Greatest Deviation

51. " And (remember) when We appointed forty nights for Moses, and you then took the Calf (for worship) after him, and you were unjust (to yourselves) ."

52. "Then We pardoned you after that in order that you might be thankful."

53. " And (remember) when We gave Moses the Book as a Criterion (between right and wrong) so that you might be guided (aright) ."

54. " And (remember) when Moses said to his people: ' O' my people, you have indeed wronged yourselves by worshipping the Calf; so turn (in repentance) to your Creator and slay yourselves (the wrong doers) , that will be better for you with your Creator'. Then, He turned towards you (mercifully) . Truly, He is the Oft-Pardoning, the Most Merciful."

Commentary :

The Israelites' Greatest Deviation

In these four verses, the Qur'an refers to another episode in the adventurous history of the Children of Israel and reminds the Jews of some shaking events of theirs.

These verses speak of their greatest deviation throughout the

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history of their lives which was their aberration from the path of monotheism to the worshipping of the calf. The Qur'an warns them that they had gone astray once in their history because of the temptations of the mischief makers. Now they should beware not to repeat that mistake. They should be attentive that the way of pure monotheism, viz. the way of Islam and the Qur'an, is open to them. They must not detach from it. First the verse says :

" And (remember) when We appointed forty nights for Moses, ..."

When he (Moses) departed from you and his thirty night appointment delayed for forty nights, "...and you then took the Calf (for worship) after him, and you were unjust to yourselves."

This event will be scrutinized when commenting on Sura Al-'A'raf, No. 7, verse 142 and Sura Taha, No. 20, verses 86 on. The story in brief is as follows:

After the deliverance of the Children of Israel from the tyrannical grips of Pharaoh and his men, who drowned in the sea, Moses (a.s.) was commanded to leave for Mount Sinai to stay there for thirty days and nights in order to receive the Law or the Turah on the Tablets from the Lord. Subsequently, the term was extended by ten more days and nights for the trial of the people. The delay in the return of Moses (a.s.) to his people at the end of thirty days, owing to the extension of the time by ten days and nights, was sufficient to create in the minds of the Israelites doubt about the authenticity of Moses (a.s.) as a true Prophet, on one hand, and for fallacious seducive Sameri to make a golden Calf possessing a special sound in order to deceive the Israelites, on the other hand. They, thereby, were deluded into calf-worship.

The majority of the Children of Israel joined him. Aaron (a.s.) , the deputy and brother of Moses (a.s.) with a minority of people remained faithful to their monotheistic creed. They tried very much to restrain others from that great deviation, but they failed finally.

When Moses (a.s.) returned from the Mount end observed the circumstances, he became angry about it and scorned them severely. They understood that they had done wrong and decided to repent. Moses (a.s.) on Allah's command suggested to them an important repentance, whose explanation will be presented in future verses.

* * * *

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In the next verse it says : " Then We pardoned you after that in order that you might be thankful."

* * * *

Then, it continues mentioning the series of happenings that had occurred before, saying:

" And (remember) when We gave Moses the Book as a Criterion (between right and wrong) so that you might be guided (aright) ."

* * * *

" And (remember) when Moses said to his people: ' O' my people, you have indeed wronged yourselves by worshipping the Calf; ..."

"...so turn (in repentance) to your Creator..." your repentance should be fulfilled in this definite form: "...and slay yourselves (the wrong doers) , ...", in which the righteous had to kill the wrong doers. Of course, those who had not worshipped the calf were not condemned to death, but they were commissioned to slay those calf-worshippers among themselves, be they their own kith and kin, i.e. their own fellow men whom they loved the most because they had associated a partner, the Calf, to the Lord, the One True God. (1)

"...that will be better for you with your Creator. ..."

"...Then, He turned toward you (mercifully) . Truly, He is the Oft-Pardoning, the Most Merciful."

The phrase /innakum zalamtum anfusakum/ 'you have indeed wronged yourselves', here, is also noteworthy because: in Islam, sin which a man or a woman commits, is done against the individual's own self. For, the first and the immediate effect of a sin committed is that the individual becomes degenerated and thus gets far away from Divine Mercy.

55. " And (remember) when you said: ' O' Moses! we will never believe in you until we see Allah manifestly', so the thunderbolt struck you while you looked on."

