Tafseer of Ornaments of gold · Az-Zukhruf · 43:49
And they said [to Moses], "O magician, invoke for us your Lord by what He has promised you. Indeed, we will be guided."
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.
The explanation of the words of the Exalted: وَقَالُوا يَا أَيُّهَا السَّاحِرُ ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ بِمَا عَهِدَ عِنْدَكَ إِنَّنَا لَمُهْتَدُونَ (And they said: O sorcerer, call upon your Lord for us by virtue of what He has entrusted to you; verily, we shall let ourselves be guided) (43:49).
The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: and Firʿawn and his chief men said to Mūsā: (يَا أَيُّهَا السَّاحِرُ ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ بِمَا عَهِدَ عِنْدَكَ) (O sorcerer, call upon your Lord for us by virtue of what He has entrusted to you). By their words "by virtue of what He has entrusted to you" they meant: by virtue of His covenant which He concluded with you, that if we believe in you and follow you, the plague (al-rijz) will be removed from us.
As Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the words of Allah, mighty and exalted is He: (بِمَا عَهِدَ عِنْدَكَ), he said: if we believe, the punishment will surely be removed from us.
If someone were to say to us: and what is the meaning of their statement "O sorcerer, call upon your Lord for us by virtue of what He has entrusted to you," and how did they call him a sorcerer while they ask him to call upon his Lord for them so that the punishment may be removed from them? — then the answer is: the sorcerer (al-sāḥir) had among them the meaning of "the learned one," and sorcery was not a reproach among them; they called him by this designation only because its meaning among them was: O you learned one.
His words: (إِنَّنَا لَمُهْتَدُونَ) — He says: they said: verily, we shall surely follow you and hold you to be truthful in that with which you have come to us, and we shall profess the oneness of Allah and discern the path of right guidance.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words: (يَا أَيُّهَا السَّاحِرُ ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ بِمَا عَهِدَ عِنْدَكَ إِنَّنَا لَمُهْتَدُونَ), he said: they said: O Mūsā, call upon your Lord for us; if you remove the plague from us, we shall surely believe in you.
