Page 150 - The Worst Slander: Idolatry

148 THE WORST SLANDER: IDOLATRY

organization, discipline, reason, and consciousness; a plan-
et named Earth with all of its features so perfectly suited to
life; and living things full of countless complex systems.
In fact, in the Qur'an Allah relates the incident of the
Prophet Moses (as) and Pharaoh to show that some people
who support atheistic philosophies actually influence others
by magic. When Pharaoh was told about the true religion,
he told the Prophet Moses (as) to meet with his own magi-
cians. When the Prophet Moses (as) did so, he told them to
demonstrate their abilities first. The verses continue:
He said: "You throw." And when they threw, they cast a
spell on the people's eyes and caused them to feel
great fear of them. They produced an extremely power-
ful magic. (Surat al-A'raf, 116)
As we have seen, Pharaoh's magicians were able to
deceive everyone, apart from the Prophet Moses (as) and
those who believed in him. However, his evidence broke the
spell, or "swallowed up what they had forged," as revealed in
the verse:
We revealed to Moses: "Throw down your staff." And it
immediately swallowed up what they had forged. So the
Truth took place and what they did was shown to be
false. (Surat al-A‘raf, 117-118)
As we can see, when people realized that a spell had
been cast upon them and that what they saw was just an
illusion, Pharaoh's magicians lost all credibility. In the pre-
sent day too, unless those who, under the influence of a
similar spell, believe in these ridiculous claims under their
scientific disguise and spend their lives defending them,
abandon their superstitious beliefs, they also will be humili-