2. Al-Baqara

And when We appointed for Moses forty nights then you took to your- selves the calf after him and you were evildoers. What a difference [there is] between one community and another! When Moses ���� ������ withdrew from the community for forty days they took the calf as their object of worship and were pleased with that. They said This is your God and the God of Moses but he has forgotten [20:88]. [On the other hand] the community of Muḥammad the Chosen ﷺ spent many years with their prophet. If they had heard anyone mention any form of [material] descrip- tion of what they worshiped they would not have spared their last breath and would have given their lives [before agreeing to such a comparison]. It is said that Moses ���� ������ entrusted his community to his brother saying Take my place with my people [7:142]. When he returned he found that they had fallen into temptation fitna. Our Prophet ﷺ relied on God and did not suggest anyone to lead the community. At the end of his life he said �the highest companions.� See how the Real attended to the care of [Muḥammad's] community in preserving their monotheism. By my life they may forfeit their [territorial] borders but they will not compromise their declaration of God's unity tawḥīd.

Then We pardoned you after that so that you might be thankful. The quickness [with which God] pardoned such a grave sin indicates the lesser weight of those who were pardoned. The words of God most high testify to that [in addressing the wives of the Prophet] Whoever of you commits manifest indecency the chastisement shall be doubled for her [33:30]. The children of Israel worshiped the calf so God most high said �Then We pardoned you after that.� To the community [of Muḥammad ﷺ] He said �and whoever does an atom's weight of evil shall see it� [99:8].

When Moses said to his people, “O my people, you have wronged your souls by taking up the calf, so kill your own souls! That is better for you with your Creator.” Moses said to his people: “Take care not to suppose that your worship of the calf has harmed the majesty of the Self-Sufficient or that it is a defect for His kingship and lordhood. Rather, the harm and bad fortune belong to you. If something bad has happened, it has happened to you by your being held back from a Lord like Him. Otherwise, He has plenty of servants like you. Sahl ʿAbdallāh Tustarī said, “God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, and the exaltedness of the Lord God's speech made that mountain like carnelian. Moses' turned his gaze to himself: 'Who is like me? For the God of the world and the world's folk is talking to me without intermediary, and my standing place has turned into carnelian!' “God did not let that pass. He said, 'O Moses, look once right and left. What do you see?' “Moses looked around and saw a thousand mountains of carnelian like Mount Sinai, on each mountain a man in the form of Moses, wearing a blanket like him, a hat on his head, a staff in hand, and talking to the Lord of the universe.” The tongue of Moses' state was saying, “I fancied that you were one body with me. How could I know that you're everyone's familiar?” A poor man was seen whispering secretly with God and saying, “O God, approve of me as your lover. If You do not approve of me as a lover, approve of me as Your servant. If You do not ap- prove of my as a servant, approve of me as Your dog.” He was saying, “O Lord, accept me for friendship. If I am not worthy of friendship, accept me for servanthood. If I am not worthy of servanthood, accept me for doghood, so that I may be the dog of Your threshold.” O Friend, if you do not give me the forefront of respect, at least keep me outside the door like the dogs. So kill your own souls! That is better for you with your Creator. By way of inwardness, this is ad- dressed to the chevaliers of the Tariqah: “Cut off the heads of your souls with the sword of struggle so that you may reach Me.

And when you said �O Moses we will not believe you till we see God openly�; and the thunderbolt took you while you were beholding. Demanding to see the Essence without divine blessing is an open act of sacrilege which is one of the signs of distance and misery whereas attest- ing to the attribute of [divine] governance in the unveilings of might as linked to the kindnesses of nearness is one of the marks of communion and the tokens of felicity. Surely when they spoke from ignorance without any sense whatsoever of shame the convulsion and the thunderbolt blast overtook them.

Then We raised you up after you were dead so that you might be thankful. He returned them to consciousness after the blows of punishment over- whelmed them in order to fulfill the decree for them and to implement [God's] way of pardoning sin. One of the aspects of generosity is to lower the veil over the defects of servants.

