The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 140
CH. 2 AL-BAQARAH Moses was not an Israelite. If an Indian can borrow an idea from an Englishman, why cannot an Israelite borrow an idea from an Egyptian? The truth is that the idea of God's Oneness is neither the produce of Egypt nor of Palestine nor of any other place. It has its origin in divine revelation which has been independently vouchsafed to different peoples in different lands and at different times. It is never claimed that Moses was the first to conceive or preach that idea. He got it through divine revelation just as Jacob and Isaac and Abraham and Noah and Adam got it before him. In short, there is no justification for supposing that the name Moses is of Egyptian origin or that the man Moses was not an Israelite. The linguistic evidence of Hebrew and Arabic, combined with reason and the evidence of Jewish history and tradition, not to speak of the story of the Bible and the Quran, all go to support the already established fact that Moses was an Israelite and not an Egyptian by birth, and that his name is also of Hebrew origin. (For a full discussion of the point see Tafsir-e- Kabir by Hadrat Mirzā Bashīr-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad, Head of the Aḥmadiyya Community, under 2:54). PT. 1 commandment prescribed for a person or a people (Aqrab). the Discrimination) is an) الفرقان Arabic word derived from i. e. he divided or differentiated. It is wrong to think that it is not an Arabic but a Syriac word. The Arabic language abounds in words derived from the same root, which are also commonly met with in pre-Islamic literature of Arabia. The root meaning of the word is to differentiate. Hence is applied to that which differentiates between the true and the false, between sound reasoning and fallacy. Furqan also means 'an argument', because an argument serves to discriminate between the true and the false. 'Morning' or 'Dawn' are also termed furqan because they separate night from day. also means 'aid' or 'support', because the man helped and supported becomes distinguished from those against whom he receives assistance (Tāj). From the above it is clear that all revealed Books are as well as all "signs" granted by God. Commentary: Here the word (translated in the text as the Book) is used for the "tablets" on which the Ten Commandments given to Moses were written. The Quran itself makes it clear in 7:146, 151, 155 that it was only the | کتب the Book is derived from) الكتاب tablets and not the Pentateuch that were given to Moses on Mount Sinai, and, as explained under Important Words, the word which means: (1) he wrote; (2) he made a thing obligatory, or he prescribed a law. The word bears the following meanings: (1) a thing in which or on which one writes; (2) a book; (3) a revealed book; (4) an epistle or letter; (5) an injunction or a | kitāb 140 does not necessarily mean a book, but anything on which something is written. Thus the word here refers, not to the