Surah Al-Baqara, Verse 57 and 58

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*Surah Al-Baqara, Verse 57:*

وَظَلَّلْنَا عَلَيْكُمُ الْغَمَامَ وَأَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَنَّ وَالسَّلْوَىٰ كُلُوا مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ وَمَا ظَلَمُونَا وَلَٰكِن كَانُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ

And We shaded you with clouds and sent down on you Al-Manna and the quails, (saying): "Eat of the good lawful things We have provided for you," (but they rebelled). And they did not wrong Us but they wronged themselves.


*COMMENTARY*

Manna = Hebrew, Man-hu: Arabic Mā-huwa? = What is it? In the Book of Exodus, Old Testament, chapter xvi, verse 14 it is described as "a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground." It usually rotted if left over till next day; it melted in the hot sun; the amount necessary for each man was about an Omer, a Hebrew measure of capacity equal to about 2½ quarts. This is the Hebrew account, probably distorted by traditional exaggeration. The actual Manna found to this day in the Sinai region is a gummy saccharine secretion found on a species of Tamarisk. It is produced by the puncture of a species of insect like the cochineal, just as lac is produced by the puncture of the lac insect on certain trees in India. As to quails, large flights of them are driven by winds in the Eastern Mediterranean in certain seasons of the year, as War witnessed during the Great War of 1914-1918.
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*Surah Al-Baqara, Verse 58:*

وَإِذْ قُلْنَا ادْخُلُوا هَٰذِهِ الْقَرْيَةَ فَكُلُوا مِنْهَا حَيْثُ شِئْتُمْ رَغَدًا وَادْخُلُوا الْبَابَ سُجَّدًا وَقُولُوا حِطَّةٌ نَّغْفِرْ لَكُمْ خَطَايَاكُمْ وَسَنَزِيدُ الْمُحْسِنِينَ

And (remember) when We said: "Enter this town (Jerusalem) and eat bountifully therein with pleasure and delight wherever you wish, and enter the gate in prostration (or bowing with humility) and say: 'Forgive us,' and We shall forgive you your sins and shall increase (reward) for the good-doers."


*COMMENTARY*

This probably refers to Shittim. It was the "town of acacias," just east of the Jordan, where the Israelites were guilty of debauchery and the worship of and sacrifices to false gods, (The book of Numbers, Old Testament, chapter xxv, verse 1-2, also 8-9): a terrible punishment ensured, including the plague, of which 24,000 died. The word which the transgressors changed may have been a password. In the Arabic text it is "Hittatun" which implies humility and a prayer of forgiveness, a fitting emblem to distinguish them from their enemies. From this particular incident a more general lesson may be drawn: in the hour of triumph we are to behave humbly as in Allāh's sight, and our conduct should be exemplary according to Allāh's word: otherwise our arrogance will draw its own punishment.

These verses 58-59 (Sūra Al-Baqarah), may be compared with Chapter vii, verse 161-162. Here (verse 58, Sūra Al-Baqarah) we have "enter the town" and in chapter vii, verse 161 we have "dwell in this town." Again in chapter Sūra Al-Baqarah, verse 59 here we have "infringed (our command)," and in chapter vii, verse 162, we have "transgressed." The verbal differences make no difference to the sense.