Surah Al-Baqarah 2:47-59 - Quran Translation Commentary

(2:48) Fear the day when no soul shall avail anything for any other;¹²¹ no intercession shall be accepted for it;¹²² nor ransom shall be accepted;¹²³ neither shall they be helped.

(2:49) And when We delivered you from Fir’awn’s folk¹²⁴ (who were) afflicting you with dreadful torture, slaughtering your sons¹²⁵ and keeping your women alive. In that indeed was a severe test for you from your Lord.¹²⁶

(2:50) And when We divided the sea¹²⁷ for you, rescued you, and drowned Fir’awn’s folk¹²⁸ while you were witnessing.¹²⁹

(2:51) Yet, when We appointed for Musa forty nights,¹³⁰ you took the calf behind him (for worship).¹³¹ And you went out of bounds.¹³²

(2:52) Nonetheless, We pardoned you over that (crime)¹³³ in the hope that you will give thanks.

(2:53) And, (recall) when We gave Musa the Book and the Criterion,¹³⁴ in order that you may be rightly guided.

(2:54) And when Musa said to his people, ‘People! You have done a wrong to yourselves by taking the calf (for worship). Now turn to your Lord in repentance and slay one another. This indeed will be better for you in the sight of your Lord.' Then He relented towards you. Indeed He is very Relenting, very Kind.¹³⁵

(2:55) (Recall) when you said, ‘Musa! We shall never believe in you till we see God openly.' A thunderbolt struck you while you were looking.

(2:56) Then We raised you up after you were dead, that haply you may be thankful.¹³⁶

(2:57) (Recall) when We outspread the cloud over you (in Sinai),¹³⁷ and sent down manna¹³⁸ and quails¹³⁹ to you (saying), ‘Eat of the good things We have given you.' And they wronged Us not, but rather, they were wronging themselves.¹⁴⁰

(2:58) And when We said, ‘Enter this township, and eat thereof as you desire, abundantly, but enter the gate in humility, saying "hittatun,"¹⁴¹ We shall forgive you your sins, and shall increase (the reward of) those who do good.'

(2:59) But the transgressors substituted another word in place of that which they had been ordered; so We let loose upon those that had transgressed a scourge¹⁴² from the heavens – because they were defiantly disobeying.

Commentary

119. What was stated in the previous section (verse: 40 46) was a preamble to the detailed discourse which starts with this verse and will continue down to verse 123, which will for the last time in the surah warn the Israelites in the same words as in this first instance (Au.).

Mawdudi writes: "From here on, through several sections that follow, reference is made to the best known episodes of Jewish history. As these episodes were known to every Jewish child, they are narrated briefly, rather than in detail. This reference is intended to remind the Jews both of the favors with which the Israelites had been endowed by God and of the misdeeds with which they had responded to those favors."

120. Ibn Kathir quotes a verse to explain the nature of the preference shown to the Israelites. Musa (asws) said to his people (5: 20): وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَى لِقَوْمِهِ يَا قَوْمِ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ جَعَلَ فِيكُمْ أَنْبِيَاءَ وَجَعَلَكُمْ مُلُوكًا وَآَتَاكُمْ مَا لَمْ يُؤْتِ أَحَدًا مِنَ الْعَالَمِينَ 'O my people remember Allah's blessings upon you when He raised prophets among you, appointed you kings, and gave you such things as He had not given any other people in the world.'

Majid adds: "Now what did this 'preference' of the Israelites consist in? Was it their commerce, their adventures, their martial glory, their achievements in art, or their eminence in science? Nothing of the sort. Their singular glory and peculiar excellence, as a race, lay in their special mission their tenacious, pure and absolute MONOTHEISM in fact the only living monotheism that the world knew before the advent of Islam. `The Hebrews alone of all Semitic people reached the stage of pure monotheism, through the teachings of their prophets...As long as a man refused allegiance to other gods, he was looked upon as a Jew: whoever denies the existence of other gods is called a Jew. The unity of God was a revealed truth for the Jew, there was no need of proofs to establish it: it was the leading tenet of faith' (Jewish Encycl. VIII pp. 659, 661)."

121. That will be the day of presentation to Allah when each soul will have to account for itself: the day when (35: 18): وَلا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَى "No soul shall carry the burden of another," because (80: 37): لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مِّنْهُمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ شَأْنٌ يُغْنِيهِ "For every man that day will be an affair that will suffice him" (Ibn Kathir).

