The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Moses: Place of Revelation of Torah

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Place of Revelation of Torah It is mentioned that the place of revelation of the tablets and books of Torah that contained the knowledgement of the first and last nations and the regulations of the religion of Moses was the mountain of Sinai, so there speaking to God did exist and there the Torah was revealed, and to that blessed spot he (Moses) did stay away from his people while he made his brother Aaron to take the leadership over them, and there he fasted for forty years and there he lived while he was fasting as a humiliating himself towards God and asking for the satisfaction of God, and there he did ask to see God as an answer to his chosen chieftains among all of his people and the answer of God was a reason to make it knocked down, and Moses fell down in a coma as God did say: My Lord! Show me (Thy Self), that I may gaze upon Thee(Al-A`râf:143), and then God inspired to him: you cannot but look at the mountain if you saw it knocked down in its place then you will see me, so God then removed the veil and look at the mountain so it was knocked down from the base as if it was never there.
In a narration reported to the Household of the chosen prophet (PUT) they said that the angels came down and opened the gates of heavens so then God inspired to them to take care of Moses, and it is (the mountain) that God lift up upon the Israelites as a torment to let them accept the Torah and that is by God's saying: And when We shook the Mount above them as it were a covering, and they supposed that it was going to fall upon them(Al-A`râf:171).
There are some narrations that we understand from them that the mountains that were knocked down were seven and they were moved to Hijâz and Yemen and of them were the mountain of Ohod and Warqân nearby Medina and Þawr and Þubair in Mecca and Hawâ in Yemen..etc, and we do not see any important benefits of discussing this in a long speech and what Quran mentioned is enough, and there are in many occasions and in what was mentioned by the Household in their prays to God, it is understood from them that there are holy places that God did talk to his servant Moses from other than the mountain of Sinai, and other places also that He showed His signs to His servants like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and others before and after them, and it is obvious in the pray of Al-Samât [a famous pray or ritual for Shiites], and there are places that God showed His signs for His servants in them but are almost unknown by the scholars and the scientists in our recent days, and some of them are known like the mosque of Al-Khayf in Minâ [in KSA], so he (`Ali ben Abi Tâlib PUH) said: O Lord and I shall ask You by Your Glory that You spoke with with Moses ben Amram in the holy places, upon the sense of Al-Karrubiyeen [Al-Karrubiyeen: people differ in the meaning of this word, but most of them said it is the name (plural) for the angels that carry up the Throne], upon the clouds of light, upon the ark, in the column of fire and in the mountain of Sinai and in the mountain of Hureeþ [Hureeþ is close to Horeb the one mentioned in Torah, but as it is interpreted by Torah it is just another name for the mountain of Sinai, but here the prince of believers (PUH) makes a difference between the two], in the holy valley, in the holy spot of the right side of the tree...and in the gushing out that You made wonders with in the sea of Suf [this name I could not translate to any other versions by means of Torah]...etc, until he (PUH) says: the one that You showed Yourself by for Moses in the mountain of Sinai...and for Abraham in the mosque of Al-Khayf...and for Isaac in the well of Shee` (Shebah) and for Jacob in the house of Eel (?)..etc, and by Your Glory that appeared for Moses on the Qubbat Al-Rummân (dome of pomegranates) [I belive the full story is mentioned in the Exodus], until he (PUH) says: and by Your light that made the mountain of Sinai knocked down...and by Your face's light that You showed to mountain and made it down and Moses fell senseless...and by Your signs in Sâ`eer (Seir), and Your presence in the mount of Fârân (Paran) in the holy hills...and at the end the Imam (PUH) says: my Lord by this pray, and by the rights of these names that no one knows their interpretations save but You...etc. Actually, God showed His prophet (PUH) about these names in general to let him know that they do exist and to ask by them for their holiness, and the prophet showed that to his viceroy and the other viceroys of Imams after him to ask the Lord by these names for their holiness and they (the viceroys) showed these names for the public of muslims to let them get the benefit as well and only God knows.
