[1745] What follows are snippets of how the Israelites fared when God made them inherit that land, as alluded to in the last part of Aya 129: “… so that He sees how you fare”. This is told in detail here so that Believers may take heed and guard their Faith at all times (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr).
[1746] Jāwaza means that God made it possible as well as effortless for them to pass through the sea (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr).
[1747] They did not fully realize the extent of God Almighty’s Magnificence and the binding nature of worshipping Him alone (cf. al-Ṭabarī, al-Saʿdī, Ibn ʿĀshūr). After censuring them, Moses explained to them, why he was so forthright with them on this issue (cf. al-Biqāʿī, Naẓm al-Durar) so that they might realize how erroneous they were (cf. Riḍā).
[1748] “We shall turn to whatever work they have done, and make it scattered dust” (25: 23).
[1749] “Those will have nothing in the Hereafter except the Fire; their efforts in it ˹this life˺ will prove futile and what they used to do shall be in vain” (11: 16); “Verily, those that you are praying to besides Him cannot help you, nor can they help themselves” (7: 197); “…but those you invoke besides Him do not possess even the skin of a date stone. *If you pray to them, they do not hear your call, and even if they hear you, they cannot answer you. On the Day of Judgement, they will disown your worshipping them—none can inform you like the All-Knowledgeable” (35: 13-14).
[1750] The few passages that follow are couched in the overall narrative of the story of the exodus of the Israelites and how they fared after their deliverance, yet they are interspersed with references to the Torah; how it came into being and how wrongfully it was dealt with. This highlights that it bears out the Qur’an and foretells the coming of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) to whom the Qur’an, the light that sets good apart from evil, was sent down (cf. also: 6: 154-157).
[1751] The length of time God set for Moses to communicate with him and send the Torah down to him (al-Ṭabarī, al-Marāghī, al-Shinqīṭī, al-ʿAdhb al-Namīr).
[1752] People cannot see God Almighty (سبحانه وتعالى) in this worldly life, not even a noble Messenger of Moses’ (عليه السلام) status to whom He talked directly without a mediator (cf. al-Ṭabarī, al-Qurṭubī). Humans are simply not built in such a way as to bear it (cf. al-Saʿdī, al-, al-Shinqīṭī, al-ʿAdhb al-Namīr). Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (رضي الله عنه) narrated: “The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) stood among us to deliver five ˹weighty˺ words. He said: “Allah, Glory be His, does not sleep and it is not befitting of Him to sleep; He lowers ˹with the scale of˺ justice ˹whoever does wrong˺ and raises ˹with˺ it ˹whoever does good˺; to Him the deeds of the day are raised before the deeds of the night and the deeds of the night are raised before the deeds of the day; His Veil is the Light; if He were to lift it, the Magnificent Splendours of His Face would burn whomever of His creation, His Sight reaches” (Muslim: 179).
[1753] God Almighty practically showed Moses how unable he was of seeing Him (cf. Abū Ḥayyān, al-Saʿdī); the mountain, which was by far a mightier creation than man, was crushed to dust when God revealed Himself to it (cf. al-Wāḥidī, al-Basīṭ, al-Shinqīṭī, al-ʿAdhb al-Namīr).
[1754] Sincere Belief (Īmān) requires no tangible evidence (cf. al-Biqāʿī).