Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:109
Said the eminent among the people of Pharaoh, "Indeed, this is a learned magician
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 discourse on the explanation of His statement: قَالَ الْمَلأُ مِنْ قَوْمِ فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّ هَذَا لَسَاحِرٌ عَلِيمٌ ("The eminent ones among the people of Firʿawn said: Verily, this is a knowledgeable sorcerer") (109)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His mention, says: The company of the men of the people of Firʿawn and the notables among them said — إِنَّ هَذَا ("Verily, this"), by which they meant Mūsā, the blessings of Allah be upon him — لَسَاحِرٌ عَلِيمٌ ("is a knowledgeable sorcerer"), by which they meant: that with his deception he beguiles the eyes of the people, until it appears to them that the staff is a serpent, and the dark-skinned man white, and that a thing is other than what it is in reality. From this is derived the expression "saḥara al-maṭaru al-arḍa" (the rain bewitched the earth), when it falls upon it abundantly and cuts down its vegetation to the roots and turns the earth inside out: it bewitches it with a bewitching, and "the earth is bewitched" (masḥūra) when that befalls it. Thus "the sorcery of the sorcerer" was likened to this, on account of his beguiling whereby it appears to the one whom he has bewitched that he sees a thing that is other than what it is in reality. From this also is the statement of Dhū al-Rumma in his description of the mirage:
And the eye-bewitching [deserts] of the wildernesses,
in which the hills dance amid their expanses.
And His statement عَلِيمٌ ("knowledgeable"), He says: a sorcerer who is knowledgeable in sorcery.
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Footnotes:
(14) See the explanation of "al-malaʾ" in what preceded, p. 12, note 2, and the references therein.
(15) This exposition of the meaning of "saḥara al-maṭaru al-arḍa" is most excellent and clarifies the meaning of the word, and it is clearer than what occurs in the lexicons; let this be recorded there.
(16) See the explanation of "al-siḥr" (sorcery) in what preceded 2:436-442 / 11:265.
(17) His dīwān: 591, and al-Lisān (a-r-m), with this transmission. As for the transmission of the dīwān, it reads: "And the mirage-bewitching [deserts] of the wildernesses, in which the mirages dance among their sand-dunes; the sandgrouse of the wilderness die therein of thirst, and the breeze perishes at their edges; therein are pools, but there is no moisture, and shapes that shift about and do not remain still." And this is excellent poetry! The transmission that appears here is the transmission of Abū ʿUbayda in Majāz al-Qurʾān. And the transmission of Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ is: "nawāshirihā". In the printed edition it read "nawāshizihā" with a zāʾ, and in the manuscript it is unpointed. And "al-mawāmī" is the plural of "mawmāt", which is the wide, smooth desert in which there is no water and no companionship. And "al-ʿasāqil" is the plural of "ʿasqala", and "al-ʿasāqīl" is the plural of "ʿasqūl", which are the pieces of mirage that glisten and shimmer before the eye of the beholder. And "al-urūm" is the plural of "iram", which are the cairns, and it is said: they are the graves of ʿĀd and Iram. And the transmission of his dīwān is "wa-sājira" with a jīm, that is to say: filled with the mirage. He describes the mirage as it quivers, so that you see the stones and the cairns rising up and descending within it, while it moves with them. As for the transmission of Abū Jaʿfar, "tarqaṣu fī nawāshirihā" (it dances in its spread-out expanses), I have found no explanation for it with any commentator of the poetry nor in the lexicons. My conjecture is that by it he means the mirage, just as he said "fī ʿasāqilihā", and that it is derived from "nashr al-shayʾ", the spreading out and extending of a thing, and that by it he means what stretches out and spreads from the mirage.
(18) See the explanation of "ʿalīm" in what preceded in the linguistic indexes (ʿ-l-m).
