101 Preface وَلَقَد آتَينا موسىٰ تِسعَ آياتٍ بَيِّناتٍ ۖ فَاسأَل بَني إِسرائيلَ إِذ جاءَهُم فَقالَ لَهُ فِرعَونُ إِنّي لَأَظُنُّكَ يا موسىٰ مَسحورًاYusuf AliTo Moses We did give Nine Clear Sings:1 As the Children of Israel: when he came to them,2 Pharaoh said to him: “O Moses! I consider thee, indeed, to have been worked upon by sorcery!3Nine Clear Signs; see 7:133, 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. 7:103. The whole scene is described in some detail from the point of view of nations or Ummahs in 7:103-133.At a different and later stage in the scene, Pharaoh’s Chiefs call Moses a “sorcerer well-versed” (7:109). Here Moses, who had come with Nine Signs but had not yet shown them, is reproached with being the object of sorcery: he is practically told that he is mad!