In some narrations it is told that Al-Ma'mun, the abbaside caliphate, asked Al-Ridhâ (PUH) about the meaning of God's saying: And when Moses came to Our appointed tryst and his Lord had spoken unto him, he said: My Lord! Show me (Thy Self), that I may gaze upon Thee(Al-A`râf:143), and the question was: how come that Moses the prophet of God and he did not know that God is not to be seen to ask for such question? Then Al-Ridhâ (PUH) said in his answer: Moses ben Amram (PUH) knew that God was not to be seen, but when He talked to him and made him closer to Him and he went back to his people telling them that God talked to him they did not believe in him and said: we will not believe in you unless we hear Him as well as you, and they were at that time seven hundred thousand, so he chose seventy thousand, and then chose from them seven thousand, and then he chose out of them seventy men to be with him when facing God, so he went out with them to the mountain of Sinai and stayed there with them, and then Moses went up to the mountain and asked God to talk to him and let them hear Him as well, so God talked to him and they heard His voice from everywhere around them for God did make it in the tree and made it spread all around them, so then they said to him (Moses): we will not believe that what we heard was God's voice unless we see God, so when they said this great saying God did send a thunder upon them and took them away for their wrong-doing and they were destroyed. Then Moses said: O Lord what shall I say for the Israelites when I get back to them and when they would say that I got them out and killed them for I was not truthful in what I claimed? Then God made them alive again and sent them with him, so they said to him: if you asked God to allow you to see Him He would surely accept and then you would tell us how He is so we shall know Him better, so then Moses said to them: O folks, God is not to be seen with the eyes but He is known for His miracles and signs, then they said to him: we shall not believe in you until you ask Him, so then Moses said: O Lord, You heard them and You know better how faithful they are, so then God inspired to him: O Moses ask Me what they did ask you for I shall not charge you for their ignorance, so then Moses said: O Lord, allow me to see You, so then He said: you will not be able to see Me but see the mountain if it was knocked down in its place you will see Me, so when God looked at the mountain it was knocked down and Moses fell down senseless in a coma, and when he woke up he said: Sanctification be to You, to You I made my repentance and I am the first of believers..etc, and in the book of Ihtijâj that of Al-Tabarsi it is mentioned that a man came to the prince of believers (PUH) and said to him: O prince of believers, tell me about God, did you see Him when you worshipped Him? He (PUH) answered: I am not someone that worships something that he did not see, so the man said: how did you see him O prince of believers? He (PUH) answsered: woe to you! The eyes did not see Him by means of sightness, but hearts see Him by means of the facts of the faith, known by clues and called by the signs, not to be measured by people and not to be felt with the usual senses, so the man left the place saying: God knows better where to put His message.
In Muruj Al-Ðahab for Al-Mas`udi in the part concerning the stories of Moses, after God had destroyed the pharaoh, He commanded Moses to get the Israelites out into the deserts (the Wandering) and they were six hundred thousand adults added to them non-adults, and the tablets that were revealed upon Moses at the mountain of Sinai were made of green emerald and the writings were made of gold, so then when he got down from the mountain he saw some people from the Israelites that were worshipping a calf that they made so he got shocked and the tablets fell down from his hand and got broken and then he gathered it all and put them into the ark and made it into the temple, and Aaron was a priest and the head of the temple, and God revealed all the Torah on Moses while he was in the Wandering (or Exodus), and God took back the soul of Aaron during the Wandering and he was buried in the mountain of Marân in the direction of the mountain of Al-Shirâ' that lies after the mountain of Sinai, and his grave is famous there in a normal cave that produces horrible sounds at nights that make everyone scared...until he (the narrator) said: and God had revealed on Moses ten books so it was completed to one hundred books [maybe the narrator means the total books revealed since the days of Adam added to the books of Moses would complete one hundred books], then God revealed on him the Torah that contained the commands and what is allowed and what is not and regulations and that was in five books (the pentateuch) [then the author explains the meaning of a word in Arabic which is used for books of Torah in special, but for translation purposes it can not be put here. Book of Torah is called Sifr pl. Asfâr].
What is understood from Al-Mas`udi is that the tablets is something different from the books and they are different from Torah, and the tablets are what reached the prophet (PUH) and he commanded his viceroy the prince of believers to copy them and keep them and they are the Cipher that has the knowledgement of the first and last nations and we mentioned that a while ago, and the one hundred books are what God said about in His holy book: Lo! This is in the former scrolls. The Books of Abraham and Moses(Al-A`lâ:18-19), and the Torah is something else other than these and we had explained what was the Torah for, and everything including the prophecial heritages with it (the Torah) and other things are all kept in the hands of the last hidden viceroy the son of Al-`Askiri (PUH) may our souls be a ransom to him, so peace upon him and upon his infallible purified fathers, and mercy of God and His blessings.

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