56. " Then We raised you up after your death in order that haply you might be thankful."

Commentary :

An Unjust Demand !

These two verses remind the Children of Israel about another bounty amongst the great bounties that Allah bestowed upon them. This illustrates how stubborn and obstinate those people were, and how the divine grievous torment encompassed them as a result of their unjust demand. But, thereafter, the Mercy of Allah blessed them again. It says:

" And (remember) when you said: ' O' Moses! we will never believe in you until we see Allah manifestly ', ..."

This kind of demand might originate from their ' ignorance ', because the minds of ignorant ones usually cannot understand beyond the impressions of their senses. Their minds are not able to conceive anything invisible. So, they demanded to see the Lord openly with their own eyes.

Or, it originated haply from their stubbornness and their habit of seeking pretext which was one of the characteristics of those people. At any rate, they frankly told Moses (a.s.) that they would never believe in him until they saw the Lord manifestly and with their very eyes.

Here, they insisted on seeing Him. This placed Moses (a.s.) in a

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helpless predicament. So, they saw, instead, one of the creatures of Allah that they did not have the ability to look upon. This incident might have made them understand that the eyes of the head were not able to see even many of the creations of Allah, much less their ability to see His Pure Self, the Almighty. Then, a thunderbolt came down and struck the mountain. It issued an amazing light with a horrible sound and an awful earthquake so that everybody there, because of their intensive fear, fell down dead. So, the Qur'an, following the above sentence says: "...so the thunderbolt struck you while you looked on."

* * * *

Moses (a.s.) was very worried about that event. Seventy persons from amongst the great leaders of the Israelites had died in that occurrence. It was a very crucial event for the Children of Israel to endure and they would make life hard for Moses (a.s.) . Then he (a.s.) asked Allah to raise them up and let them live again. His supplication was accepted, as the Qur'an says:

" Then We raised you up after your death in order that haply you might be thankful."

This short explanation of the above two verses is also expounded more comprehensively in Sura Al-'A'raf, No. 7, verse 15 and Sura Nisa, No. 4, verse 153. Concerning seeing God, we have in Exod. 33: 20: " And He said: ' Thou canst see My face: for there shall no man see Me and live '."

See the Bible, Exodus 19: 16 and 17, too, which is as follows: 16. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.

17. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

This story shows that while inviting the ignorant and stubborn people to the right path, the great prophets of Allah were involved in many complicated problems. Sometimes, the people asked for improvisatorial miracles from the prophets; and sometimes they went further and demanded of them to see the Lord openly with their

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physical eyes. They said decisively that they would never believe in them unless their demand was actually performed. They insisted on their vain thoughts and put forth some new excuses even when they were faced with respective violent responses from the Lord. But, the Grace and Mercy of Allah assisted the prophets on their path, else it was impossible for them to resist and stand firm when receiving all those excuses.

This tendency of demanding extraordinary and silly manifestations as miracles had also been the habit of the opponents of the holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) , (the Holy Qur'an 4: 153, and 17: 90-96) .

By the way, this verse is one of the verses that attests to the existence of the possibility of ' restoration of life ', in this world, because its occurrence in one respect is evidence of its possibility in other respects, too.

" And We outspread the clouds to shade you, and We sent down ' manna ' and ' quail ' upon you, (saying) : ' Eat of the good things We have provided for you '. (But they rebelled) ; to Us they did no harm, but they were putting themselves to destruction."

Commentary :

Abundant Bounties !

As it is understood from Sura Al-Ma'idah, verses 20 to 22, when the Children of Israel were saved from the hostility of the Pharaoh and his army, Allah commanded them to move toward the Holy Land of Jerusalem and enter in it. But the Israelites did not obey the command saying: "...in this land are a people of exceeding strength: never shall we enter it until they leave it: if (once) they leave then shall we enter ", (the Holy Qur'an 5: 22) .

Those rebellious people's disobedience did not stop there. They even told Moses (a.s.) : "...Go thou, and thy Lord, and fight ye two, while we sit here (and watch) ", (Sura Al-Ma'idah, No. 5, verse 24) .

Moses became very displeased with their words and told the story of his grievance to the Lord. Finally, it was appointed that the Children of Israel wander through the desert (of Sinai) in distraction for forty years.

