between them is that reverential fear is based on knowledge. Allah Most High says: “Only those of His servants who have knowledge fear Allah.” [Fātir:: 28]
Ordinary fear, by contrast, is mere fright that may seize a person even without knowledge. Thus, a person may fear something imagined that has no reality. On a pitch-dark night, he may see a shape that is not real and become afraid of it. This is fright founded on illusion, whereas reverential fear is based on knowledge.
Moses (peace be upon him) therefore went and said to Pharaoh what Allah had commanded him to say: “Would you be willing to purify yourself, and let me guide you to your Lord so that you may fear Him?” Since human beings do not believe or accept a person’s claim to be a messenger without a sign—just as no claim made by anyone is accepted without evidence—Allah, Glorified and Exalted, gave every messenger a sign demonstrating his truthfulness. Here He says: “Then he showed him the greatest sign.” This means that Moses showed Pharaoh the greatest sign.
What was this sign? It was the wooden staff he carried, made from the branch of a tree, as is well known. Whenever he placed it on the ground, it became a serpent moving swiftly; then, when he picked it up, it reverted to a staff. This was one of Allah’s signs: an inanimate object, when placed on the ground, became a serpent moving swiftly, but as soon as it was lifted from the ground, it immediately returned to its original state as an ordinary staff among other staffs.
Allah sent him (peace be upon him) with this sign and also with the sign of putting his hand inside the opening of his garment, whereupon it would emerge white without any affliction—that is, without any defect. Its whiteness was not the whiteness of leprosy; rather, it was a whiteness that Allah made into a sign. Allah sent him specifically with the staff and the hand because magic was widespread and prevalent in the time of Moses. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, therefore sent him with something that would overpower the magicians who confronted Moses (peace be upon him).
The scholars said: In the time of Jesus (peace be upon him), medicine had become highly developed. Jesus therefore came with something physicians were incapable of accomplishing: whenever he passed his hand over someone afflicted by an ailment, that person was healed. If a person suffering from any ailment whatsoever was brought to him, he would pass his hand over him and the person would then be healed by Allah’s permission: “he heals