Allah describes the rebellion, tyranny, defiance of the truth and insistence on falsehood of the people of Fir'awn, prompting them to proclaim, {"Whatever Ayat you may bring to us, to work therewith your sorcery on us, we shall never believe in you."} They said, “whatever miracle, proof and evidence you bring us, we will neither accept it from you nor believe in you or what you came with.’ Allah said, {So We sent on them the Tufan} Ibn ‘Abbas commented; “It was a heavy rain that ruined the produce and fruits.” He is also reported to have said that Tuwfan refers to mass death. Mujahid said it is water that carries the plague every where. As for the locust, it is the well-known insect, which is permissible to eat. It is recorded in the Two Sahihs, that Abu Ya‘fur said that he asked ‘Abdullah bin Abi Awfa about locust. He said, “We participated in seven battles with the Messenger of Allah, and we used to eat locusts.” Ash-Shafi'i, Ahmad bin Hanbal and Ibn Majah recorded from ‘Abdur-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam that his father narrated from Ibn ‘Umar that the Prophet said, "We were allowed two dead animals and two [kinds of] blood: fish and locust, and kidney and spleen." Ibn Abi Najih narrated from Mujahid about Allah’s statement, {So We sent on them: the flood, the locusts ...} “Eating the nails on their doors and leaving the wood.” As for the Qummal, Ibn ‘Abbas said that it is the grain bug, or, according to another view; small locusts that do not have wings. Similar was reported from Mujahid, ‘Ikrimah and Qatadah. Al- Hasan and Sa'id bin Jubayr said that ‘Qummal’ are small black insects. Abu Ja'far bin Jarir recorded that Sa'id bin Jubayr said, “When Musa came to Fir ‘awn, he demanded, ‘Release the Children of Israel to me.’ But, Fir'awn did not comply; and Allah sent the Tuwfan, and that is a rain which continued until they feared that it was a form of torment. They said to Musa, 'Invoke your Lord to release us from this rain, and we will believe in you and send the Children of Israel with you.’ Musa invoked his Lord and He removed the affliction from them. However, they did not believe, nor did they send the Children of Israel with him.
In that year, Allah allowed (the earth) to grow various types of produce, fruits and grass for them as never before. They said, 'This is what we hoped for.’ So Allah sent the locusts, and the locusts started to feed on the grass. When they saw the effect the locusts had on the grass, they knew that no vegetation would be saved from devastation. They said, ‘O Musa! Invoke your Lord so that He will remove the locusts from us, and we will believe in you and release the Children of Israel to you.’ Musa invoked his Lord, and He removed the locusts. Still, they did not believe and did not send the Children of Israel with him.
They collected grains and kept them in their homes. They said, 'We saved our crops.’ However, Allah sent the Qummal, grain bugs, and one of them would take ten bags of grains to the mill, but only reap three small bags of grain. They said, ‘O Musa! Ask your Lord to remove the Qummal (weevil) from us and we will believe in you and send the Children of Israel with you.’ Musa invoked his Lord, and Allah removed the Qummal from them. However, they did not send the Children of Israel with him.
Once, when he was with Fir'awn, Musa heard the sound of a frog and said to Fir'awn, 'What will you and your people suffer from this (the frogs)?’ Fir'awn said. 'What can frogs do?’ Yet, by the time that night arrived a person would be sitting in a crowd of frogs that reached up to his chin and could not open his mouth to speak without a frog jumping in it. They said to Musa, ‘Invoke your Lord to remove these frogs from us, and we will believe in you and send the Children of Israel with you.’ Musa invoked his Lord, but they did not believe.
Allah then sent blood that filled the rivers, wells and the water containers they had. They complained to Fir ‘awn, saying, 'We are inflicted with blood and do not have anything to drink.’ He said, ‘Musa has bewitched you.’ They said, ‘How could he do that when whenever we look for water in our containers we found that it has turned into blood?’ They came to Musa and said, 'Invoke your Lord to save us from this blood, and we will believe in you and send the Children of Israel with you.’ Musa invoked his Lord and the blood stopped, but they did not believe nor send the Children of Israel with him.” A similar account was attributed to Ibn ‘Abbas, As-Suddi, Qatadah and several others among the Salaf.
Muhammad bin Ishaq bin Yasar said, “The enemy of Allah, Fir'awn, went back defeated and humiliated, after the sorcerers believed (in Musa). He insisted on remaining in disbelief and persisted in wickedness. Allah sent down the signs to him, and he (and his people) were first inflicted by famine. Allah then sent the flood, the locusts, the Qummal, the frogs then blood, as consecutive signs. When Allah sent the flood, it filled the surface of the earth with water. But the water level receded, and they could not make use of it to till the land or do anything else. They became hungry. This is when, {They said : "O Musa! Invoke your Lord for us because of His promise to you . If you remove the punishment from us, we indeed shall believe in you, and we shall let the Children of Israel go with you."}
Musa invoked his Lord and He removed the affliction from them, but they did not keep their promises. So Allah sent locusts that ate the trees and consumed the nails on their doors, until the doors fell from their homes and residences. They again said what they said to Musa before, and he called on his Lord and He removed the affliction. Still, they did not keep their promises, and Allah sent the transgressed, even though He inflicted them with consecutive signs, one after another, He took retribution from them by drowning them in the sea that Musa parted by Allah’s power, and he and the Children of Israel passed through. In their pursuit, Fir'awn and his soldiers went in the sea chasing Musa and his people. When they all had gone inside the water, the sea closed in on them and they all drowned, because they belied the Ayat of Allah and were heedless of them. Allah said that He has granted the people who were considered weak, the Children of Israel, to inherit the eastern and western parts of the land. Al-Hasan Al-Basri and Qatadah commented that Allah’s statement, {...the eastern parts of the land and the western parts thereof which We have blessed.} refers to the Sham area (Greater Syria). Also, Mujahid and Ibn Jarir said that Allah’s statement, {And the fair Word of your Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel, because of their endurance .} is explained by Allah’s other statement, {[And We wished to do a favor to those who were weak (and oppressed) in the land, and to make them rulers and to make them the inheritors. And to establish them in the land, and We let Fir'awn and Haman and their hosts receive from them that which they feared]}(quran/28/5-6). Further, Allah’s statement, {And We destroyed what Fir'awn and his people produced ,} meaning, We destroyed what Fir'awn and his people produced, such as agriculture and buildings. {and what they erected .} Ibn ‘Abbas and Mujahid said that {they erected} means, they built.