﷽
*Surah Al-Baqara, Verse 53:*
وَإِذْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ وَالْفُرْقَانَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ
And (remember) when We gave Musa (Moses) the Scripture [the Taurat (Torah)] and the criterion (of right and wrong) so that you may be guided aright.
*COMMENTARY*
Allāh's revelation, the expression of Allāh's Will, is the true standard of right and wrong. It may be in a Book or in Allāh's dealings in history. All these may be called His Signs or Miracles. In this passage some commentators take the Scripture and the Criterion (Furqān) to be identical. Others take them to be two distinct things: Scripture being the written Book and the Criterion being other Signs. I agree with the latter view. The word Furqān also occurs in chapter xxi, verse 48 in connection with Moses and Aaron and in the first verse of Sūra xxv, as well as in its title, in connection with Muhammad (Blessings and Peace be upon him). As Aaron received no Book, Furqān must mean the other Signs. Al-Mustafa had both the Books and the other Signs: perhaps here too we take the other Signs as supplementing the Book. Compare Wordsworth's "Arbiter undisturbed of right and wrong." (Prelude, Book 4).
﷽
*Surah Al-Baqara, Verse 54:*
وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ يَا قَوْمِ إِنَّكُمْ ظَلَمْتُمْ أَنفُسَكُم بِاتِّخَاذِكُمُ الْعِجْلَ فَتُوبُوا إِلَىٰ بَارِئِكُمْ فَاقْتُلُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ ذَٰلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ عِندَ بَارِئِكُمْ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِنَّهُ هُوَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
And (remember) when Musa (Moses) said to his people: "O my people! Verily, you have wronged yourselves by worshipping the calf. So turn in repentance to your Creator and kill yourselves (the innocent kill the wrongdoers among you), that will be better for you with your Lord." Then He accepted your repentance. Truly, He is the One Who accepts repentance, the Most Merciful.
*COMMENTARY*
Moses's speech may be construed literally, as translated in which case it reproduces The Book of Exodus, Old Testament, chapter xxxii, verse 27-28 but in a much softened form, for the Old Testament says: "Go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour... and there fell of the people that day 3,000 men."
*Surah Al-Baqara, Verse 53:*
وَإِذْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ وَالْفُرْقَانَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ
And (remember) when We gave Musa (Moses) the Scripture [the Taurat (Torah)] and the criterion (of right and wrong) so that you may be guided aright.
*COMMENTARY*
Allāh's revelation, the expression of Allāh's Will, is the true standard of right and wrong. It may be in a Book or in Allāh's dealings in history. All these may be called His Signs or Miracles. In this passage some commentators take the Scripture and the Criterion (Furqān) to be identical. Others take them to be two distinct things: Scripture being the written Book and the Criterion being other Signs. I agree with the latter view. The word Furqān also occurs in chapter xxi, verse 48 in connection with Moses and Aaron and in the first verse of Sūra xxv, as well as in its title, in connection with Muhammad (Blessings and Peace be upon him). As Aaron received no Book, Furqān must mean the other Signs. Al-Mustafa had both the Books and the other Signs: perhaps here too we take the other Signs as supplementing the Book. Compare Wordsworth's "Arbiter undisturbed of right and wrong." (Prelude, Book 4).
﷽
*Surah Al-Baqara, Verse 54:*
وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ يَا قَوْمِ إِنَّكُمْ ظَلَمْتُمْ أَنفُسَكُم بِاتِّخَاذِكُمُ الْعِجْلَ فَتُوبُوا إِلَىٰ بَارِئِكُمْ فَاقْتُلُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ ذَٰلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ عِندَ بَارِئِكُمْ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِنَّهُ هُوَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
And (remember) when Musa (Moses) said to his people: "O my people! Verily, you have wronged yourselves by worshipping the calf. So turn in repentance to your Creator and kill yourselves (the innocent kill the wrongdoers among you), that will be better for you with your Lord." Then He accepted your repentance. Truly, He is the One Who accepts repentance, the Most Merciful.
*COMMENTARY*
Moses's speech may be construed literally, as translated in which case it reproduces The Book of Exodus, Old Testament, chapter xxxii, verse 27-28 but in a much softened form, for the Old Testament says: "Go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour... and there fell of the people that day 3,000 men."
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