the planets and the rivals that are well known to you; so why were the former generations not guided to what you have just mentioned?’
Moses replied: ‘Their knowledge is with my Lord, in a Book; my Lord neither errs nor forgets.’
In other words, even though they worshipped others beside Him, that is no proof for you and does not invalidate what I say, for they were ignorant just like you. Everything they did, great or small, is recorded against them in the Scriptures, and my Lord will repay them for it without wronging anyone by so much as the weight of an atom. All human actions are written with Him in a register from which nothing escapes, and my Lord forgets nothing.
He then reminded Pharaoh of the Lord’s greatness and His power to create: His making of the earth a cradle, the sky a well-guarded roof, and His subjugation of the clouds and rains for the provision of His servants, their beasts, and their livestock, as He, the Exalted, says: ‘Indeed, in that are signs for people of sound intellect,’ that is, for those whose minds are sound and whose natural disposition is wholesome and uncorrupted; for He is truly the Creator and the Provider.
He also says: ‘O mankind, worship your Lord who created you and those before you, so that you may become God-fearing—the One who made the earth a resting place for you and the sky a canopy, and sent down water from the sky, bringing forth thereby fruits as provision for you. So do not set up rivals to Allah while you know’ (al-Baqarah 2:21–22).
Having mentioned the reviving of the earth by rain and its quivering as it brings forth vegetation, He pointed thereby to the Resurrection, saying: ‘From it We created you, to it We shall return you, and from it We shall bring you forth once more,’ just as He says, ‘As He originated you, so shall you return’ (al-Aʿrāf 7:29), and ‘He is the One who originates creation and then recreates it, and that is even easier for Him; His is the highest description in the heavens and the earth, and He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise’ (al-Rūm 30:27).
He, exalted be He, further says: ‘We certainly showed him all Our signs, yet he denied and refused. He said, “Have you come to drive us out of our land with your magic, O Moses? Then we will surely bring you magic like it. So set between us and you an appointment which neither we nor you will fail to keep, at a level place.” [Moses] said, “Your appointment is on the Day of Adornment, when the people will assemble at mid-morning.”’ (Tā Hā 20:56–59).
Allah thus informs us of Pharaoh’s misery, his deep ignorance, and his feeble mind in his rejection of Allah’s signs and his arrogance in refusing to follow them. He said to Moses, ‘What you have brought is mere sorcery, and we will counter you with similar sorcery.’ He then asked Moses to fix a definite time and place, and this request served one of Moses’ greatest aims: to exhibit Allah’s signs, proofs, and evidences openly before the people. Hence he said, ‘Your appointment is on the Day of Adornment,’ a festival of theirs and a public gathering, ‘and that the people be assembled at mid-morning,’ meaning from the start of the day when the sun’s light is strongest, so that the truth would be most apparent and manifest. He did not ask that it take place at night in darkness, where falsehood might find a foothold; rather, he chose the brightness of day, for he was certain, with clear insight from his Lord, that Allah would make His word and His religion triumphant, even though the Copts might resent it.