The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 150
CH. 2 AL-BAQARAH PT. 1 وَاذْ قُلْتُمْ يُمُوسى لَنْ نَّصْبِرَ عَلَى And remember the time. 62 when you said, ‘O Moses, طَعَامٍ وَاحِدٍ فَادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُخْرِجُ surely, we will not remain لَنَا مِمَّا تُنْبِتُ الْأَرْضُ مِنْ بَقْلِهَا content with one kind of food; pray, then, to thy Lord for us b وَقِثَّابِهَا وَفُوْمِهَا وَعَدَسِهَا وَ بَصَلِهَا that He bring forth for us of what the earth grows of its قَالَ أَتَسْتَبْدِلُونَ الَّذِي هُوَ اَدْنى herbs and its cucumbers and its بِالَّذِي هُوَ خَيْرٌ اِهْبِطُوا مِصْرًا فَإِنَّ onions. He said: Would you wheat and its lentils and its take in exchange that which is inferior for that which لَكُمْ مَّا سَأَلْتُمْ وَضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ that which is ق الذِلَّةُ وَالْمَسْكَنَةُ وَبَاءُ وَ بِغَضَبٍ superior? Go to some town, and there is for you what you ask’. مِنَ اللهِ ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا يَكْفُرُونَ And they were smitten with abasement and destitution, and cease "3:113. wonder; for it is a matter of common experience that sometimes several springs rising at the same spot have some of their openings closed and to flow. From a testimony quoted by Sale, however, it appears that even as late as the end of the fifteenth century, twelve springs actually flowed there. He says: "The rock stands within the border of Arabia and some of his (the Prophet's) countrymen must needs have seen it if he himself had not, as it is most probable he had. And in effect he seems to be in the right. For one who went into those parts in the end of the fifteenth century tells us expressly that the water issued from twelve places of the rock, according to the number of the tribes of Israel" (Al-Koran by Sale, page 8). 150 The miracle of Moses on this occasion did not lie in bringing about a thing against the known laws of nature, but in the fact that God revealed to him the specific spot where water was just ready to flow at a blow of his rod. It is within the experience of those who study geological conditions in rocky districts that sometimes water flows underneath small hillocks or rocks and gushes forth when the rock is struck with something heavy or pointed. As Manna and Salwā had already been bestowed on the Israelites, God now fittingly asks them to eat and drink of what Allah has provided. But as a life of ease and independence is likely to make men arrogant and