Their Ropes Seemed to Move

And they devised their plan. They said: O Mūsā, either you throw your stick first, or we will be the first to throw. He said: no, you throw. So they threw their sticks and their ropes. Allah (swt) says: then behold, their ropes and their sticks, by their magic, appeared to him as though they were moving fast.

And these were not amateur magicians, or weak in their field. They were strong and professional, and they were perhaps the best in magic the world has ever seen. Because Allah (swt) says in the other ayah:

Allah (swt) says that when they threw their sticks and their ropes, they worked magic, an illusion, on the eyes of people. Wa istarhabūhum — they put fear in the hearts of people. And they produced a great magic: Allah (swt) is saying this is great magic. Imagine how powerful it would have been.

First of all: saḥarū aʿyuna al-nās — the magic was on the eyes of the people. That means these sticks and ropes were not really snakes, because we cannot give life to the dead. So it was an illusion, an optical illusion. That is what it was. Because we do not control the difference between life and death, and that is al-rūḥ, the soul:

They ask you about the soul. Allah (swt) told Muhammad (peace be upon him): tell them that the soul — the knowledge of the soul — belongs to Allah, and you have been given only a little knowledge. This is something that only Allah (swt) controls. So this magic was an illusion.