Sacred Texts  Islam  Index  Previous  Next 

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