Magic and Miracle
Al-Risala (English), July 1989, p. 10
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
Magic and Miracle
1989 7 July 10-11 Magic and Miracle (424) In the time of Moses, the power of the Pharaoh was such that it struck terror into the hearts of everyone who came within its reach. The Quran shows, however, that even such a power as the Pharaoh’s was as nothing compared to the power of truth.
The Quran tells the story of how the Lord commanded Moses to go to Pharaoh “for he has transgressed all bound. Speak to him with gentle words; he may yet take heed and fear Our punishment (20:45-46).” When Moses expressed his fear of the Pharaoh’s “malevolence and tyranny,” God told him to “have no fear. I shall be with you. I see all and hear all (20:47).”
Moses did as God commanded, but when he conveyed God’s message to Pharaoh, the latter denied it and asked Moses, “Have you come to drive us from our land with your sorcery? Know that we will confront you with a magic as powerful as yours.” A day was then fixed for this confrontation, and all of the Pharaoh’s magicians were assembled so that they should overwhelm Moses. At the Pharaoh’s command, they threw their wands and ropes into the arena, whereupon they turned into writhing serpents. Moses felt daunted at this, but God commanded him to cast his staff too. This likewise turned into a serpent, but one larger than all the rest, which devoured all the creatures which the magicians had contrived to summon into existence. The magicians’ wands and ropes thereupon reverted to their original form.
When the magicians saw the effects of Moses’ power, they realized that it had nothing to do with magic, but was a matter of divine truth. What was evidently a miracle had given them a glimpse of the very face of the Almighty, and they expressed their belief in Him there and then. The Pharaoh was, of course, humiliated; and he felt so furious at this unforeseen development that he ordered the magicians’ hands and feet to be amputated from opposite sides, after which they were to be tied to the trunks of palm trees and crucified. When the magicians heard this sentence – the severest in the land – they did not, as the Pharaoh might have hoped, renounce their new-found beliefs. “... ‘We cannot prefer you to the clear signs which have come to us...’ (Quran 20:72).”
To the eternal credit of the magicians, they preferred truth to power, proofs to personality. Even when threatened with the direst of punishments, they saw the folly of putting mere mortals before the Eternal God.