Qurtubi writes: The Prophet (saws) has said: عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ مَنْ كَانَتْ لَهُ مَظْلَمَةٌ لأَخِيهِ مِنْ عِرْضِهِ أَوْ شَيْءٍ فَلْيَتَحَلَّلْهُ مِنْهُ الْيَوْمَ قَبْلَ أَنْ لا يَكُونَ دِينَارٌ وَلا دِرْهَمٌ إِنْ كَانَ لَهُ عَمَلٌ صَالِحٌ أُخِذَ مِنْهُ بِقَدْرِ مَظْلَمَتِهِ وَإِنْ لَمْ تَكُنْ لَهُ حَسَنَاتٌ أُخِذَ مِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ صَاحِبِهِ فَحُمِلَ عَلَيْهِ - صحيح البخاري "Let him who has wronged his brother, whether it be involving his honor or anything else, clear it now before the day when he will have neither Dinar nor Dirham in his possession. If he has some good deeds in his account, those will be taken away and given as compensation to those he wronged. If he does not have any good deeds, proportionate amount of evil deeds will be taken from the man he had wronged and credited to his account" (Qurtubi).

Majid adds: "This (verse) is to repudiate the Rabbinical doctrine that `grace is to be given to some because of the merits of their ancestors, to others because of the merits of their descendants" (Jewish Encycl. VI. p.61).

122. "The patriarchs in heaven were believed to be intercessors for the living...Angels were often invoked by certain (Gnostic?) class of Jews. Especially was Michael invoked as intercessor for the Jewish people.' (JE. VIII, p. 408) Majid.

The Islamic concept in this regard is that if a soul has died disbelieving in Allah, then no intercession will be accepted for it. As for intercession for the believers: by the righteous, the martyrs, siddiqun, and the prophets, there is no difference of opinion among the scholars that it would be allowed for whomsoever Allah is pleased, by him whom He allows.

123. As says Allah (swt) elsewhere (3: 91): إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَمَاتُوا وَهُمْ كُفَّارٌ فَلَنْ يُقْبَلَ مِنْ أَحَدِهِمْ مِلْءُ الأَرْضِ ذَهَبًا وَلَوِ افْتَدَى بِهِ "Those who disbelieved and died disbelieving will not have even earthfull of gold accepted from them as ransom even if he were to offer the ransom."

124. Fir`awn was not the name of the king contemporaneous to Musa (asws), rather, a title for the Amalekite rulers, as Qayser was that of the Roman kings, Kisra of the Persians, and Najashi of the Ethiopian kings (Ibn Kathir).

Majid adds: "The Pharaoh spoken of here, the one contemporaneous with Moses (peace be upon him!) was, till recently, believed to be Ramses II, in the 13th century B.C., or Merenptah, or both. `Ramses II of the 19th dynasty is generally accounted the Pharaoh of the Oppression, and his son and successor, Merenptah is considered to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus...The Oppression evidently lasted many years. Ramses II reigned 67 years, and thus the Exodus may have taken place in the short reign of Merenptah, the son and successor of that aged king.' (Dict. of the Bible, III, p. 820. Also JE. IX p. 660). Fresh archaeological evidence, however, identifies the Pharaoh of Oppression with Thotmas III and Pharaoh of the Exodus with Amenhtap II, and postulates the date of the Exodus as falling between 1447 B.C., and 1417 B.C....The Exodus must, therefore, have taken place after Thotmas III's death in 1447 B.C., and during the reign of Amenhatap II' (Marston, "The Bible is True, p. 171)."

He further writes: "It may also be noted that while the Bible refers to the masters of the Israelites before their deliverance at the hands of Moses (asws) as "Egyptians", the Qur'an invariably refers to them as the "people of Fir`awn. For the two, (the tyrannous people of Fir`awn and the Egyptians) are as different as the British Colonial Rule and the Englishmen."

125. It is reported of Suddi that he said that the Fir`awn (contemporary to Musa, asws) dreamed that a fire had started from Jerusalem which burned the houses of the Copts in Egypt but spared those of the Israelites. He consulted the leading magicians, fortune tellers, dream interpreters, and priests. They predicted that a man would rise from among those who had come from that land, meaning Palestine, who will destroy the Egyptian kingdom. So he ordered that all the male new born of the Israelites be slaughtered, and the females spared. He also ordered the Israelites to be put to hard labor. But, as the male population of the Israelites dwindled, the leaders of the Coptian community complained to Pharaoh that if he continued killing the Israelites, they would be left with no slaves. He ordered therefore that the male children be slaughtered a year and spared the next. Harun (asws) was born the year they were to spare the male children and Musa (asws) the year they were to be slaughtered (Ibn Jarir).

126. According to Ibn Jarir and Qurtubi the bala' of the original means a test, or a trial and is used both when the test is through a blessing as well as when it is through an affliction. The example of the first kind of usage is the Qur'anic verse (7: 168): وَبَلَوْنَاهُمْ بِالْحَسَنَاتِ وَالسَّيِّئَاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ "And we tested them with both the good things as well as evil in the hope that they will return (to truth)."

Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid and Ibn Jurayj therefore, are, as reported by Ibn Jarir, of the opinion that here it means a blessing. The whole verse will then mean: "If you were suffering O children of Israel, at the hands of the people of Fir`awn, who used to slaughter your male children and let live the females, then your deliverance from them, was a great blessing for you from your Lord."

Zamakhshari (who was an expert linguist) merely mentions both the possibilities (as Alusi does) without stating his own preference. Ibn Kathir's preference is that the word balaa' should be taken in its evil sense. The meaning should thus be, "This slaughtering was a severe test for you from your Lord."

127. The word in the original is bahr which is used for any large collection of water. It can therefore mean a river, a lake or a sea. Neither the Qur'an nor a reliable hadith specify this to be the river Nile, the Red Sea or backwaters of the Mediterranean Sea. The Tawrah itself has been so badly disfigured that it cannot be relied upon for anything unless it is corroborated by the Qur'an, hadith or an independent means of enquiry. Western "experts" have worked upon conjectures. Even route maps have been drawn to trace the sojourn of the Israelites from Egypt to Sinai, which, even if they draw curious attention, are as dependable as the route taken by the Phoenicians to Northern America, centuries before Columbus discovered the continent. However, it must have been a sea, as stated by most commentators, to accommodate Fir`awn's huge army. The date also, of Exodus, which has been fixed as 1447 B.C., is as unreliable. Nonetheless, since a people normally preserve the memory of the great events of their past, the Prophet (saws) accepted from the Jews the tenth of Muharram as the day of the crossing. They used to fast on that day to celebrate the event. The Prophet recommended that the Muslims also fast on that day, adding that "we Muslims are morally bound to a greater degree than the Jews to follow Musa (asws)." However, he instructed an additional day's fast, before or after, to oppose the Jews (Au.).

128. By the term "Aalu Fir`awn" the allusion is to the army which was accompanying Fir`awn in pursuit of the Israelites.

129. This was another favor shown to the Children of Israel that not only were they delivered from Fir`awn and his folk but also their enemy was destroyed before their eyes (Au).

130. Allah (swt) said "nights" because in Islamic calendar the night precedes the day (Razi).

Thanwi says: This verse is the basis, as also some ahadith, for the forties prescribed for the saalikin.

131. This happened after the Israelites had been delivered from Fir`awn and his folk and had entered the Sinai as a free people. They began to make demands on Musa (asws) that they be given the Law and moral precepts which could guide them in their everyday affairs. Musa (asws) made supplications to his Lord. His supplications were answered and he was summoned to Mount Tur to receive the Tawrah. But when he did not return within the time he had promised (since it was extended from 30 to 40 days by Allah), they took to worshipping a calf molded out of gold by a man called Samiri.

Majid adds: "The Israelites in their impatience during the temporary absence of Moses (peace on him!) had taken to the image worship of a golden calf. The Bible narrates the story of calf worship by the Israelites in great detail (Ex. 32: 1 8). The Qur'an is in substantial agreement with it, except in one very important particular, where the Bible makes the prophet Aaron him of all the people! responsible for this act of outrageous impiety."

132. This proves that the hulul (a concept of infusion or incarnation held by the ignorant Sufis) is incorrect and impossible. Had it been a possibility, the Israelites would not have been chastised for believing that Allah had taken hulul in the calf, a belief, following which they took to worshipping it (Thanwi).

133. That is, the crime was so great that the whole lot of them should have been destroyed root and branch as well as punished in the Hereafter. But Allah in His mercy pardoned them. He prescribed for them only a lighter kind of punishment of which verse 54 speaks. This punishment itself was deferred until Musa (asws) went back to his people. Hence the one verse gap (no. 53) between the verse (no. 52) concerning the "pardon" and the "punishment" mentioned in verse 54 (Au.).

`Afw of Arabic implies a forgiveness which may or not be accompanied by a punishment inflicted before or after the `afw, as against ghufran which is not accompanied by a punishment (i.e. it is a forgiveness without punishment) Qurtubi.

134. By the term "the Book" the allusion of course is to Tawrah, which was revealed to Musa (asws) after the Exodus, as is evident from the story narrated in greater detail in surah al A`raf, and from the verse 43 of surah al Qasas (Ibn Kathir).

The word al furqan has been used here to qualify "the Book" and stands for something against which other things can be measured, a thing that helps in distinguishing: something that works as the dividing line. "Anything that makes a separation, or distinction, between the truth and falsity. It also means 'proof, or demonstration' (Lane's Lexicon, Majid)."

Ibn Jarir offers the following explanation: It means, 'We gave Musa the Tawrah which was the criterion of right and wrong... Hence in the verse (8: 41): يَوْمَ الْفُرْقَانِ يَوْمَ الْتَقَى الْجَمْعَانِ "The day of criterion, the day the two armies met."

The day of Badr was called the day of al furqan because it helped, through the miraculous victory against all odds, to distinguish between truth and falsehood.

