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How can we reconcile the faith of the sorcerers and others with Allah's verse: "But none believed in Moses except a few of his people," knowing that faith was not limited to the Children of Israel only?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The exegetes differed regarding the meaning of "Dhurriyyah" (offspring/descendants) in the noble verse: {But none believed in Moses except a Dhurriyyah from his people} on two views:

1. The First View: That the pronoun in (his people) refers to Moses, and "Dhurriyyah" means the children of the Children of Israel who responded to Moses, while their fathers persisted in disbelief, or the children had softer hearts. This is the choice of Al-Tabari and the majority of exegetes. 2. The Second View: That the pronoun in (his people) refers to Pharaoh, and "Dhurriyyah" means the few from Pharaoh's people who believed, such as Pharaoh's wife, the believer from Pharaoh's family, and Pharaoh's treasurer. This is the choice of Ibn Kathir and Ibn Atiyyah.

According to the second view (that the Dhurriyyah were from Pharaoh’s people), there is no issue regarding the belief of the sorcerers and others from Pharaoh's family, as they are part of this Dhurriyyah. As for the first view (that the Dhurriyyah were from the Children of Israel), the issue is resolved by understanding that the verse speaks about the first ones who believed in Moses and openly declared their faith, who were the young men, and then the rest of his people believed later, along with those from Pharaoh's people who believed afterwards.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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