Testimony of the Holy Quran — Page 46
T E S T I MON Y OF T HE HOLY Q U R AN 46 be patient. Verily, the earth is Allah’s; He gives it as a heritage to whomsoever He pleases of His servants, and the good end is for the righteous. ’ Then the people of Moses said to him, ‘We were persecuted before you and even after you came to us. ’ He said, ‘Your Lord is about to destroy your enemy and make you succes - sors in the land, that He may then see how you act. ’ Now, in these verses, those followers of Hadrat M u s a who were alive in his time are clearly and categorically the addressed people. They were the ones who had complained of the atroci - ties of Pharaoh and had said ‘we were persecuted before you came and then even after you had come. ’ And it was they who were told that they should patiently bear these hardships, God would turn towards them with His mercy and destroy their enemy, and make them Khulaf a ’ in the land. But it is clear to historians, and those who study Jewish and Christian texts know very well, that although the enemy of this nation—that is, Pharaoh—perished in front of them, they themselves were not blessed with either worldly or spiritual Khilafat. Rather, most of them were destroyed because of their own disobedience. They succumbed to death after wandering in the bleak and barren wilderness for forty years. Then, after their death, there began such a long line of succession among their progeny that there arose among this nation many kings. And indeed divinely appointed Khulaf a ’ such as David and Solomon were born among these very people until finally this chain of Khulaf a ’ came to its culmination in the 14th century with Hadrat Mas ih. Thus, it is clear that addressing an existing people does not at all mean that address necessarily remain confined to the people of that time. On the contrary, it is indeed the case with Quranic idiom that