Did the Staff of Moses (AS) really turn into a snake? - Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki

so let's give an example of people have asked me the staff of the stick of Moses moosa aleihsalaam and they've said that why you know this when he threw it became a snake that's one way to read the quran but when you look at you see this throwing the stick occurs in three places in the quran okay now in one it says find out what Bernama be it's whoa it's a snake but in the other mentions

the same incident they attacked a zoo Karajan it is shaking as though it is a snake so it's interesting now in one verse Allah says it as a snake in one he says it was shaking as though this was Musa stick as though it was a snake now how you take this is up to you do you believe that Musa stick ali sallam became an actual snake many muslims may believe that one verse of the Quran

clearly doesn't say that it states that it was as though it was like a snake now in my understanding that it was not a snake okay when he threw the thing it was not a snake but it was described as though it was a snake and what was the purpose behind this because let's look at the objective of the Quran let me explain the the whole story you see in the time of faroan a magic was added somebody just laughing his head off if

you don't mind at least allowing me to finish what I have to say you know before you just continuously non-stop laugh your head off right so in the time of Moses magic was the thing okay it was the thing that these people it was seen as the elite that these people had these special powers through the gods now I want you to understand something how were the magicians pulling off their magic because Allah whose is the same a similar kind of verse to describe their

mystics that was Satoru our Yunnan nurse that when they threw the sticks you hate yellow Olay him it would appear to people as though they were snakes how was that happening you know if I throw a stick it doesn't appear like that so how was this happening now many of them of a serene have written that they were using certain kind of compounds and chemicals and many of them are Syrian right that they were using things like Quicksilver like which in Arabic they called zip buck like mercury now these kind of

things were reacting to heat so hence in the Quran when they say to Musa that we will have a magic showdown they specify the time and Allah quotes the in the Quran they say well moreda come doha that you have to meet us that when when when it's early just after sunrise when it's early morning so the sun is shining down now was this just coincidental that they mentioned that time many of them are first city and say no it wasn't if in fact you can read up the turf I see they say it's because they needed that

light to make the mercury react the Zipit which was in their sticks so they would fill their sticks with certain things and when they would throw it how they exactly did this I don't know but this is what a lot of Memphis sitting do right and that day that the chemical the compound they had within thee was reacting with the light and that's why Allah mentions the light of day being important for them now we see when they threw their stakes people get because Allah says was terribleness that they people who was a Hawaiian and NASA was

terrible moon people became frightened the people had fear that wow they were terrified that the these are actual snakes they thought they were actual snakes everybody accepts that their sticks were not snakes we accept this that they're magicians their sticks when snakes are lime self says but the people was terrible they were petrified Allah mentions was star had warned from robbed from to be terrified because they thought they were snakes now

musa alehsalaam is taught by Allah how they have done this he is divinely - now the thing is the magicians didn't know like a pot outside their circle nobody knew how they used to do that people believed they were actual snakes that they could turn them with the power of the gods of the pharaoh gods but moosa aleihsalaam is inspired and put by allah how these people are doing this trick now allah mentions that he is then told

to throw his stick does he come across this compound this chemical this does he come across this Allahu Alem I would believe that he does Allah teaches him these things hence he throws it and he is petrified but then Allah says in the same verse get your handi see his hand which would have made contact with this touch place it what mom who in a generic that place your hand where somewhere under your either under your armpit or you side with this wound and then remove it and it mentions that is hand lights

up and if you read what I'm officer in say they say it would - on me no I share that Rays would were coming out of it and then Allah mentions mean really soo without there being any harm now in this understanding you see there's the great Sufi scholar Maha Dean nada bina he says a similar thing he says that when moosa aleihsalaam met the magicians and they threw their sticks and then Moosa threw his stick and it

appears either as a snake or according to some people it becomes a snake but Allah says that when he threw this that for either here Teleca for my offical Teleca for it take consumes it consumes now it's interesting how you read a lot this is a tackle eat Allah says tell careful Maya fake ooh now it's interesting how you read this because this can be read in two ways according to the Arabic language either it ate their sticks

that's one understanding it ate this sticks or the other understanding it ate they lie it exposed they lie now what he Edina Berube he highlights as well that if moosa aleihsalaam threw his stick and his stick his snake just outperformed these snakes then there would be no purpose to this because all that would prove to the people is that his magic is more powerful than their magic so it reinforces a superstition

so all it takes now is another person to come and outperform mooses magic you see because if what we're doing is look those people have brought falsehood which is more deserving of a prophet to outperform them or to expose it as falsehood so what ma Kadena Barbie highlights is that when he threw his stick his stick exposed how they were doing the trick so people for either

here telephone my offical it consumed their trickery they falsehood people realized that they don't have no power from the gods that was just trickery they would just be witching us they don't have any true power of the gods now you tell me which one of those two narratives be fits the story does is it one that moosa aleihsalaam comes and outperforms them in magic so he does a

greater trick than them let's say this is in the to the eyes of the of the spectators so they did a trick remember the spectators think these snakes are real but as long engines that will start up they're petrified they terrified they see the snakes and they think whoa now moosa aleihsalaam comes and performs a greater snake trick than them this is to the eyes of the spectators so they say this is narrative one they say oh we're gonna go with him because his trick is better that doesn't sound like a like a

divine thing to do that doesn't sound like that just reinforces the narrative of wherever you see magic just go with the stronger magic now no I'm not saying moosa aleihsalaam claim to do magic but in the eyes of the spectators because they're doing this for the spectators remember that they say we're going to gather people and do this as a show as a display so to the people Allah mentions the people to see the magicians as real and they see now no such thing as real so if Musa according to The Spectator

who's not a believer he sees lots of snakes whoa a more powerful snake whoa okay I'm gonna go with that one because it's stronger that doesn't reinforce though he that just simply shows well it seems to encourage a superstitious culture like okay just go with whoever's magic is better so if after moosa aleihsalaam dies another person there's even better magic just go with them or is it more befitting that moosa aleihsalaam exposed their magic and showed the people that these are just

liars they have no connections with the gods that they speak of that they gods do not help them it is a lie that to me sits more right with my understanding now you can take the other understanding you can say no I want to believe that Musa al-salaam in the eyes of the spectators did a greater magic which but we believe that was real though and the first one wasn't real but to the spectators it was all magic now they just followed him because his magic was his magical event was more powerful than

the other magical event so this seems to follow a doctrine of mighties right in a very kind of the argument of a very kind of priests but I mean a philosophical argument that is well known about might is right especially argued by people like through symmachus and stuff like this from way before now from the time of Socrates that might is always right you always go with mind now I mean you can take that approach and many Muslims do I see that as naive personally but I mean they can take that hamdulillah I

mean I don't say people have to believe what I'm saying to me that's just a superficial reading of the Quran because to me that just reinforces the other message it just shows you're one was just stronger so we should just go with you but if tomorrow if after you die somebody else comes and does something stronger we should just go with them so and this is what Imam Malik said you see this is the interesting thing not that he said this about the magic stick but he said that when he was debating somebody and they said look let's have a debate and he said well why and they said well if you beat me I'll follow you if you if I if I beat you you follow me and he said well what if tomorrow

somebody else comes and beats us both we then follow him I mean truth ought to have consistency to it so that's my reading of of this