Surah al-A`raf (The Elevated Places) 7 : 111

Explanatory Note

At that time Egypt was full of priests in all types of temples, and those priests actually practised sorcery. In all pagan beliefs, religion was closely linked with sorcery. Hence, those who specialize in comparative religion speak of magic and sorcery as a stage in the development of human faith. Those among them who are atheists claim that religious beliefs will one day be abandoned in the same way as sorcery was abandoned. They claim that science will put an end to the reign of faith just as it put an end to the reign of sorcery. Their confusion knows no limit, yet they call it science.
 
Pharaoh’s aides determined, after their lengthy discussions, that Pharaoh should gain time and fix an appointment with Moses. Meanwhile, he would send heralds to summon to his presence all skilful sorcerers, so that they could overpower what they claimed to be Moses’s sorcery. Despite all that we know about Pharaoh’s tyranny, his action in this regard was much milder than what twentieth-century tyrants did when they confronted the advocates of divine faith who proclaimed that God is the only Lord in the universe, and thereby threatened the authority of self-proclaimed rulers.