This contention requires a little bit of scrutiny so as to clear up its reality. It refers to what took place during a contest between our master Moses and Pharaoh's magicians.
If we review what our master Moses (pth) said to Pharaoh and his people before this contest, and then to the magicians, the reality will be clear to us. He (pth) said to Pharaoh and his people: “Say ye (this) about the truth when it has reached you? Is sorcery (like) this? But sorcerers will not prosper.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 10, Yunus (Jonah), verse 77
Did the magicians prosper and bewitch him as they bewitched the people’s eyes? Here is what happened with the magicians: “When the magicians came, Moses said to them ‘cast down what you want to cast down’ and when they had thrown down (their cords and staffs), Moses said ‘magic is what you have done’, and Al’lah will surely confound it. He does not bless the work of evil-doers.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 10, Yunus (Jonah), verse 77
If our master Moses (pth) was bewitched or affected by imaginings, he would not have been able to attack them by saying: “…magic is what you have done…”, that is, these are false fancies with no basis in reality, each just like a mirage.
He said that after they had thrown down their cords and staffs, they appeared before people’s eyes to be great serpents and snakes, so that the people thought them to be real, although they were only illusions. In examining whether or not he was bewitched: if this was indeed true, then after they had thrown down their cords and staffs he would not say to them: “…God will certainly confound it…”, because one who is bewitched cannot attack, and with that saying, he was challenging them and mocking what they were doing. How then can they credibly say that he (pth) was under their spell??
This explains what he said (pth) to the magicians: “…magic is what you have done…” meaning, this is magic, or devilish, deceptive actions.
This trick works with simple, blind-hearted people, but it never works with those who have gained access to the enlightened provision, and who see with the eye of the heart through the Godly light.
If we make a comparison between what happened to the people and what happened to our master Moses (pth), we will find that when the magicians showed their magic, they “…bewitched the people’s eyes and terrified them by a display of great magic.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 7, Al-A’raf (The Heights), verse 116
So, the people were bewitched, and they feared what they had seen. But as for our master Moses (pth), when the magicians threw down their cords and staffs, as described in the Holy Qur’an: “…then behold, their ropes and their sticks, through their magic, appeared to him as though they were moving.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 20, Ta Ha ‘Ta-ha’ (Pure), verse 66
The word ‘appeared’ here means that they were shown to him to be mere fancies with no material quality.
This is similar to the situation when a shadow drawn on the wall seems to you to be a big body or a great monster because you have interlaced your fingers together in some position in front of the light of a candle.
He (pth) was not affected by these images as the people were; instead these fancies were brought before his hands so that they were open and exposed for him, so that he saw them to be images that had no reality, each just like a mirage.
When a person is a noble prophet who is illuminated by God’s light, they will witness the reality of these matters, and will easily recognize illusion through their luminous provision. Because of this, Moses feared both for his people and for Pharaoh’s people in the face of the tricks of the devils and the magicians.
God says: “Then he felt fear” on behalf of the people due to the magicians’ trickery, quackery and playing upon people’s minds. But the Almighty relieved his fear and told him that He would uncover their falsehoods and grant him victory over them when He said: “ ‘Moses’ We said, ‘have no fear, you will surely win’.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 20, Ta Ha ‘Ta-ha’ (Pure), verse 67-68
The noble verse here means that God was certainly going to let Moses triumph over the magicians. Thus, these illusions can only have an effect on one whose vision is not illuminated by God’s light. The prophets, on the other hand, have gained access to an enlightened provision and the illumination that comes from the Godly lights. No enchanter can affect them with their deception, nor can they prosper in the presence of the prophets, whatever they do. The noble verse came to us and was clear, showing us that the devils did not come near to our master Moses (pth), nor did they penetrate him, and their magic did not work on him due to his constantly being in the presence of God. The whole truth is that false visions created by the magicians were shown to him, and he saw them to be mere fancies without physical reality.
This is completely different from what happened to the people, whose eyes were bewitched as the magic worked on them.
The preposition ‘to’ in the Arabic language clearly indicates separation, making it unambiguous that neither a magician nor a devil could have had an influence upon our master Moses (pth).
To clarify the impossibility of the devils’ coming near to the prophets in their physical worldly state, we say: their spirits (ptt) are constantly in the presence of God.
