Overall meaning : The magicians, Allah informs us, said to Moses, peace be upon him, ‘Either you throw down your staff first, or we will be the first to throw our ropes and sticks.’ Moses said, ‘Rather, you throw first.’ They cast down their ropes and sticks, which appeared to Moses, by virtue of their powerful magic, to be fast-moving snakes! Moses was much alarmed, but he concealed his fear. ‘Have no fear,’ Allah reassuringly said to him. ‘You will have the upper hand and defeat these magicians, as well as Pharaoh and his army. Now throw down that staff which is in your hand. It will turn into a snake and will swallow up their ropes and sticks, for what they have contrived is only a magician’s trick. Magicians will never succeed or come to any good wherever they go.’
So Moses threw down his staff, which swallowed up all the magicians’ ropes and sticks, thereby making the truth prevail and establishing evidence against them. The magicians fell down prostrate before Allah, declaring, ‘We believe in the Lord of Aaron and Moses.’
Following the sorcerers’ reaction, Pharaoh threatened them, saying, ‘How dare you believe Moses, follow him and acknowledge his prophethood before I give you permission to do so? Indeed, he must be your master who taught you magic. I will have your hands and feet cut off on alternate sides and will have you crucified on the trunks of palm trees, and you will surely know whose punishment is more terrible and more lasting.’
Then, describing how the magicians defied Pharaoh’s threats after realizing Moses’s truthfulness and accepting the truth, Allah says: The magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘Never will we prefer you to the clear proofs attesting to Moses’s truthfulness, nor to Him who has created us. Do, therefore, whatever you want to do to us, for we will never renounce our faith in our Lord. Your decrees only pertain to this worldly life, and your torment in it will soon end with its end. Indeed, we have believed in our Lord and we have believed His Messenger, so that our Lord may forgive our unbelief and sins and the magic which you have forced us to practise in order to oppose Moses. Allah is far better for us than you, Pharaoh, and His reward is far better for us than yours; and His punishment for those who disobey Him and oppose His commands is more lasting.
‘Those who come before their Lord on Judgement Day unbelievers will be destined for Hell, where they will neither die and thus find rest, nor live a life which he will enjoy. But as for those who come before Him believers, having done righteous deeds, they will have the highest ranks: Gardens of perpetual bliss, under whose trees and mansions rivers flow, where they will stay for ever. This will be the reward Allah has in store for those who purify themselves from unbelief and sin, embrace faith and engage in good deeds.’