Thumma adbara yasAAa (surah Naziat: 22)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(79:22) and then he turned back to have recourse to his craftiness, *10

Thumma adbara yas`aa

*10) According to the details given at other places in the Qur'an, he summoned skilful magicians from all over Egypt and made them produce serpents out of sticks and cords in front of the assembled people so that they were convinced that Moses (peace be upon him was not a Prophet but a magician, and that the miracle worked by him of turning a staff into a serpent, could also be worked by other magicians. But this device of his recoiled upon himself and the defeated magicians themselves admitted that what Moses (peace be on him) had displayed was no magic but a miracle.