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Moses Only Wanted to Get Them Into The Holy Lands
When the folks of Moses asked him to have fine living conditions and said to him that they cannot get patience toward one type of food and to pray to his Lord to get them plants of the earth..etc, then Moses said to them: Would ye exchange that which is higher for that which is lower? Go down to settled country, thus ye shall get that which ye demand(Al-Baqarah:61), so they said to him: O Moses! Lo! a giant people (dwell) therein and lo! we go not in till they go forth from thence. When they go forth from thence, then we will enter (not till then)(Al-Mâ'idah:22). What is understood of the interpretations and reliable narrations is that when Moses went out of Egypt with the Israelites he had no wish but to get them into the holy lands, and it is the lands of Shem where Isaac and Jacob were born and where Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were buried and Joseph was moved to it later on (PUT), and there was Jethro [please read previous notes] and the household of Jethro and his honorable family, and it includes Palestine and bounded apparently by Iraq and Hijâz and Egypt and the mediterranean and it had lot of towns and active cities, so Moses went to these lands with his folks away from Egypt that they did not see in it except of the humiliation and torture for all the time they lived there after the death of Joseph (PUH), and it lasted for four hundred years almost, from the time of Joseph and the travel from Palestine to it (Egypt) to the time of Moses. We've mentioned before that when they went into it with Jacob at the time of Joseph they were around seventy in number, and they went out with Moses and they are six hundred thousand warriors added to the women and children as well.
All that time they were under the rule of the pharaohs, and the pharaoh of Moses is Al-Waleed Abi-Mus`ab ben Mu`âwiyah ben Abi-Nameer ben Al-Hilwâs the giant and he is the forth of them as we mentioned before, and he was the most tyrant of them all, so Moses wanted to get them out of this damned land and release them for the adversities that came over them in that land of wrong people to their own lands and the land of their grandfather, Abraham, by the commandment of their Lord, and their Lord called it the holy land and described it like this and made it a holy place when He ordered His friend Abraham to travel there, before Abraham and Lot and their households do so from the land of Iraq, so it was blessed with his travelling to it and it was the land of their graves and the homeland for the prophets and most of the messangers after them, so the books of Abraham and the Torah of Moses and the Psalms of David and the Gospel of Jesus, all were revealed there, so may peace of God be upon our prophet and his Household and on their owners (the holy books) and His greets. There also was founded the second of direction of prayer, the honorable house of Al-Aqsâ mosque, so it is the most honorable spot that God had made just second after Mecca and the mosque of His prophet (PUH) in Medina.
So, Moses wanted to release them from the slavery for the pharaohs and wanted their dignity, so he got them out of it in safe and God did destroy their enemy, and when he wanted to move with them to some country in the lands of Shem they denied to do so and said: there are giant people and we will not go there until they go out of it and we are not able to fight against them, so when he started to give his sermons and reminded them of the miracles that God did to him and they knew that he is serious about going into that holy land and live there, they said to him then: So go thou and thy Lord and fight! We will sit here(Al-Mâ'idah:24).
It is mentioned that when they did not agree with Moses to fight the giants, he decided to leave them so when he wanted to do so they realized what benefit they have for him to be between them and how much did he take care of them and found out that his presence is a mercy for them and a protection, so they got scared and said: if Moses went out the punishment surely will be revealed upon us, so then they gathered around him and asked him to live with them and ask God to fogive them so then God inspired to him: I forgive them for not going into the lands and I forbid it for them for forty years and they shall astray in the lands as a punishment for them for their saying to you: So go thou and thy Lord and fight! We will sit here. What is apparent, the land that God ordered them to get into to forgive them for their sins and the one that they will not reach for forty years is the same one that they got out from (Egypt) and it was a judgement for all so all of them got into forgiveness and made astray, for this they did say that they used to get up in the beginning of the night to get into Egypt and start to read Torah and when they reach the gates of Egypt the earth would rotate and get them back to their previous place, and the distance between them and Egypt, their previous homeland where their homes used to be, four leagues, so they stayed with this situation for forty years, and this is what is known as The Wandering, and it is mentioned that Aaron died during that time and also Moses, and after this period of time of forty years, their children and grandchildren got into the lands of Shem.
It is mentioned also that when Moses reached with them the holy lands after their repentance, he said to them: go into, but they denied to do so, so they got astrayed in four leagues for forty years, and one league is three miles and one mile is four thousand cubits as measured by the arm, so the total is twelve miles, forty eight thousand cubits, and apparently it seems that it was as measured by the arm-length of the arms of people at that time, and this is the destiny that they got astrayed with until all had died except of Yosha` ben Nun (Joshua ben Nun) and Kâlib ben Yofannâ (Caleb ben Jephunneh) the husband of Mariam (Mary) the daughter of Amram and the sister of Moses and Aaron [notice that she is not Mary the mother of Jesus] for they did not refuse any command for Moses the prophet of God.
Joshua is the viceroy of Moses and the leader after him, and he has honorable situations and wars with his enemies until God opened with him the lands, and God guided the people by him and more to come later on by God's will.
