Tafseer of The Poets · Ash-Shu'araa · 26:49
[Pharaoh] said, "You believed Moses before I gave you permission. Indeed, he is your leader who has taught you magic, but you are going to know. I will surely cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and I will surely crucify you all."
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Allah, exalted be His praise, says: قَالَ آمَنْتُمْ لَهُ قَبْلَ أَنْ آذَنَ لَكُمْ (He said: Have you believed in him before I gave you permission?) — that is to say: Pharaoh said to those who had been his sorcerers and had now embraced the faith: "Have you believed in Moses, that what he brought is the truth, before I gave you permission to believe in him?" إِنَّهُ لَكَبِيرُكُمُ الَّذِي عَلَّمَكُمُ السِّحْرَ (Indeed, he is your master who taught you sorcery) — that is to say: Moses is your leader in sorcery, and he is the one who taught it to you; therefore you have believed in him. فَلَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ (You shall soon come to know) — by the punishment that I shall impose upon you, the doom of what you have done and the error of what you have committed by believing in him.
He says further: لَأُقَطِّعَنَّ أَيْدِيَكُمْ وَأَرْجُلَكُمْ (I shall surely cut off your hands and your feet) — and that on alternate sides: namely by cutting off the right hand and the left foot, then the left hand and the right foot, and likewise the hand on one side and the foot on the other side; and that is the cutting off from opposite sides (min khilāf). وَلأُصَلِّبَنَّكُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ (and I shall surely crucify you all) — he emphasized this with "all" to make clear that he would spare none of them.
قَالُوا لا ضَيْرَ (They said: No harm) — Allah, exalted be His mention, says: the sorcerers said: "No harm shall befall us"; and this is a verbal noun from the saying: "so-and-so caused harm to so-and-so (ḍāra), he harms (yaḍīru) harm (ḍayran)", and its meaning is: no detriment.
