7. Al-A'raaf

He said ‘My Lord forgive me what I have done to my brother and my brother he includes him in the supplication in order to reconcile him and to fend off any gloating over his misfortune and admit us into Your mercy for You are the Most Merciful of the merciful’.

God exalted be He says ‘Surely those who chose the calf as a god. wrath chastisement and abasement shall come upon them from their Lord in the life of this world and so they were punished for this deed by the command to slay themselves and abasement was stamped upon them until the Day of Resurrection. Even as We have requited them so We requite those who invent lies against God by way of idolatry and otherwise.

But those who commit evil deeds and repent desist from them thereafter and believe in God — indeed your Lord thereafter that is after repentance is truly Forgiving Merciful’ towards them.

And when Moses’s anger abated subsided he took the Tablets which he had cast down and in their copy that is in what was inscribed upon them — in other words it was written that there was guidance from error and mercy for all those who hold their Lord in awe who have fear of Him the lām in li-rabbihim ‘their Lord’ has been inserted into the direct object because it the direct object has preceded the verb.

And Moses chose of his people seventy men from among those who had not worshipped the calf by God’s command for Our appointed time that is for the time at which We promised him that they should come and apologise for their comrades’ worship of the calf. He Moses then departed with them; but when the Trembling a violent earthquake seized them Ibn ‘Abbās said ‘That earthquake was because they did not separate themselves from their people when the latter took to worshipping the calf’; he Ibn ‘Abbās added ‘These people were not the same ones who asked to see God and were struck by the thunderbolt cf. Q. 255’ he Moses said ‘My Lord had You willed You would have destroyed them long before that is before my departure with them so that the Children of Israel might see this and not make false accusations against me and me with them. Will You destroy us for what the foolish ones among us have done? this interrogative is meant as a plea for compassion in other words ‘Do not punish us for the sins of others’. It that is the trial which the ignorant ones underwent is but Your trial Your test whereby You send astray whom You will to lead stray and guide whom You will to guide. You are our Protector looking after our affairs so forgive us and have mercy on us for You are the Best of all who show forgiveness.

And prescribe for us grant us in this world good and in the Hereafter good. We have turned repented to You’. He God says ‘My chastisement — I smite with it whom I will to chastise and My mercy embraces subsumes all things in this world and so I shall prescribe it in the Hereafter for those who are God-fearing and pay the alms and those who believe in Our signs;

those who follow the Messenger the uninstructed Prophet Muhammad (s) whom they will find inscribed in their Torah and Gospel in name and description enjoining them to decency and forbidding them indecency making lawful for them the good things which were forbidden to them by their Law and making unlawful for them the vile things such as carrion and the like and relieving them of their burden their onus and the shackles the hardships that they used to bear such as the requirement to kill oneself as a repentance and the severing of that part that had come into contact with any impurity. Then those who believe in him from among them and honour revere him and help him and follow the light that has been revealed with him namely the Qur’ān they are the ones who will prosper’.

Say addressing the Prophet s here ‘O mankind I am the Messenger of God to you all the Messenger of Him to Whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth. There is no god but Him. He gives life and makes to die. Believe then in God and His Messenger the uninstructed Prophet who believes in God and His words the Qur’ān and follow him so that you might be guided led aright.

And We divided them We separated the Children of Israel into twelve ithnatay ‘asharata is a circumstantial qualifier tribes asbātan substitutes for this previous circumstantial qualifier communities umaman substitutes for the preceding asbātan ‘tribes’. And We revealed to Moses when his people asked him for water in the wilderness saying ‘Strike the rock with your staff’ and he struck it and there gushed forth burst forth from it twelve fountains equal to the number of tribes each people each tribe among them now knew their drinking-place. And We made the cloud overshadow them in the wilderness from the heat of the sun and We sent down to them manna and quails — which are respectively a type of citrus turunjabīn and the quail and We said to them ‘Eat of the good things We have provided for you.’ And they did not wrong Us but they wronged themselves.