Moses did his best to put Pharaoh aright. He showed him the miracle of the rod, and that of the white hand, and other clear signs, but the selfish king rejected all; as being magic, and refused to believe in any god except the Egyptian gods, among whom, he himself was one! He accused Moses of having come to drive them out of their land by his sorcery! Nationalism is a weapon, that has always been used by dictator rulers against their opposers throughout the history. He therefore said to Moses:ِ

      ``You are no more than a magician skilled enough. We too, will bring you a magic the like of yours, so make an appointment for that. '' Moses, calm, and with utmost indifference, said:ِ

      ``Let it be on the day of festival, and let people be mustered when the sun shines up enough.''

      The Egyptians had a day of General festival in which the streets and tall buildings were decorated, and people were off in holiday. Moses appointed this day for the combat, so as to collect as large a number of people as possible, to show them the beautiful features of God's truth.

      Then the great day of challenge between truth and falsehood came to pass. Tens of thousands of men and women, including Pharaoh, his courtiers, and his magicians, had come to see what was going on.

      Moses warned the sorcerers that their trickery and deceit against God would be disclosed, and that, they would be defeated and given to God's wrath:ِ

      ``Moses said to them:ِ Woe unto you! Do not forge lie against Allah, lest He destroy you by a torment.''

      When so, they disputed about their plan among themselves, but they were judging Moses with the standards of Pharaoh, thinking that he too, like themselves had given to trickery and deception. Therefore, some of them said to the others the same thing that Pharaoh had said:ِ

      ``These are two skilled magicians who have come to drive us out of our country by their magic and we must do our best to stop them.''