“They said: ‘We do not care, for we are bound to return to our Lord, and we surely expect that Our Lord will forgive us our sins for we are the first ones to believe.”
(Al-Quran – 26:51-52)
These ayahs refer to the contest between Prophet Moses and Pharaoh’s magicians in the court of Pharaoh. When the magicians threw down their ropes and rods, Moses too threw down his rod; and what followed is history. The rod of Moses ‘went about swallowing up all the false devices’ the magicians had contrived. At this scene the magicians fell down in prostration, saying, ‘We (now) believe in the Lord of the universe, the Lord of Moses and Aaron’. This infuriated Pharaoh so much so that he threatened the magicians to ‘cut off their hands and feet on opposite sides’.
It is in response to this threatening that the magicians, who had by then realised the Truth, said what is here in these ayahs. They meant to say that they had to return in any case to the Lord one day; so there was nothing for them to be afraid of.
The magicians’ answer made two things abundantly clear to the crowd that had been gathered by Pharaoh himself. One, that Pharaoh was both a liar and crafty, besides being stubborn. The magicians’ firm stand served to show that they knew that Moses was no magician and that his miracles could only have been performed through the power of the Lord of the universe. The other was the sudden transformation of the magicians’ moral character.