Surah Al-Maeda, Verse 25 and 26

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*Surah Al-Maeda, Verse 25:*

قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّي لَا أَمْلِكُ إِلَّا نَفْسِي وَأَخِي فَافْرُقْ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَ الْقَوْمِ الْفَاسِقِينَ

He [Musa (Moses)] said: "O my Lord! I have power only over myself and my brother, so separate us from the people who are the Fasiqun (rebellious and disobedient to Allah)!"

#COMMENTARY

"Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation. (The Book of Numbers, Old Testament, chapter xiv, verse 5). According to the words in the Old Testament story, Allāh said: "I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them." (Book of Numbers, Old Testament, chapter xiv, 12). Moses prayed and interceded. But as we are told here, (a spiritual touch not found in the Jewish story). Moses was careful to separate himself and his brother from the rebellion.

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*Surah Al-Maeda, Verse 26:*

قَالَ فَإِنَّهَا مُحَرَّمَةٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً يَتِيهُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَلَا تَأْسَ عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْفَاسِقِينَ

(Allah) said: "Therefore it (this holy land) is forbidden to them for forty years; in distraction they will wander through the land. So be not sorrowful over the people who are the Fasiqun (rebellious and disobedient to Allah)."

#COMMENTARY

The punishment of the rebellion of these stiff-necked people, rebellion that was repeated "these ten times" ( Book of Numbers, Old Testament, chapter  xiv, verse 22) and more, was that they were left to wander distractedly hither and thither through the wilderness for forty years. That generation was not to see the Holy Land. All those that were twenty years old and upwards were to die in the wilderness: "your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness." (The Book of Numbers, Old Testament, chapter xiv, verse 29). Only those who were then children would reach the promised land. And so it happened. From the desert of Paran they wandered south, and north, and east for forty years. From the head of what is now the Gulf of 'Aqaba, they travelled north, keeping to the east side of the depression of which the Dead Sea and the river Jordan are portions. Forty years afterwards they crossed the Jordan opposite what is now Jericho, but by that time Moses, Aaron, and whole of the elder generation had died.