Page 222 - Portents and Features of the Mahdi's Comingl

PORTENTS AND FEATURES OF THE MAHDI'S COMING

reli gion, he told Prophet Musa (as) to meet with his own
magi cians. When Musa (as) did so, he told them to dem -
on strate their abil i ties first. The vers es con tin ue:
He said: "You throw." And when they threw, they
cast a spell on the peo ple's eyes and caused them to
feel great fear of them. They pro duced an extreme -
ly pow er ful magic. (Surat al-A‘raf, 116)
As we have seen, Pharaoh's magi cians were able to
deceive every one, apart from Musa (as) and those who
believed in him. However, his evi dence broke the spell,
or "swal lowed up what they had forged," as the verse
puts it:
We revealed to Musa: "Throw down your staff." And
it imme di ate ly swal lowed up what they had forged.
So the Truth took place and what they did was shown
to be false. (Surat al-A‘raf, 117-8)
As we can see, when peo ple real ized that a spell had
been cast upon them and that what they saw was just
an illu sion, Pharaoh's magi cians lost all cred i bil i ty. In
the present day too, unless those who, under the influ -
ence of a sim i lar spell, believe in these ridic u lous claims
under their sci en tif ic dis guise and spend their lives
defend ing them, aban don their super sti tious beliefs,
they also will be humil i at ed when the full truth emer ges
and the spell is bro ken. In fact, world-renowned British
writer and phi los o pher Malcolm Muggeridge, who was
an athe ist defend ing evo lu tion for some 60 years, but

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