When they scientifically got to know of His mercy and compassion for all of creation, and witnessed His endless beauty and perfection, they became attached to that lofty Presence where they could be overwhelmed by the Godly manifestation; they were covered with the light that was coming successively upon their spirits by dint of their limitless honesty before Al’lah and their great love for Him, the Almighty. This is why the devil can neither approach them nor penetrate that Godly light. Through this Godly manifestation, they (ptt) are preserved from the devil in a forbidding fort and an unapproachable shelter; on the contrary to being subject to the devils’ power, it is they who rule over the devils, who vanquish and burn them: “…but Al’lah gives His apostles authority over whom He will…”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 59, Al-Hashr (Creation-Gathering), verse 6
A person may ask:
What about our master Moses (pth), when he turned his back and fled after he had thrown down his staff and had then seen it moving as though it was possessed!?
In reply we say:
God says: “ ‘Now throw down your rod!’ But when he saw it moving as if it was (possessed by) a jinn, he turned back in retreat, and did not look back. ‘Oh Moses! Fear not: truly, in My Presence, those called as messengers need have no fear’.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 27, An-Naml (The Ants), verse 10
The prophets and messengers are the lamps of virtue, purity, and perfection because of what their spirits have gained from their entry into God’s Presence. These spirits are always in the presence of God, witnessing the embodiment of total Majesty and Beauty. This constant existence in God’s presence and this continuous illumination by the light of the Creator led to the emergence of a piercing vision in the hearts of these people. They saw both truth and falsehood because of God’s light, and were able to distinguish between vice and virtue and could witness the measured way, and thus they were guided to the straight path. Because of the perfect qualities of their sprits, and the compassion that they acquired from God, they deserved to be chosen by their Creator, and were always worthy of being selected by their Provider to be guides for His creation, receiving His message and announcing it to all.
God the Almighty allowed them to perform miracles which agreed with interests of their people and by far excelled their hopes and plans.
Our master Jesus (pth) was sent to people at the time when medicine prospered, and so he performed miracles that surpassed the highest achievements of contemporary medicine, such as raising the dead to life, making the likeness of a bird from clay and then turning it into a living bird by Al’lah’s will, giving sight to the blind, and healing the leprous.
The same thing happened with our master Solomon (pth) who was sent to people during the era of great wealth and possessions. Al’lah granted him an amount of possessions which He would not grant to any others that came after him. As for our master Mohammad (cpth), he was sent to people at the time when eloquence was everywhere and poets competed to surpass one another in the use of language, and when possessions and the reign of kings had lost the value which they had previously held. In the estimation of the Arabs at that time, a line of poetry was much more valuable than the palaces of Caesar or of Kisra, the king of Persia.
Concerning our master Moses (pth), he was sent to people at the time when magic and magicians were plentiful, so God the Almighty supported him with a miracle that frustrated their charlatanism, quackery and deceptive actions. It was then that the Almighty charged him to announce His message, and before going to Pharaoh and his people He inspired him to “Throw down (his) staff...”, and so he threw it down.
“But when he saw it moving as if it was (possessed by) a jinn, he turned back in retreat, and did not look back”: but when he saw it moving by itself, he thought that it was one of the deeds of the jinn, so he was afraid because his clean, pure spirit disdained all but the most perfect of virtuous deeds. Besides this, he knew with certainty that such actions were restricted to the devils of humanity and their brothers of the jinn-kind whom they support in their error, sparing no effort to cause harm to others and make them imagine false fancies.
Thus, the performance of magic is always an extremely mean and grubby action, and this is why he (pth) became afraid and turned his back in retreat, paying no attention to what had happened because he was averse to these malignant, low worlds. But at this point, the Almighty reassured him, saying “…O, Moses! Fear not…”: meaning that his pure spirit would never commit such actions, and that what had happened was not magic, but rather a miracle which He had allowed Moses to perform for the benefit of Pharaoh and his people: “ ‘…in My Presence, those called as messengers need have no fear’ ”: He meant that He had selected Moses to make His speech known and to send His messages to the people. He had chosen Moses for Himself, because he was above others in the qualities of purity and perfection. He inspired him because of his lofty and perfect qualities, and because his spirit had ascended the ladders of perfection. He was chosen as a messenger to Pharaoh and his people, and supported by this miracle which was to act as a sign for them.
