The ayahs in Surah Al-A’raf about the reversion and martyrdom of Pharaohs sorcerers hit me so hard when I read them today.
Some of the greatest heroes of the story of Moses pbuh aren’t only him and Aaron pbuh and the Israelites who submitted to Allah SWT and the wife of the Pharaoh, but also these guys.
They were sorcerers, literally worshipping devils and engaged in the dark arts. Their prestige came from helping an evil man convince everyone around him of his supposed divinity. Their entire lives were amassing riches by serving Shaitan. The furthest people one could imagine from any possible salvation.
Yet when during the contest they were defeated by Allah SWTs Prophet, instead of stupidly clinging to their ways, they fell in prostration to the Creator whom they spent their whole lives ignorantly opposing. They didn’t try to excuse themselves, they didn’t try to find a loophole, they didn’t try to rationalize or minimize or defend their former bad habits.
They submitted to God.
They not only gave up their evil ways. They also then faced this psychopathic tyrant who claimed himself to be divine. Whose megalomania caused him to order temples of himself to be built, and whose paranoia and cruelty caused him to order infants to be mass murdered. They probably knew very well what his reaction would be like. They submitted anyways.
Upon hearing his verdict and aware of the torturous death that was going to be their end on this planet, they maybe could have begged him to forgive them. Told him they made a mistake. Offered to try again. Or to just kill Moses and Aaron peace be upon them, on the spot.
They did none of that. They faced this psycho, and they told him exactly what he hated to hear. That this wasn’t any trick to steal his land, but instead that they realized who their real Lord is, and that they would turn to Him.
They then made their supplication to Allah SWT. Their final dua. Not for a miraculous escape. Not even for a more humane death.
No. They made dua for patience and for the gift of dying as submitters. The gift of dying as Muslims.
How many of us have faith like that?
Surah al-A’raf, ayahs 118-126 (7:118-126)
Thus the truth came to pass, and whatsoever they did was shown to be false.
Then and there they were vanquished and turned back, humbled.
And the sorcerers were cast down prostrate.
They said “We believe in the Lord of the worlds,
The Lord of Moses and Aaron”.
Pharaoh said, “You believe in him before I grant you leave! This is surely a plot you have devised in the city, that you might expel its people therefrom. Soon you shall know.
I shall surely cut off your hands and feet on alternate sides; then I shall surely crucify you all!”
They said, “Truly we turn to our Lord”
You take vengeance upon us only because we believed in the signs of our Lord when they came unto us. Oh Lord, shower us with patience, and let us die as submitters.”
