Al-Baqarah 2:55
The verses
And when ye said: O Moses! We will not believe in thee till we see Allah plainly; and even while ye gazed the lightning seized you. — Marmaduke Pickthall
The people of the Scripture ask of thee that thou shouldst cause an (actual) Book to descend upon them from heaven. They asked a greater thing of Moses aforetime, for they said: Show us Allah plainly. The storm of lightning seized them for their wickedness. Then (even) after that) they chose the calf (for worship) after clear proofs (of Allah's Sovereignty) had come unto them. And We forgave them that! And We bestowed on Moses evident authority. — Marmaduke Pickthall
The issue
This verse describes a scene from Moses’ journey with the Israelites in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. According to al-Tabarī’s commentary, prior to this response from Moses (verse 55), he was with a group of Jewish people who had said to him: “O Moses, we will not believe you or endorse what you have revealed to us until we see Allah, eye to eye, by removing the barrier between us and him, and by removing the cover that separates us so that we can see him with our eyes.” Then, Allah responds to their request with a deadly thunder. Who are the people mentioned in this verse (Q 2.55)?
The commentators offer different interpretations concerning the identity of this group. However, al-Rāzī states decisively that this group is “the chosen seventy.” When we go back to the sources that contain accounts of the life of Moses, none confirms the version of the account found in this verse (Q 2.55). In addition, we do not find in the Old Testament of the Bible any mention of this event. It is possible that the Qur’ānic account is a corrupted version of a story in the Bible concerning the coming of the Spirit of the Lord upon the seventy elders:
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank. (Exod. 24.9-11) The account found in Q 2.55 of the Jews requesting to “see God manifestly” contradicts the historical record of the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament). In the biblical account, the Jews request that Moses speak to them, and they express their fear of having God speak to them directly. They say to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die” (Exod. 20.19).
As to the thunder, it seems Muhammad was not aware that this version was inconsistent with the biblical account, which separates these two occasions—God’s appearing to the elders of Israel and the fire from the Lord coming down on the people—by two years:
Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them, his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. (Num. 11.1) It seems that this Qur’ānic account might have confused and combined the coming of the Spirit of the Lord “upon the seventy elders” as a deadly thunder, as mentioned in Exodus 20.19. The likely reason for this confusion is that Muhammad had been exposed to incomplete information and accounts from the surrounding Jewish and Christian tribes.
Furthermore, the Qur’ān’s detailing of the Jews’ request to “see God manifestly” most likely did not stem from Muhammad’s ignorance of the actual biblical account but from a deliberate change. The primary intent of this change was to lessen the influence of the Jews among the Muslims. Q 2 is one of the Medinan sūras. When Muhammad was in Medina, it became obvious to him that it would be impossible to convince the Jews that he was a prophet.
In a similar scenario recorded in Q 4, Muhammad responds to the Jews’ request for evidence regarding his claim of prophethood by saying that their arguments with him would expose them to Allah’s judgment. Then Muhammad recites a verse to them that is almost identical to Q 2.55: “but they asked Moses a greater thing than that, for they said, ‘Show us God openly;’ but the thunderbolt caught them in their injustice” (Q 4.153).
Al-Rāzī raises another question in his commentary concerning Q 2.55:
Why did they [the Jews] deserve to die, since they have repented from their apostasy and the one who repents from his apostasy should not be killed? The answer to this question has to do with the differences in the Laws. It is possible that the Law of Moses...commanded the death of the one who has repented, whether in general, concerning the rights of all people, or in particular, concerning that group.
Question: Does al-Rāzī’s attempted solution effectively answer the question?
Arabic text of this item
تروي لنا الآيةُ (55) من سورة البقرة مشهداً من مسيرة موسى. يصوّر المشهدُ موسى مع مجموعة من اليهود، الذين قالوا له: «يا موسى لن نُصَدِّقَك ولن نُقِرَّ بما جئْتنا به حتى نرى اللهَ عِياناً، برفعِ السّاتر بينَنا وبينَه، وكشف الغِطاءِ دونَنا ودونَه حتى نَنْظرَ إليه بأبصارنا»؛ فجاء ردّ الله على طلبهم صاعقةً مميتةً.
فمن هم هؤلاء الذين جاء ذكرهم في هذه الآية؟ وهل طلبوا فعلاً من موسى أن يُريهم الله جهراً؟
يقدم المفسرون آراء مختلفة بشأنهم، إلاّ أنّ الرازي يقول بوضوح إنهم «السّبعون المختارون».
