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Recordings › Did the Staff of Moses (AS) really turn into a snake? - Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki · 20 Apr 2018 › Segment 2 of 2

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Did Musa beat Pharaoh's magicians with stronger magic?

malik ibn anas malik bin anas imam maalik imam malik ibn anas imaam imams prayer leader muftis sihr sihar jadu jadoo kala jadu sorcery koran quraan al-quran ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat sufis sufism soofi 'alim aalim alhamdulillah alhamdulilah al-hamdu lillah alhumdulillah alhamdulillaah salam as-salamu alaykum assalamu alaikum assalamualaikum salaams salam alaykum wa alaykum as-salam peace greeting

Musa's staff exposed the magicians' trick: Ibn Arabi's reading

LessonRecorded 20 Apr 2018Ponderings on the Holy QuranSegment 2 of 2 in the recording2018-04-20-S02

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This segment6:16 to 13:32 · 7 min 16 sGeneral teaching

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No: Mufti Abu Layth prefers the reading that Musa's staff exposed the magicians' trickery, since out-doing their magic would only teach that might is right.

In more detail

Mufti Abu Layth cites the Sufi scholar Ibn Arabi [?], who reads the staff 'swallowing what they faked' as either eating their sticks or exposing their lie. Mufti relates Ibn Arabi's point that if Musa's snake had merely outperformed theirs, it would only reinforce superstition, since anyone with stronger magic could later outdo him. He says that in the eyes of the spectators such a contest would teach that might is right, an argument he links to Thrasymachus in the time of Socrates, whereas exposing the trick showed the magicians had no power from their gods. He says the second reading sits better with his understanding, calls the other one naive and superficial while saying people need not believe what he says, and closes with Imam Malik's reply to a debate challenge: if someone later beats us both, do we follow him, since truth ought to have consistency.

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Position stated

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Mufti Abu Layth says that Musa exposing the magicians' trickery, rather than outperforming their magic, sits better with his understanding.

In his words

“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”

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Transcript

machine6:16 to 13:32 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
5:37

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

6:15

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

6:53

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

7:31

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

8:08

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

8:43

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

9:21

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

10:00

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

10:40

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

11:19

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

11:58

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

12:38

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

13:17

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

Paragraphs overlapping 6:16 to 13:32. Full text on the recording page.

Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2018-04-20-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pkp3itoskjc/s/2/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, April 20). Did Musa beat Pharaoh's magicians with stronger magic? [Video, segment 2018-04-20-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pkp3itoskjc/s/2/
Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "Did Musa beat Pharaoh's magicians with stronger magic?" Video, segment 2018-04-20-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded April 20, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pkp3itoskjc/s/2/
BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-04-20-S02,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{Did Musa beat Pharaoh's magicians with stronger magic?}},
  year = {2018},
  month = {4},
  date = {2018-04-20},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pkp3itoskjc/s/2/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pkp3itoskjc/s/2/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2018-04-20-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}
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