Thanwi writes: There is room however to believe that by the al furqan the allusion is to miracles, or to the Divine Law which also helps in distinguishing between truth and falsehood.

135. The way Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid, `Ikrimah, Suddi, Sa`id b. Jubayr and some others understood these verses is as follows. When Musa (asws) came down from Mount Tur, he ordered those that had worshipped the calf to kneel down before those that had not. The latter were armed with swords, daggers and knives. When the two were thus lined up, a blinding darkness settled over them and those with arms were ordered to slaughter those kneeling before them. Thus, they did not know who killed whom. When the killing was stopped, they were all pardoned: both those who had lost their lives in the homicide as well as those who had escaped (Ibn Jarir).

136. The commentators are widely divided over how and when this happened. Thanwi's preference is that this happened when Musa (asws) took with him seventy prominent leaders of the Israelites to Mount Tur for them to hear Allah first hand (swt) speaking to him: something about which they had expressed their misgivings. When they reached the Mount, a cloud engulfed them and they heard Allah (swt) reveal His message to Musa (asws). But when it was over, they began to say that they were not convinced by the voice alone and would not believe until they had seen God Himself. Upon this, a thunderous noise killed them all. Musa (asws) prayed to Allah that since none of them was alive to bear witness to what had happened, he would be blamed for their death. Allah then quickened them all (Au.).

As these lines were being written, this writer heard a volunteer in Afghanistan describe an incident that took place during the Jihad against the Russians in the eighties of this century. The mujahedeen had to attack a communist post on a hill, which could only be done from another hill opposite to it, but impossible to climb from the rear. If they attempted from the front they came under enemy fire. As they were considering their moves, a cloud came and settled on the hill occupied by the communists obscuring their view of the surrounding area. The piece of cloud stayed so long that the mujahedeen could not fail to notice that it was stationary for quite a while. They began to scale the hill and it was not until they had reached the top, with their guns, RPG’s and small missiles which took a couple of hours that the cloud moved off from the opposite hill. The communists were completely taken by surprise and abandoned the post after a brief resistance.

137. This episode had occurred earlier but has been related later. This took place when they were wandering in the Sinai valley and had complained to Musa (asws) about the scorching sun. Allah (swt) sent a piece of cloud that accompanied them wherever they went.

138. This also happened in the Sinai when the Israelites began to clamor about the shortage of food and water. The Tawrah gives us a glimpse of their impatience with their Prophet: "They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and said to them, `Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger'" (Exodus, 16:1 3).

Musa (asws) prayed to Allah and He sent manna and partridges. Opinions vary over what exactly was manna. Some believe it was honey, others say it was a kind of a sweetish gum, while others maintain that it was a snow like substance that settled upon trees and on the ground every night as the dew. They could dissolve it in water to drink or make bread on the fire (Au.).

A hadith recorded by Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Ahmad, Marduwayh and others says: عَنْ سَعِيدِ بْنِ زَيْدٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ الْكَمْأَةُ مِنْ الْمَنِّ وَمَاؤُهَا شِفَاءٌ لِلْعَيْنِ "Mushrooms have originated from manna, and its extract is a cure for the (diseases of the) eye" (Ibn Kathir).

139. These partridges used to settle in thousands every morning and evening near their camps and tents at such a close range that the Israelites could grab them by the hands.

140. That is, with so many blessings it was expected of them that they would remain faithful to Allah. But, instead, they neglected their duties and indulged in sins (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

Thanwi remarks: The verse proves that the bestowal of one material blessing after another, despite repeated sins, is a trial in disguise (istidraj). Many pseudo Sufis are misled by this, believing that the wealth and popularity they enjoy are signs of Allah's approval (of their life and conduct).

141. Opinions are divided between Jerusalem and Jericho over the town alluded to here. The Israelites were ordered to enter it in humility, chanting the praises of their Lord and seeking His forgiveness for past transgressions and ill behavior towards their Prophet Musa (asws). But they ignored the order and entered the town proud and arrogant. They showed their backs to it and went in dragging themselves on their buttocks as reported in some ahadith (Muslim: Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir). Further, instead of praising their Lord in words they were ordered, they struck a pun on it (saying hintatun instead of hittatun), making it a point of derision and mockery (Au.).

Ibn Kathir remarks: Compare with this our Prophet's example who entered Makkah after its fall with his head bowed down so low that it almost touched the saddle of the beast he was riding.

142. The word in the text for "scourge" is rijz and Ibn `Abbas is reported to have said that every rijz in the Qur'an stands for "punishment." This is also the opinion of Mujahid, Abu Malik, Suddi, Hasan, Qatadah and others. Some others however, like Sa`id b. Jubayr, believe that the allusion here is to plague. In a hadith too the word used for plague is rijz which was inflicted on a certain transgressing nation of the past (Ibn Kathir).