Why Egypt's Magicians

When Mūsā saw all of the magicians present — it says in another ayah that Firʿawn had sent to all of the towns of Egypt to gather the magicians; he sent out his orders to bring all of the magicians from Egypt —

— what was the role of the magicians in Egypt? First of all, we need to realise that when Allah (swt) sends a prophet, He provides the nabī with miracles that challenge the people in their own field of expertise. For the people of Egypt, the highest-ranking science they had — their field of expertise — was the field of magic. They were very powerful in that field, and perhaps the world until today has never seen magic as powerful as what existed in Egypt. They were at the top in magic.

Firʿawn used the magicians to control and dominate the minds of society. He would use them to influence and control the minds of people. So these men were working with Firʿawn, and that is why they say in another ayah: wa mā akrahtanā ʿalayhi min al-siḥr. They were forced to learn it. Firʿawn had schools where they would be taught magic, and then he would use it to control the minds of people through magic, and to give people the impression that Firʿawn was God. These magicians would perform strange acts of magic, and they would do it in the name of Firʿawn. That is how they controlled the lives of people in Egypt.

But Firʿawn was very terrified of this single man, Mūsā (peace be upon him). So he did not bring one magician or two; he brought the best magicians that Egypt could offer. There are different narrations, and we do not know the number for sure. Ibn Isḥāq goes as far as saying 15,000, but Ibn ʿAbbās says 70. So let us go with the least, and that is the narration of Ibn ʿAbbās: 70 magicians. These 70 magicians were standing in front of Mūsā.