وعندما نعود إلى المصادر المتعلقة بحياة موسى، لا نجد ما يؤيد القصة كما وردت في (الآية 55)، كما أنه ليس هناك مطلقاً ذكر في التوراة لهذا الحدث .
والواضح أن الاية القرآنية تحريف للرواية الواردة في التوراة بظهور الله (إله إسرائيل) لموسى وهارون وناداب وأبيهو، والسبعون من شيوخ إسرائيل (الأشراف) بطلب من الله؛ وليس بناءً على طلبهم:
ثُمَّ صَعِدَ مُوسَى وَهَارُونُ وَنَادَابُ وَأَبِيهُو وَسَبْعُونَ مِنْ شُيُوخِ إِسْرَائِيلَ، وَرَأَوْا إِلهَ إِسْرَائِيلَ، وَتَحْتَ رِجْلَيْهِ شِبْهُ صَنْعَةٍ مِنَ الْعَقِيقِ الأَزْرَقِ الشَّفَّافِ، وَكَذَاتِ السَّمَاءِ فِي النَّقَاوَةِ. وَلكِنَّهُ لَمْ يَمُدَّ يَدَهُ إِلَى أَشْرَافِ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ. فَرَأَوْا اللهَ وَأَكَلُوا وَشَرِبُوا.
وأما بخصوص ما ورد في الآية القرآنية عن مطالبة اليهود رؤية الله جهرًا ، فهو يتعارض مع الرواية التوراتية التي تُشير بوضوح أن شعب إسرائيل كان يخاف من مجرد الحديث معه فما بالك برؤيته عيانًا!! فقَالُوا لِمُوسَى: «تَكَلَّمْ أَنْتَ مَعَنَا فَنَسْمَعَ. وَلاَ يَتَكَلَّمْ مَعَنَا اللهُ لِئَلاَّ نَمُوتَ».
وأما بخصوص نزول الصاعقة عليهم، فالواضح أن «وحي» القرآن لم يعلم بوجود فرق زمني (ما يربو على السنتين) بين حادثتي ظهور الله لأشراف بني إسرائيل ونزول الصاعقة على الشعب: «وَكَانَ الشَّعْبُ كَأَنَّهُمْ يَشْتَكُونَ شَرًّا فِي أُذُنَيِ الرَّبِّ. وَسَمِعَ الرَّبُّ فَحَمِيَ غَضَبُهُ، فَاشْتَعَلَتْ فِيهِمْ نَارُ الرَّبِّ وَأَحْرَقَتْ فِي طَرَفِ الْمَحَلَّةِ».
ويعود الخلط بين نزول الصاعقة وظهور الرب لأشراف بني إسرائيل إلى أن المعلومات التوراتية التي وصلت محمداً كانت منقوصة.
وأما بشأن إختلاق القرآن لحكاية طلب اليهود رؤية الله جهراً، فالراجح أن هذا التفصيل ليس ناتجاً عن جهلٍ، بل هو تحريف مقصود هدفه تقويض هيبة اليهود بين المسلمين؛ ذلك أن سورة البقرة هي إحدى سور المدينة، وهناك تبين لمحمد استحالة إقناع اليهود به نبياً. وفي آية أخرى –موازية لآيتنا الحالية (البقرة 2: 55)– يرد محمد على مطالبة اليهود بالبرهنة على صحة نبوته، فيقول لهم إن جدالهم معه سيجعلهم عرضة لغضب الله، ويكرر تفصيل طلب رؤية الله جَهْراً:
<يَسْأَلُكَ أَهْلُ الْكِتَابِ أَنْ تُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْهِمْ كِتَاباً مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ. فَقَدْ سَأَلُواْ مُوسَى أَكْبَرَ مِن ذَلِكَ، فَقَالُواْ: «أَرِنَا اللّهِ جَهْرَةً!»، فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ الصَّاعِقَةُ بِظُلْمِهِمْ> (سورة النساء 4: 153)
سؤال يفرض نفسه
يطرح الرازي في تفسيره سؤالاً بخصوص الحدث الوارد في (البقرة 2: 55). نقرأ:
«كيف استحقوا القتل وهم قد تابوا من الرّدة، والتائب من الرّدة لا يُقتل؟
الجواب على ذلك مما يختلف بالشرائع، فلعل شرع موسى عليه السلام كان يقتضي قتل التائب عن الرّدة إما عاماً في حق الكلّ، أو كان خاصاً بذلك القوم».
فهل هذا جواب يرقى لمستوى السؤال؟
Sources cited
- الطبري 1: 687.
- الرازي 3: 89.
- الخروج 9:24-11.
- الخروج 20 :19.
- العدد 11 :1.
- الرازي 3: 88.
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