A group of those people regretted their wrong action and returned to the Lord repenting of that sin. Then, He bestowed His bounties on them again, a part of which is referred to in the verse under discussion, where it says:

" And We outspread the clouds to shade you, ..."

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It is obvious how happy a wandering passenger, who has been walking under the hot sun in the desert that he has to pass through without any shelter from morning till evening, is when he receives the welcome shade of clouds !

True, it is probable that shady clouds sometimes appear in the sky of the deserts, but the verse clearly declares that the event was not an ordinary thing that occurred for the Children of Israel. It was the favour of Allah that often showered upon them and they enjoyed it.

At the same time, during that long span of time, the passengers in that hot dry desert needed food and sustenance. That problem was also solved for them by the Merciful Creator, as the verse continues saying:

"...and We sent down 'manna 'and 'quail 'upon you, ..."

"...(saying) : ' Eat of the good things We have provided for you '...",

in order that you may enjoy of the pure delicious nutritious sustenance and not disobey Him. Yet, they were not thankful to Him.

"...(But they rebelled) ; to Us they did no harm, but they were putting themselves to destruction."

The terms ' manna ' and ' salwa ' are differently interpreted by different philologists and commentators. However, the fact is: ' manna ' and ' salwa ' refer to the heavenly provisions the Israelites were provided with, without any strain or burden on their part.

58. " And (remember) when We said, ' Enter this city (Jerusalem) and eat of the plentiful therein, wherever you desire, and enter the gate with humility and ask forgiveness, We shall forgive you your sins, and give more (the portion of) those who do good '."

59. " But those who were unjust substituted a saying other than that which had been spoken unto them, so We sent down upon those who were unjust a torment from heaven for what they used to pervert."

Commentary :

The Israelites' Intensive Obstinacy

Here we are dealing with another aspect of the life of the Children of Israel concerning their entrance in the Holy Land. It says:

" And (remember) when We said: ' Enter this city (Jerusalem) ..."

The term /qaryah/ in our ordinary speaking usually means: ' a village or a town ', but in the Qur'an it is applied for any place where people are gathered to live in, whether it is a city, town, or village. The meaning, here, is Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

Then it adds:

"...and eat of the plentiful therein, wherever you desire, ..."

"...and enter the gate with humility and ask forgiveness, ..."

"...We shall forgive you your sins, and give more (the portion of) those who do good '."

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It should be noted that the term /hittah/ philologically means: ' a putting down ', and, here, it means: ' a petition for the putting down of a heavy burden of sin from them and asking Allah to forgive their faults.'

The Lord commanded the Israelites to say that phrase with their whole hearts and spirits for the purpose of asking, thereby, for the putting down of their heavy burdens from them,because they needed to be put down from them before entering the Holy Land. And, they were promised that they would be forgiven their sins if they did perform the the command accordingly. Maybe, it is for the same reason that one of doors of Heaven is entitled ' Bab-ul-Hittah ' (the door of forgiveness) . Abu Hayyan Andulusi says that the objective meaning of /bab/, here, is one of the doors of Jerusalem which is known as ' Bab-ul-Hittah '. ( 1)

The verse finally proclaims that as for the doers of good, besides forgiving their sins, there will be endowed some additional bounties and rewards upon them, too. It says:

"...and give more (the portion of) those who do good."

* * * *

However, Allah ordered them to express this phrase sincerely as a sign of their repentance and request for forgiveness in order to show their humility unto Him. The Lord promised them that He would forgive them their sins if they followed through with the command. In that case, He would also increase His favour and reward for the good doers among them along with the forgiveness of their faults.

But, as we know and are acquainted with the stubbornness and obstinacy of the Children of Israel, some of them even refused to utter the phrase and mockingly they said another incongruous word (Hinta) 'wheat' instead of it. Then, the Qur'an says:

" But those who were unjust substituted a saying other than that which had been spoken unto them, ..."

"...so We sent down upon those who were unjust a torment from heaven for what they used to pervert."

Divine Punishment in some form or other awaits those who unwarrantedly and unjustly change the word of Allah and His covenant, to something other than the original presented to them.

(1) At-Tafsir-ul-Kashif, vol. 1, p. 109