Transliteration:( Wa alqi maa fee yamee nika talqaf maa sana'oo; innamaa sana'oo kaidu saahir; wa laa yuflihus saahiru haisu ataa )
And cast down what is in your right hand, it will swallow [85] their makings. That which they have made is the trick of the magician, and the magician does not prosper, anywhere he comes.
In this verse lies a prophecy of the unseen—that Hazrat Musa’s (peace be upon him) staff would swallow all that they had crafted.
It happened exactly as foretold: the staff transformed into a serpent and devoured their illusions.
This teaches that when the staff assumed the form of a snake, it could eat and move, but in essence, it remained a staff.
Its actions were merely a function of the form it temporarily adopted.
Similarly, the Holy Prophet ﷺ is the Light of Allah, but when he appeared in human form, he exhibited human functions—eating, drinking, marriage, and even death—while his divine refulgence remained intact.
His Mi'raaj, ability to fast continuously (Saum-e-Visal) without hunger or thirst, are examples of this divine aspect.
Likewise, when the angels Harut and Marut were sent in human form, they also ate, drank, and even experienced human desires, yet remained angels of light.
The tafsir of Surah Ta-Ha verse 69 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Taha ayat 65 which provides the complete commentary from verse 65 through 70.
(20:69) And throw down what is in your right hand; it will swallow up all that they have wrought. They have wrought only a magician’s stratagem.[42] A magician cannot come to any good, come whence he may.”
42. This is capable of two interpretations:
(1) The staff, which was turned into a dragon by a miracle, actually swallowed up all the staffs and cords which had been made to appear as serpents.
(2) The dragon of the staff did not actually swallow up the serpents of the magicians but wiped out the effect of their magic from these things and they again became ordinary cords and staffs.
We prefer the second interpretation because the wording of (Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayat 117) and (Ash-Shuara, Ayat 45) is this: It swallowed up their false magic. And here the wording is: It will swallow up what they have crafted. Obviously, the staffs and cords were not their creation but the magic which had made them appear like serpents.
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