O MOSES! SHOW US (THE FACE) OF YOUR GOD!

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IS IT NECESSARY THAT WE SEE GOD? THESE EYES DO NOT HAVE THE CAPACITY TO SEE HIS GLORY

The second verse narrates the famous incident of the people of Israel. They persisted with Moses to show them his God. Moses under the command of God took them to Mount Sinai so that they may get the answer to their demand. Then there was the incident which included all the angles of truth related to it. It is said, “The Lord spoke to Moses when he came at the appointed time; he said, “Lord show me yourself so that I may see you”

the Lord said, “You shall never see but look towards the mountain, you will see Me if it stays in its place” Moses and 70 representative of his people looked at the mountain. When the lord showed His glory on the mountain he turned it into dust and Moses fell down in a swoon and when he recovered his senses he said, “Glory be to You! I turn to You in repentance and I am the first to believe.”

This explanation of the verse requires the answers to some questions:

If it was impossible to see God then why did such a great Apostle like Moses desire it? (this can be seen in the answer “You shall never see me.’)

The answer to this question can be given through many verses. The majority among the people of Israel was ignorant and this was their demand. In verse 155 of Surah A’raf we read, after the incident of Moses has been described “Will you destroy us for the deeds of the foolish ones among us?’ This clearly states that the demand did not come from Moses; he was forced by the pressure of the ignorant ones to put this question to God and bring back the answer.

The verse 153 of Surah Nisaa says, “The people of the book ask you to bring them a book from heaven; verily they demanded greater things from Moses than that for they said, “Show us God openly” and then a lightning struck them for their wickedness.”

The verses 55 of Surah Baqarah says, “And remember when you said, “O Moses! We shall never believe you until we see God visibly” and then the thunderbolt seized you”

Both the verses tell us that that this unwarranted and sinful demand came from the Bani Israel and Moses was just appointed to take the question and bring back the answer from God.

But we learn from the premise of Fakhr Razi that it was Moses who insisted and when we regard the status of Moses we may discern that God can be seen or else a great Apostle like him would never have insisted but this insistence misplaced is wrong and the verse refutes it.

The verse clearly says, “You cannot see Me”. the word “Lan” has been used to denote forever and then the verse will mean “You will never ever be able to see Me” This deed of the Bani Israel has been termed as unjust and the punishment for it was the lightning from the heavens. Despite everything this biased group insists that the verse does not deny the vision and the meaning is just the opposite.

We should admit that such a bias is a very great curse and it make even the wise and learned to talk illogically.

The second point to be noted is the lightning which is one of the creations and reflects the deeds of God. It says that you do not have the capacity to bear the glory of a lightning which is a very insignificant creation. Your eyes were stunned and you swooned because of the terror and the earthquake; the mountain too turned into dust. How is it then that you feel that you can see the unparallel being? Actually this glorious lightning was an answer for them and a punishment too.

The final question is “Why did Moses repent and apologize after he woke from his swoon?”

There are two arguments and proof:

He apologized and repented in the same sense that he carried the question of his people to God so he repented on their behalf.

Moses was thinking that this kind of representation (of the people) may possibly not be acceptable in front of God. So he decided to apologize and express his faith.

We once again see Fakhr Razi falling into the eddy of bias. He not only refused to accept that this verse denies the possibility of any vision of God he persists that this verse in many ways is the proof of the divine vision. He has construed such meaning that it will be a waste of time to mention and discuss them. It is better to avoid them for there is no use of answering them. You have already read the answer to such question in the previous discussion about such a verse.

The third verse is connected with the second. To make things clearer we can say that this demand of his people from Moses was considered a great injustice and improper by God; it was deemed to be sin that should be immediately punished.

 

‘’ The people of the book ask you to bring them a book from heaven; verily they demanded greater things from Moses than that for they said, “Show us God openly” and then a lightning struck them for their wickedness. Then they took a calf (as god) even after the clear signs had come to them, but We (still) pardoned them and bestowed a clear authority on Moses.”

Look at the extent to which the Jews went in their waywardness that they considered God to be a material being and demanded that they wanted to see Him. It was due to this impertinence that the lightning struck them for it was a punishment as well as lesson for others. It was done to show them that when they cannot perceive even a small creature that is of a lesser importance than a flame how can they see the One who has created the sun, moon stars and this universe?

This is a meaning that a clear headed but unbiased person will immediately understand.

The Asharis say that this chastisement was given only because they made their demand in this world and God wants that He should be seen only on the judgment day. This is a very weak and baseless interpretation. (1)

There is no great difference between this world and the hereafter that it will lead to chastisement. The tone of the verse clearly denotes they had become very impertinent in front of their Lord and this is because they adopted such attributes that are used for contingent beings for God and took to polytheism.

What was the idea of the people of the book about the divine revelation? there are many interpretations about it and was idea is their negligence about the Qura’n which like the Tablets of Moses is a compiled book and they were demanding such a book.

Some think that they wanted a book named after them or after their elders.

Some say that they wanted a special epistle from God in which it is said that you should believe in my Prophet.

Each of the above ideas reflects their decadence and their refusal to accept the truth and it is certain that such demands merit chastisement.

 


 

1. See Tafsir Kabeer verse 55 of Surah Baqarah
IS IT NECESSARY THAT WE SEE GOD? THESE EYES DO NOT HAVE THE CAPACITY TO SEE HIS GLORY
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