The Favours Given to the Israelites

As has been said, this chapter contains extensive discussion of the Banū Isrāʾīl. The greater part of what follows concerns them, and a number of accounts are given.

Among these is a catalogue of the favours Allah (swt) bestowed upon the Israelites. He granted them great prosperity in the world. He granted them right understanding. He sent them prophet after prophet, again and again, to strengthen their faith; hardly any other nation has received so many. Their prophets were as numerous among them as the ʿulamāʾ are in our own communities.

He protected them from the Shayṭān against every expectation, and worked miracles for them. When Mūsā (peace be upon him) made his escape, Pharaoh's people were drowned: the waters of the Nile rose on either side and a safe passage was opened.

Yet the sūrah also sets out their excesses. They challenged Allah, demanding to see Him openly, jahratan. For that they were destroyed, and Allah (swt) restored them again — such was His immense mercy towards them. And still, when they refused to enter the land, they were left to wander in the valley, with all the hardship that followed.

Even so, though that wandering was a punishment of forty years or thereabouts, Allah (swt) gave them food of a special kind, mann and salwā; and when they needed water, twelve springs gushed forth:

Allah (swt) is showing that favours may be bestowed and men still do wrong. One should not be deceived by the favours. They went so far as to kill some of their prophets, besides other excesses. Human beings are capable of this: showered with gifts, they may still turn.

The purpose here is not merely to condemn those who did it, but to show that we must not take that road ourselves — none of what they did wrong, for all the favours they had received, since no one survives it. And this despite all that Allah (swt) had bestowed upon them.