Messengers do not need to be afraid in His Presence as they do not speak with priority over Him. How could they go astray or be afraid since they work only according to His order!!?[16] value
The devil has no means to act against any believer as long as their spirits enter into God’s Presence and direct themselves entirely to Him, and bind themselves to His reverent noble prophets. The Almighty says: “He has no power (effect) upon those who have believed and always put their trust in their Provider.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 16, An-Nahl (The Bees), verse 99
We can conclude that the spiritual effect of the devils is absolutely terminated by the way of belief.
There can be no stabbing of skewers or spears into the body without damage; if a person is not affected by magic or by its influence over the nerves and the spirit as it spreads through its senses – if they are a perfect believer – they will perceive the truth; that is, they will see that the spear passes beside the body, and does not pass through the site that is supposedly being stabbed with a spear (as others may see and imagine it to be): that is, in actuality, the spear does not touch the body.
The magician and the devil work together to affect the nerves of the one who is bewitched, and who sees these fancies and deceptions after their spirit has been possessed by the devil by means of his ally, the magician. At this point, this pair are in control of this person’s senses, perception, and feelings, and can manipulate them as they wish. And as the judge Fakhrul-deen said to Ibn Buttootah (on the occasion of the magician throwing up the rope and ordering the boy to climb it, as previously described):
“By Al’lah, neither ascending nor descending took place, nor even the mutilation of any appendage, but mere trickery and illusion”. This is similar to how the devil appears to the magician who sees him and thinks, at first, that he is seeing with his own physical eyes. In fact, what is in play is just an imaginary spiritual vision that prevails over and veils the physical sight.
So is it for the one who has been bewitched, who is affected by magic and his own imagination. They see fancies, and they think that they are seeing with their eyes, but what they are really seeing is a spiritual vision that is reflected onto their eyes. They are actually seeing spiritually through the imagination which has veiled the physical sight of the eyes.
With that, dear reader, you can compare and understand all the wonders displayed by the trickster magicians involving displays of stabbing with skewers, and realize that they are done by exactly the method that we have explained.
Indeed, there is no burning girl in the above-mentioned Russian circus, for what could possibly follow such total burning of the body except death?? Otherwise, is this magician a god who has put someone to death and then raised them to life?!! And there is no possible physical interpretation of this, as some may suppose. Instead, the matter is fully devilish in nature. It is realized by controlling the conscious selves of people (the spirits of the ones who have been bewitched) by means of invisible devilish companions, who cause them to see the images which the devil and the magician want to show to each and every viewer.
There is no one who can create birds, razor blades, golden coins, eggs, and so forth from nothing, and take them out of their mouth: this is indeed a mere fancy. If what was done by the performer of this trickery was really something physical, he would not stretch out his hand to people at the end of the show, begging for one or two pounds, and similarly, a magician would not take a financial reward for his trickery when performing in theatres.
The matter is the same concerning all the deceptive wonders that we see that they display.
Finally, the magician is a man whose heart is overfull of the dirtiness of this lower life, so that it is foul-smelling, and his spirit is fully immersed in hidden adultery and forbidden actions. He does not separate himself from those devils to whom he is similar, including both human and jinn devils. So it is that one who takes such a man as a close friend will certainly adopt his beliefs. As God’s messenger (cpth) informs us: “Man adopts his intimate friend’s faith…”.
And the spirit of one who wants to watch the wonders of the magicians will join them, appreciating and glorifying them and finding itself desiring obscenity, aggression, discord, and prohibited deeds. Such a person’s spirit will unconsciously be possessed by the jinn through nightmares at night, and through distress and grief during the day. Such suffering is only driven away by aggression and the perpetration of mean and unkind actions, so that the spirit can forget its misery and distress. But soon a life that is miserable and woeful will return, and the jinn’s damage will increase and its evil actions will prevail, until the spirit descends from a low grade to a still lower one, eventually reaching the lowest level of all. “He who turns away from Me and My guidance will certainly live in woe...”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 20, Ta Ha ‘Ta-ha’ (Pure), verse 24