20 Preface فَأَلقاها فَإِذا هِيَ حَيَّةٌ تَسعىٰYusuf AliHe threw it, and behold! It was a snake, active in motion.1Cf. 7:107, where a different word (thu'ban is used for “snake”, and the qualifying adjective is “plain (for all to see)”. The scene there is before Pharaoh and his magicians and people: the object is to show the hollowness of their magic by a miracle: the rod appears before them as a long and creeping, writhing serpent. Here there is a symbol to present God’s Mystery to Moses’s mind and understanding: the rod becomes a Hayy (a live snake), and its active motion is what is most to be impressed on the mind of Moses, for there were no other spectators. So the highest spiritual mysteries can be grasped, with God’s gift of insight, from the most ordinary things of daily use. Once they are grasped, there is no question of fear. They really are the virtues of this life lifted up to the glorious spiritual plane.