The Children of Israel
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.[17:101]
To Moses We did give Nine Clear Sings: As the Children of Israel: when he came to them, Pharaoh said to him: "O Moses! I consider thee, indeed, to have been worked upon by sorcery!

---

* v.101 : Nine Clear Signs: see vii. 133, n. 1091. The story of Pharaoh (or a phase of it) is here told with a view to exhibiting the decline of a soul on account of pride in outward power and dignity.
* To them: i.e., to Pharaoh, as sitting in his Council, with the Chiefs of his people. Cf. vii. 103. The whole scene is described in some detail from the point of view of nations or Ummats in vii. 103-133.
* At a different and later stage in the scene, Pharaoh’s Chiefs call Moses a "sorcerer well-versed" (vii. 109). Here Moses, who had come with the Nine Signs but had not yet shown them, is reproached with being the object of sorcery: he is practically told that he is mad!