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Revelation of Torah and Worshipping of The Calf and
Related Stories
When God sent Moses (PUH) to the pharaoh and his people with miracles like
the staff and the hand, and when he did not listen to him and did not accept
his advice and called him a crazy man and a wizard and so on, God did pour
the adversities upon them and sent to them the flood, the locusts, the
vermin, the frogs, the blood and the terror, detailed signs to warn them,
and that was a punishment for them to let them step back away from their
wrong-doing and it was a test for them and a proof to let the living ones
live with knowledgement and to let the dying ones die with knowledgement,
and the period of time that was given for the pharaoh and his people after
sending Moses and Aaron to him was forty years, and it was the time period
of adversities of the Israelites after sending Moses and all that time
they used to complain to Moses and he used to promise them the relief and
that God will destroy their enemies and let them out of that adversity
to the freedom and relaxation, and the time of their adversities was forty
years until God got them out of there and destroyed the pharaoh and his
folks.
He (Moses) also promised them of a book from their Lord that includes
all the regulations and sermons and proverbs, so when God released them,
He ordered him to come to the appointed day and fast for thirty days, and
when it was the last days of fasting he went to receive the words of his
Lord and talk to Him, and when he completed his fasting, he brushed his
teeth with a stick to enhance his mouth breath after fasting, so then God
inspired to him: O Moses, did not you know that the breath of a fasting
man is finer for Me rather than the musk, so then God ordered him to fast
for another ten days and not to enhance his breath after that and so he
did. It was a promise from God for Moses to give the book after forty nights
and so He gave it to him, so God said: And when We did appoint for Moses
forty nights (of solitude), and then ye chose the calf, when he had gone
from you, and were wrong-doers(Al-Baqarah:51).
It is mentioned by Al-Baydhâwi and Al-Nasfi and Al-Khateeb and
Al-Âlusi that: Moses promised his people, the Israelites, when they
were in Egypt that if God destroyed the pharaoh, He will bring to them
a book that has regulations for them, so when God destroyed the pharaoh
Moses asked Him for the book and so He ordered him to fast for thirty days
which were the month of Ðul-Qi`dah [the 11th month of the islamic lunar
calendar], so when Moses completed fasting for thirty days he did not like
the breath of his mouth so he did brush his teeth with a stick or ate some
plants, so then the angels said: we used to smell the scent of musk from
you but you corrupted that with the stick, so then God ordered him to fast
for other ten days of the month of Ðul-Hijjah [the 12th month of islamic
lunar calendar], and this is as God said: And when We did appoint for Moses
thirty nights (of solitude), and added to them ten, and he completed the
whole time appointed by his Lord of forty nights(Al-A`râf:142). Before
his going to the appointed day with his Lord he commanded his brother Aaron
to be his viceroy over the Israelites and emphasized on watching over their
conditions and be cautious about them, and warned him against the wrong-doing
among them for they were appointed to worship the One and they are supposed
to be bound to the regulations of the religion, and the believers among
them knew that already since the beginning of the story of Moses, and the
inspiration was revealed upon him from God and Moses used to tell the pharaoh
with it when he (the pharaoh) used to ask him, and one of his questions
was: and who is your Lord O Moses? And the holy quran points out the details
of this story as mentioned before.
Moses by nature then was obliged to tell the Israelites and others
about the prophets to the creations and he is one of the greatest of them,
and to tell them about the regulations of the religion without a doubt,
and he used from time to time to uncover for them some of the secrets and
wisdom in some of the regulations in religions as religious men usually
do, and for forty years living between them he is not supposed to be like
silent or busy like other people while he is one of their greatest scholars
and advisors, and those people are not ignored with the presence of Moses,
the prophet of God to all the people, so God did say: And when We gave
unto Moses the Scripture and the criterion (of right and wrong), that ye
might be led aright(Al-Baqarah:53), so the scripture is the Torah which
about the covenant was made with them to believe in it and do whatever
commandments in there, and the criterion is the difference between good
and evil.
It is told that when Torah was revealed over Moses with everything
explained in it and God had gifted it to them, God inspired to Moses: they
did believe in what was revealed upon them, still the criterion which is
what makes the difference between the believer and the disbeliever so renew
your covenant with them about it, for I promised for Myself that I will
not accept the faith of anyone or the deeds of anyone except by it, so
Moses then said: O Lord, and what is that? God said then: O Moses, that
is to let them testify that Muhammad is the master of all prophets and
his brother and viceroy `Ali is the best of viceroys and that the rest
of his viceroys are the leaders of the creation and his followers are stars
of paradise and the kings of Eden, he (the narrator) said: so Moses had
their promise for this and some of them did believe indeed and others said
it by their tongues only, then he (the narrator) said: the criterion is
the bright light that was shining from the foreheads of those who believed
in Muhammad and `Ali and their Household and their followers, and that
was missed in the foreheads of those who said it by the tongue and did
not believe in their hears, and there are lot of narrations with the same
meaning, and whoever is in doubt let him check the interpretations of the
holy phrases that are related to this subject, and in the chapter of Al-A`râf
God did say: He said: O Moses! I have preferred thee above mankind by My
messages and by My speaking (unto thee). So hold that which I have given
thee, and be among the thankful. And We wrote for him, upon the tablets,
the lesson to be drawn from all things and the explanation of all things,
then (bade him): Hold it fast; and command thy people (saying): Take the
better (course made clear) therein. I shall show thee the abode of evil-livers.
I shall turn away from My revelations those who magnify themselves wrongfully
in the earth, and if they see each token believe it not, and if they see
the way of righteousness choose it nor for (their) way, and if they see
the way of error choose if for (their) way. That is because they deny Our
revelations and are used to disregard them(Al-A`râf:144-146).
