فَجُمِعَ ٱلسَّحَرَةُ لِمِيقَٰتِ يَوْمٍ مَّعْلُومٍ · وَقِيلَ لِلنَّاسِ هَلْ أَنتُم مُّجْتَمِعُونَ · لَعَلَّنَا نَتَّبِعُ ٱلسَّحَرَةَ إِن كَانُوا۟ هُمُ ٱلْغَٰلِبِينَ · فَلَمَّا جَآءَ ٱلسَّحَرَةُ قَالُوا۟ لِفِرْعَوْنَ أَئِنَّ لَنَا لَأَجْرًا إِن كُنَّا نَحْنُ ٱلْغَٰلِبِينَ · قَالَ نَعَمْ وَإِنَّكُمْ إِذًا لَّمِنَ ٱلْمُقَرَّبِينَ
Fa-jumiʿa's-saḥaratu li-mīqāti yawmin maʿlūm · Wa qīla li'n-nāsi hal antum mujtamiʿūn · Laʿallanā nattabiʿu's-saḥarata in kānū humu'l-ghālibīn · Fa-lammā jāʾa's-saḥaratu qālū li-Firʿawna a-inna lanā la-ajran in kunnā naḥnu'l-ghālibīn · Qāla naʿam wa innakum idhan la-mina'l-muqarrabīn
"And so the sorcerers were gathered for the appointed hour of a known day. · And it was said to the people: 'Will you gather too? · Perhaps we shall follow the sorcerers — if they are the ones who prevail.' · When the sorcerers came they said to Pharaoh: 'Will there really be a wage for us if we are the ones who prevail?' · 'Yes', he said, 'and then you will certainly be among those brought near.'"
In the first three of the five verses the verbs are passive: jumiʿa (were gathered), qīla (it was said). The agent is not named.
A point of word order: the passive voice, as it hides the one who acts, also announces the breadth of the act. Gatherers had been sent city by city (36), the sorcerers had been brought, the people had been summoned. All of this is fitted into a single verb.
مِيقَٰت — root و-ق-ت: an appointed time. Mīqāt is not "a time" but "a meeting whose time is fixed"; the word has this sense in the terms of the pilgrimage too.
And yawmin maʿlūm — "a known day". The Qurʾān does not say what day this event was. At Ṭāhā 20/59 Moses' own proposal occurs: mawʿidukum yawmu'z-zīnati wa an yuḥshara'n-nāsu ḍuḥā — "your appointment is the day of adornment (the festival); let the people be gathered in the forenoon". Al-Shuʿarāʾ does not give this detail; Ṭāhā does. The two texts do not conflict; one is shorter than the other.
I do not enter into detail the Qurʾān does not give; reports are transmitted about which festival it was and how many sorcerers came, but they are not in the Qurʾān.
The sentence stands as a question but its work is a summons. In Arabic the interrogative pattern can be used for urging. The English "will you gather?" carries the same doubleness.
And what must be recorded is this: the display is open to the public. It is held not in a closed hall but before a crowd. This is what will determine the outcome of the scene: when the sorcerers fall prostrate in the forty-sixth verse, the whole people will see it.
| Reading | Who says it | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| Those making the summons | The officials / Pharaoh's side | It is the continuation of the same sentence as qīla li'n-nās |
| The people themselves | The gathered crowd | The verb is first person plural (nattabiʿu) |
But the content of the sentence, whichever reading is taken, says the same thing, and it must be recorded: in kānū humu'l-ghālibīn — "if they are the ones who prevail". The measure is not truth but victory.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the word: the sentence does not say "if they turn out to be in the right" or "if they speak the truth". Whoever wins the contest is to be followed. And ten verses after setting up this sentence, the sūra will recount that the winners of the contest themselves changed sides (46-48). The measure thus breaks itself.
The root غ-ل-ب: to prevail, to overcome. The word occurs three times in the sūra (40, 41, 44), and all three times it belongs to the side of the sorcerers: twice the expectation of the people or the sorcerers, once their own oath. There is no fourth occurrence — because they do not prevail. This is a datum that can be verified from the text.
And in the sūra five prophets will say the same sentence five times: wa mā asʾalukum ʿalayhi min ajrin (109, 127, 145, 164, 180) — "I ask you no wage for it".
| The sorcerers 26/41 | The five prophets (109, 127, 145, 164, 180) | |
|---|---|---|
| Word | ajr | ajr |
| Verb | A-inna lanā — "is there for us?" | Mā asʾalukum — "I do not ask" |
| From whom | From Pharaoh | From no one |
| Its return | Mina'l-muqarrabīn — to be brought near | ʿAlā rabbi'l-ʿālamīn — it falls upon the Lord |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the same word (ajr) occurs six times in the sūra: once asked for, five times refused. And the sūra will recount that those who asked for the wage in the end gave the wage up (50-51). The word ajr is thus a separator in the sūra: it measures who is speaking in return for what.
The root ق-ر-ب: to be near. Muqarrab — the passive participle of Form II: brought near, taken into proximity.
| Use | Example | Nearness to whom |
|---|---|---|
| The language of the court | Al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/42 — Pharaoh's promise | To the ruler |
| The language of the hereafter | Al-Wāqiʿa 56/11 (ulāʾika'l-muqarrabūn), al-Muṭaffifīn 83/21 | To God |
This word was analysed in al-Wāqiʿa and in al-Muṭaffifīn, and I do not repeat it.
What is to be added here is an observation: Pharaoh answers the question about the wage with "yes" and adds something on top of it — nearness. What is offered, then, is not money but position. And a few verses later the sorcerers will refuse that position: lā ḍayra innā ilā rabbinā munqalibūn (50). What was set before them was a position; what they left behind was a position too.