the locusts, the lice, the frogs, and the blood as distinct signs. But they were arrogant and were a criminal people.﴾

(p-27) The purpose of afflicting them with drought and a decrease in fruits was that they would repent and return. Yet they went astray and made it an omen of ill luck due to Moses. So when a good occurrence happened to them in their produce or similar, they said, 'This is ours and because of us, and indeed it is truly ours.' But when harm befell them, they said, 'This is because of Moses and his ill luck.' This was said by Mujahid and others. The majority of people read with a 'yaa' and a strong 'taa' and the last 'yaa' as 'yatta-yarū.' Isa ibn Umar and Talha ibn Musarif read with a 'taa' and a light 'taa': 'tatayyaraū.' Mujahid read: 'tasha'ama bi-Musa' with a 'taa' from above and with the word 'shum.'

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿Indeed, their omen﴾ means: their share and portion. Ibn Abbas said this, and it is taken from the driving away of birds. What is with Allah of destiny for a person is called an omen because a person believes that everything that befalls him is according to what he sees in the bird. Thus, it is a borrowed term. The majority of people read: 'ta'iruhum,' and Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan read: 'tayruh.' And He, exalted is He, said: 'most of them,' and all of them do not know, either because the few knew, like the believing man and Asia, the wife of Pharaoh, or it is intended that all are included, and the expression is permissible for the sake of possibility. It is possible that the pronoun in His saying: 'their omen' refers to all of the world, and the specification of the majority is taken at its apparent meaning. It is also possible that He means: but most of them are not close to knowing due to their immersion in ignorance, and on this, there are few prepared to know if Allah grants him success.

And 'whatever' originally, according to al-Khalil, is 'ma ma,' so the first 'alif' was changed to a 'haa.' Sibawayh said it is 'mah ma' combined, and it is one letter. Others said its meaning is: 'mah and ma' as a condition, as mentioned by al-Zajjaj. This verse contains their tyranny and their arrogance and their cutting off of themselves with pure disbelief.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿So We sent upon them the flood﴾, the verse, al-Akhfash said: the flood is the plural of 'tufanah.' These are punishments and types of torment that Allah sent upon them to deter them and make them repent. The flood is a source from your saying: 'tāfa yatūfu,' so it is general for everything that circles. However, the Arabs have often used it for water and heavy rain, and from it is the saying of the poet: (p-28)

؎ The wind changed the grandmother from its signs ∗∗∗ the holes of the wind and the flood of rain.

And from it is the saying of Abu al-Najm:

؎ A flood has extended, spreading a reach ∗∗∗ for a month, it was hot, and for a month, it was cold.

Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, and Al-Dahhak said: The flood in this verse is the heavy rain that afflicted them and continued upon them until it destroyed their houses and constrained them. It was said: The overflow of the Nile inundated them, and many stories have been narrated regarding its manner. Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, reported from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: "The flood intended in this verse is death." Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said in some of what was narrated from him: It is a source that has been obscured, which Allah, glorified and exalted is He, encompassed them with.

The locust is known. Al-Akhfash said: It is the plural of locust for both masculine and feminine. If you want to specify, you would say: I saw a male locust. It has been narrated that when Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, continued to send rain upon them, their land was flooded and they were prevented from planting. They said: O Musa, pray to remove this from us, and we will believe. So he prayed, and Allah removed it from them, and the earth produced well. They then transgressed and said: We do not wish that we had not been rained upon, and this is nothing but kindness from Allah to us. Then Allah sent the locusts, which consumed all that the earth had produced. Ibn Wahb narrated from Malik that it was reported that it consumed their doors and ate the iron and nails, and it constrained them to the utmost degree. Allah left from their vegetation what would sustain them. They said to Musa: Pray to remove the locusts, and we will believe. So he prayed, and they were removed, but they returned to their disbelief. They saw that what sustained them was sufficient for them. Then Allah sent upon them the lice, which are the small locusts that jump but do not fly. This was said by Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, and Qatadah. It was said: It is the hamnan, which are the small qirdan. It was said: It is the mosquitoes. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: The lice are the weevils that emerge from the wheat. It was said: The lice are a very small black creature, and it is in the land of Egypt until now. Habib ibn Abi Thabit said: The lice are the beetles. Al-Hasan read: "the lice" with a fathah on the qaf and a sukoon on the mim, so it is evident, as it refers to the known lice. It was narrated that Musa walked with his staff to a mound that had been heaped up, struck it, and all of it spread as lice in Egypt. Then they said: Pray to remove this, and he prayed, but they returned to their tyranny and disbelief.

And Allah, blessed and exalted is He, sent upon them the frogs. They would enter their beds and between their garments. When a man intended to speak, a frog would leap into his mouth. Ibn Jubair said: A man would sit among the frogs up to his chin. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him and his father, said: The frogs were wild. When they were sent upon the people of Pharaoh, they heard and obeyed. They would throw themselves into the boiling pots, and Allah rewarded them for their good obedience by returning the water. They said: Pray for the removal of this. So he prayed, and it was removed, and they returned to their disbelief and their arrogance. Then Allah sent upon them blood, and their water that they would seek became blood. It was narrated that a man among them would draw from the well, and when the bucket was raised to him, it returned as blood. It was narrated that the Egyptian and the Israelite would draw with one vessel, and when the water came out, that which was next to the Egyptian was blood, and that which was next to the Israelite was water. This is similar to this and the like of the punishment of blood transformed from water. This is the saying of a group of the interpreters. Zayd ibn Aslam said: Allah only caused them to have nosebleeds, and this is the meaning of His saying, exalted is He: "and blood."

And His saying, exalted is He: "Detailed signs"; the essence of detailing is the removal of connection. It is the separation of two things. When it is used in meanings, it means that it was differentiated between them, and their association and confusion was removed. From this comes their clarification. A group of the interpreters said: "Detailed signs" means separated by time. The meaning is that the punishment would rise, then they would remain for a period. It was said: A month, and it was said: Eight days, then the other would come. The intended meaning is that these types of punishment did not come all at once or connected. Then Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, described them as being arrogant towards the signs and faith, and that they had a transgression against Allah, blessed and exalted is He, and against His servants.