Aaron, although he was a prophet by himself, he was commanded to follow
his brother Moses for he is a prophet and a speaker to God, and Aaron did
not have regulations except of those which Moses brought, and God did talk
to Moses without a media like we do talk to each other, but God is not
to be seen by the eyes not in this life and nor in the after-life, and
no one of His creation would be able to see him, for He sees and not to
be seen, and He is a Thing not like anything else and everything is under
His command and in His hands, and nothing is to be hidden from Him not
in earth nor in heavens, so God is able to found the speech and create
it as He can create other creatures and He is not to be contained in any
place, and He is in every where and can speak to whoever is in east and
to whoever in west and to whoever in north and to whoever in south all
in one time, for He is the creator of everything and He is with everything
and He knows everything.
It is attributed to Al-Sâdiq (PUH) that he said: God inspired
to Moses (PUH) O Moses, do you know why I chose you and why I did speak
to you instead of all My creation? He said: no Lord and why is that? God
then inspired to him: O Moses I did search among My servants but I did
not find someone like you in humiliation towards Me, O Moses when you pray
to Me you put your cheek on the gound..etc.
It is told that the tablets were made of emerald from paradise, and
as attributed to the prince of believers (PUH) he said that they were of
green emerald and God commanded him (Moses) to take them with power and
heart, and take it with its best virtues like patience for good and keeping
away from the wrong-doing and patience for adversities and forgiveness
and purity and be satisfied with whatever God did destine for them and
keeping on doing the worshippings and leaving the bad deeds and take revenge
of God's enemies and fighting them and take revenge of the murderer, and
it is resembled in God's saying: And follow the better (guidance) of that
which is revealed unto you from your Lord..etc(Al-Zomor:55), and God's
saying in the previous holy phrase " shall show thee the abode of evil-livers"
means the abode of the past nations that did refuse God's commandments
so that you can take sermons from them, like the abode of the giants and
the pharaohs and the abode of the tyrants that took over the holy lands,
some narrations include that the tablets of Torah, God revealed on Moses
with everything that was and will be to the end of time all explained in
details, so when the days of Moses were over (the forty days) God inspired
to him to keep them in a mountain called Zainah and they were made of paradise's
emerald, so when Moses went to the mountain, it did split into two and
then he kept the tablets inside it and they were covered, so when put them
there the mountain did get back to its normal state and they remained there
until the prophecy of Muhammad (PUH) when God revealed Gabriel (PUH) down
to him so he told him about it so then he (the prophet PUH) got them out
looked at them and read them and they were in Hebrew and then he called
the prince of believers (PUH) and said to him: keep those for they have
the knowledgement of the first and the last and they are the tablets of
Moses and God ordered me to give them to you, until he (the narrator) said:
so `Ali passed one day and he knew everything in it by God's teaching,
so then the prophet (PUH) ordered him to copy it and so he did on a piece
of skin and it is the Cipher that had all the knowledgement of the first
and last nations, and Al-Sâdiq (PUH) said: and they are with us,
and the tablets are with us and the staff of Moses is with us and we inherited
all the prophets.
The clue for what we said is in the Holy talk (of God) that is said
to be taken from Torah by the prince of believers (PUH) and he did copy
it from the speech of Moses in Hebrew to Arabic and they were forty chapters
from Torah that God did talk about with Moses without any media. It is
mentioned in the interpretations of Abi-Al-Fadhl that Torah was made of
one thousand chapters in each one of them there were one thousand phrases
and each phrase of them was as the length of the chapter of Al-Baqarah
in holy Quran [the chapter of Al-Baqarah is the longest chapter in Quran],
and each phrase has one thousand commands and one thousand forbiddings
and one thousand promises and one thousand promises, and the holy speech
(of God) is a famous one and can be found in the hands of muslims and whoever
asks about it can find it in special bookshops [I personally did not know
which holy speech is it because the author did not give any title for this
holy speech or talk]. As attributed to Al-Bâqir (PUH) he said that
the rock that kept the tablets of Moses is under a tree in the valley of
`Arafah, and there are some tidings about this matter, and God did say:
And of Moses' folk there is a community who lead with truth and establish
justice therewith(Al-A`râf:159), and as attributed to the prince
of believers (PUH) he said: the Israelites were divided after (the death
of) Moses to seventy one parties and all of them will be in hell except
of one for God did say "And of Moses' folk there is a community who lead
with truth and establish justice therewith" and this community is the nation
that will be saved. And Al-Sâdiq (PUH) said about this phrase: so
the folk of Moses are people of Islam [meaning here that they follow a
similar path to Islam] (meaning here that all of the other folks are doomed).
As mentioned by Al-Bâqir (PUH) that he said: this nation of the folk
of Moses live behind the lands of China and between them and China there
is a valley of hot sands and they did not change anything and no one has
more money than the others, they get rain at night and wake up in the morning
to plant, no one can reach them and none of them can reach us and they
follow the truthful path. They say that Gabriel (PUH) took the prophet
(PUH) to them at the time of the Night Journey (Al-Mi`râj), and he
read for them ten chapter from Quran that were revealed on him in Mecca
and they believed in him, and he ordered them to stay in their place and
leave the Sabbath and ordered them to pray and to pay the poor-due (zakât)
and there were no more regulations revealed at that time except of those,
and so they did obey, and our mates [meaning the Shiites] did say that
they will be with out with the last viceroy (PUH). They say also that Ðul-Qarnain
saw them and said: if I was ordered to be with them I would be happy for
this. We've mentioned before his story with them in detail, and he did
ask them lot of things and he announced that he did not see anyone like
them with such faith and justice, and because of what he saw from them
he did have a long conversation with them.
Next: Place of Revelation of Torah