And We shaded you with clouds. This is an allusion to the Lord's gentleness and generosity. His loving kindness toward the ser- vants is such that the Lord of the Worlds says, “O hapless child of Adam! Why do you not love Me? For I am worthy of love. Why do you not trade with Me? For I am munificent and bounteous. Why do you not engage in transactions with Me? For I am a bestower who is ample in bestowal. My mercy is not tight, nor do I hold back blessings from anyone. “Look at what I did with the Children of Israel, how many blessings I poured down upon them, how much I caressed them in that empty desert! After they had turned away and disobeyed My command, I did not let them go to ruin. I commanded the mist to cast a shadow over them, I com- manded the wind to place roasted birds in their hands, I commanded the clouds to rain down manna and honey on them, I commanded the pillar of light to give them brightness on the nights when there was no moon. When a child came into existence from its mother in that empty desert, it came into existence with the set of clothes that it needed. Then, as the child grew up, those clothes never became too old for it, nor did they become dirty. In the state of that person's life, the clothes were his ornament, and in the state of his death, his shroud. What blessing was there that I did not pour down upon them? In what manner did I fail to caress them? Yet they did not know My measure, nor did they show gratitude for the blessings. “O hapless one! No one wants you the way I want you. When you come, no one will buy you the way I buy. When you sell yourself, others will buy only the faultless, but I buy the faulty. Others call out for the loyal, but I call out for the disloyal. If you come in old age, I will adorn the whole empire to honor you, and if you talk to Me in the fullness of youth, I will take you into My shelter tomorrow on the Day of Resurrection.” People disobey for a lifetime, then return in shame- We say to them, “Welcome, be at ease, greetings!”

And when We said �Enter this city and eat freely therein wherever you will and enter it at the gate prostrating and say �exoneration� and We shall forgive you your transgressions and We shall give more to those who are virtuous.� The children of Israel persisted in neglecting that which they were com- manded to do to the point that they were entrusted to preserve [their] speech but they altered it and they were commanded [to take] a position of prostration upon entering [the city] but they did not. They exposed themselves to the arrows of the unseen and then were not able to with- stand the injury of their strikes lam yuṬīqū l-iṣābata bi-qarʿihā. They were exposed to unexpected punishments and could not hold up to the blows of their impact fa-lam yathbutū ʿinda ṣadamāt waqʿihā.

Then the evildoers substituted a saying other than that which had been said to them; so We sent down upon the evildoers wrath from the heaven for their wickedness. They could neither ward off the opening of heaven above them with their stratagems nor avert the cords of affliction below them by relying on their usual states. They gnashed the teeth of remorse when the fangs of pain bit them. How could this have benefited them when the situation was hopelessḍ

And when Moses sought water for his people We said �Strike the rock with your staff� and there exploded from it twelve fountains and each people came to know their drinking place �Eat and drink of that which God has provided and do not be degenerate in the earth seeking corruption.� One who is capable of extracting water from solid rock is capable of quenching thirst without water. But He made the trace or effect athar of the miracle manifest in [Moses] and connected him to the locus maḥall of calling for help. This in order for Moses to work with his self nafs in mov- ing the stone and give him responsibility in striking it with his staff. Thus there would be a measure of [human] effort involved in making His decree come to pass when he sought water for his people. Then the Real ������ wanted each people to follow a way sunna stick to their boundary ḥadd and not dispute with their companions. He singled out for each tribe a marker by which they would know their drinking place so that they would not go to each others' drinking places. When He had met their needs He bid them to be grateful to preserve the command and to stop choosing sin and so He said �and do not be degenerate in the earth seeking corruption.� The drinking places are different and each comes to their own so one drinking place is sweet and fresh another salty and bitter another clear and pure and another dried up with only a few drops. The water carrier for each people leads them and the scout of each party drives them on so the lower selves come to the watering places of desires and cravings the hearts come to the drinking places of piety and acts of obedience the spirits come to the watering places of unveiling and witnessing and the innermost selves come to the watering places of realities. The latter [innermost selves] are snatched from the being and outward markings al-kawn wa-l-marsūmāt [of humans] then from the sensory awareness and attributes al-iḥsās wa-l-ṣifāt [of humans] then annihilated in the reality of ecstatic finding and essence al-wujūd wa-l-dhāt.