Taha · Makki · ayah 62 of 135

Taha 20:62

فَتَنَـٰزَعُوٓا۟ أَمْرَهُم بَيْنَهُمْ وَأَسَرُّوا۟ ٱلنَّجْوَىٰ

“So they disputed over their affair among themselves and concealed their private conversation.”

Saheeh International

Essence

One sincere warning was enough to split the magicians: they pulled their affair between them like a rope and lowered their voices.

A reflection

The first crack in the hired ranks

A trial is in its third week. A defence witness finishes her evidence and steps down. In the jury box, a retired postman leans slightly towards the woman beside him. Very quietly he says: that did not sound like someone lying. She does not answer. But she does not disagree.

The magicians arrived as a united professional body. They had a job, a fee and a king's promise. Then Musa spoke one warning to them: do not invent a lie against Allah. And this ayah opens with fa, so: they fell to disputing among themselves.

The commentaries record what may have been said. One early report says some of them said to each other: this is not the speech of a magician. Another commentator records them arguing. One would say: this is not the word of a magician, it is the word of a prophet. Another would say: no, he is a magician.

So a single sentence of truth, spoken sincerely, found something inside these men that their training had not reached. They knew what magicians sound like. They were the best magicians in Egypt. And this man did not sound like one of them.

That is how conscience usually begins to move. Not with a full conversion, but with a small, private dissonance. Something does not fit. A doubt that refuses to be dismissed. A quiet remark to the person beside you.

One commentator suggests Musa's words angered them, and that anger is what started the dispute. Anger and doubt often travel together. We are rarely angry at things that do not touch us.

You may have felt that small crack inside yourself, when a truth did not sound like what you expected. Do not rush to fill it in. Pay attention to it. That is sometimes the first sound of a door opening.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.