We've mentioned for you that when the Israelites were commanded by Moses to enter the holy lands and when they denied to do so they got astrayed in the lands for forty years in four leagues, and when the night used to come over them they all gather to travel so they go and travel until they reach their desired destination then God orders the earth to rotate and they all get back to their previous homes that they left travelling, so they stayed like this for forty years, and their supplies during these forty years composed of the manna and the quails, and we've mentioned before that most of them died during the Wandering and only few survived, and some of the survivors were Joshua ben Nun and Caleb ben Jephunneh the husband of Mary bent Amram the sister of Moses and Aaron that God favoured them with the strong faith, and the heritage of the prophecy was transformed from Moses to his viceroy Joshua ben Nun, and some of them was the stone that was with Moses and used to strike it with his staff so twelve springs would arise from it and each tribe has its own spring.
Truth is that the Israelites did not believe in Moses completely, otherwise they would have been fighting their enemies with him and obeyed him, but only few did believe in him, and it is mentioned that a jew man came to the prince of believers (`Ali ben Abi Tâlib) (PUH) and said: O father of Al-Hasan, you did not have patience after the death of your prophet except for twenty five years and then you started to kill each other [the jew man here trying to mock], he (PUH) then answered: true, but your feet were not yet dry of the sea until you said O Moses, Make for us a god even as they have gods, then he (PUH) said: we did not argue about our prophet but we argued in differences after him, so the prophet of Islam (PUH) had his folks under his command even though they refused his viceroy and his minister `Ali ben Abi Tâlib (PUH), but as for the Israelites they did refuse their prophet but went along with his viceroy Joshua ben Nun.
As attributed to Ibn-`Abbâs that he said: the Israelites said to Moses after passing the sea: tell us O Moses, by what power and tools shall we reach the holy lands and there are families and women and sick people and elders with you? Moses then said: I do not know any other nation that God made for it the heritage of earth as much as it is for you and God will help you, so they said then: so pray to Him to feed us and let us drink something and shade us against the sun, so then God inspired to Moses: I ordered the sky to rain on them the manna and quails and I ordered the wind to cook the quails for them and I ordered the stones to blow up with water and ordered the clouds to make shade for them..etc, so when Moses said that to them they believed in him and walked with him to the holy lands which was Palestine, and we've mentioned before that they stopped advancing and denied to go there so they kept wandering on earth for forty years in one corner of Sinai's desert, and then they entered there after forty years and they did not go there except by their repentance and God's forgiveness, and in a speech for Al-`Askari (PUH) about God's saying: Go into this township and eat freely of that which is therein, and enter the gate prostrate, and say: "Repentance." We will forgive you your sins and will increase (reward) for the right-doers(Al-Baqarah:58), that the township is Arihâ (Jericho), part of the lands of Shem and Palestine, and "enter the gate prostrate" was for the holiness of Muhammad and his viceroy (PUT) for God made an example like them on the gate of the town and God ordered them to prostrate for their holiness and to renew their covenant about believing in them and to remember their old covenant as well, and as for "say Repentance" it means say that our prostration for God is for the greatness of the example of Muhammad and `Ali and for our believe in their leadership is for the repentance and forgiveness for our sins, and this is had been told in many speeches as well, But those who did wrong changed the word which had been told them for another saying, so they did not prostrate for God and did not say what they were ordered to say, but went into the town in another way other than what it was supposed for them and said: a red wheat to be carried on our back is better for us than what we are ordered to do and say, so God said: and We sent down upon the evil-doers wrath from heaven for their evil-doing(Al-Baqarah:59).
It is mentioned that the wrath that was revealed upon them was the plague, so that in one day one hundred and twenty thousand men died, and they say that the ones that died are known in God's knowledgement that they are not believers in Muhammad and `Ali and their Household, and it is probable that He commanded them to prostrate at the gate of Repentance for this reason as He commanded the angels to prostrate before Adam as well before, and in both situations it was a test for His servants and setting holiness for Adam and the end of prophets and his viceroy (PUT), and from the speech of Al-`Askari (PUH) about God's saying: And when Moses asked for water for his people(Al-Baqarah:60), is that he (Moses) asked for water from God to his people after being thirsty in their wandering, so they went on crying to Moses and said to him: thirst doomed us, so Moses said to his Lord: O Lord, by the rights of Muhammad the master of prophets, and by the rights of `Ali the master of viceroys, and by the rights of Fâtimah the lady of all women, and by the rights of Al-Hasan the master of leaders and by the rights of Al-Husain the best of martyrs and by the rights of their descendants and their viceroys the righteous leaders, water Your servants, then God inspired to him: O Moses, strike with your staff the stone, and so he did and twelve springs gushed out of it and each tribe of them had one spring for its ownself so no one would annoy the other with drinking from the springs..etc.
As it is attributed to Al-Sâdiq (PUH) in a narration about the Awaited viceroy may our souls be a ransom for him: when the last viceroy (Al-Mahdi PUH) appears in Mecca and desires to go to Kufa a caller would call: has any one drinks or food? Then he (PUH) will carry with him the stone of Moses and it is carried by no less than a camel so at every stop he will stop a spring will show up from it, and whoever was hungry will get satsified and whoever was thirsty will drink as much as he wants, and it will be for their supplies until he (PUH) reached Kufa, which is the honorable Najaf now.


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