Surah 2 Al-Baqarah, Ayat 55-57

Audio discussion of the summary:

https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/d0f1f18f-dab7-44c8-99e7-32cba3709e2a/audio

وَاِذۡ قُلۡتُمۡ يٰمُوۡسٰى لَنۡ نُّؤۡمِنَ لَـكَ حَتّٰى نَرَى اللّٰهَ جَهۡرَةً فَاَخَذَتۡكُمُ الصّٰعِقَةُ وَاَنۡتُمۡ تَنۡظُرُوۡنَ‏ ﴿2:55﴾ ثُمَّ بَعَثۡنٰكُمۡ مِّنۡۢ بَعۡدِ مَوۡتِكُمۡ لَعَلَّکُمۡ تَشۡكُرُوۡنَ‏  ﴿2:56﴾وَظَلَّلۡنَا عَلَيۡکُمُ الۡغَمَامَ وَاَنۡزَلۡنَا عَلَيۡكُمُ الۡمَنَّ وَالسَّلۡوٰى​ؕ كُلُوۡا مِنۡ طَيِّبٰتِ مَا رَزَقۡنٰكُمۡ​ؕ وَمَا ظَلَمُوۡنَا وَلٰـكِنۡ كَانُوۡآ اَنۡفُسَهُمۡ يَظۡلِمُوۡنَ‏ ﴿2:57﴾

(2:55) And recall when you said: “O Moses, we will not believe in you until we clearly see Allah (speaking to you).” Thereupon a tremendous thunderbolt struck you before your very eyes. (2:56) Then We revived you after your extinction, that you might be grateful.71(2:57) And We caused a cloud to comfort you with shade,72 and We sent down upon you manna and the quails,73 (saying): “Eat of the good wherewithal that We have provided you as sustenance.” And by their sinning (your forefathers) did not wrong Us: it is they themselves whom they wronged. 


Notes

71. The incident referred to here is the following. When Moses went to the mountain he had been ordered to bring with him seventy elders of Israel. Later, when God bestowed upon Moses the Book and the Criterion, he presented them to the people. Some mischief-makers, according to the Qur’an, began to complain that they could not believe in something just because Moses claimed that God had spoken to him. This invited the wrath of God and they were punished. The Old Testament, however, has the following account: 

‘And they saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank’ (Exodus 24: 10-11), 

Interestingly, it is stated later in the same book that when Moses requested God to show him His glory, God rejected the request and said: ‘You cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live’. (See Exodus 33: 18-23) 

72. That is, God provided them with shade from clouds in the Sinai peninsula where there was no shelter from the heat of the sun. 

It should be remembered that the Israelites had left Egypt in their hundreds of thousands. In Sinai, there were not even any tents in which they could shelter, never mind proper houses. But for the fact that God by His grace kept the sky, overcast for a considerable period, these people would have been scorched to death by the heat of the sun. 

73. Manna and quails constituted the natural food that was continually made available to them throughout the forty years of their wandering in the Sinai desert. Manna was like coriander seed. When the dew fell in the night, manna fell with it from above. By God’s grace the quails were made available so plentifully that the entire nation was able to live on them alone and so escaped starvation. (For details regarding manna and quails see Exodus 16; Numbers 11: 7-9 and 31-2; Joshua 5: 12)