The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 592
PT. 9 CH. 7 139. And We brought AL-A'RĀF children of Israel across the sea, وَجُوَزْنَا بِبَنِي إِسْرَاعِيلَ الْبَحْرَ فَاتَوُا the عَلَى قَوْمٍ يَعُكُفُونَ عَلَى أَصْنَاءِ and they came to a people who لَّهُمْ ۚ قَالُوا يَمُوسَى اجْعَلْ لَنَا إِلَهَا كَمَا were devoted to their idols. They said, 'O Moses, make for لَهُمْ أَلِهَةٌ قَالَ إِنَّكُمْ قَوْمُ تَجْهَلُونَ. us a god just as they have gods He said, 'Surely, you are an ignorant people. 1028 the entire country. The words, which We blessed, refer to the Holy Land which had been promised to the descendants of Abraham and Jacob (5:22). It was blessed because it was the land where the Israelites were to thrive and prosper and grow into a great nation. The words, And the gracious Word of thy Lord was fulfilled, mean that the promise which God had made to Abraham and Jacob came to pass. The words, We destroyed all that Pharaoh and his people had built, mean that the great buildings and memorials erected by Pharaoh by unjustly exacting hard labour from the Children of Israel fell into ruin in the time of the dynasty that ruled Egypt after him. 1028. Important Words: i. e. he بحر sea is derived from) البحر cut open a thing; or he enlarged and made it wide. & means, it became wide and spacious (Lane). Most probably the word is used of the sea on account of its great spaciousness, and the word (see 7:137 above) is used about it on account of its great depth. Commentary: generally considered synonymous, yet it is significant that the Quran uses the word when speaking of the drowning of the people of Pharaoh (7:137) and (as in the present verse) when speaking of the escape of the Israelites across it. This confirms the inference that generally the word denotes spaciousness and the worddepth. The request of the Israelites to Moses embodied in the words, make for us a god just as they have gods, does not show that they really wished to worship idols. As they were yet new in faith, so when they happened to see the idols of an idol- worshipping people, they simply wished to have an image of their God. The idols of the people thus suggested to them the idea of having an image of their God on which to fix their attention. The words, This is your God, and the God of Moses, used elsewhere in the Quran (20:89), also show that what the Israelites wanted was simply a representation of the God of Moses and that they did not want to abandon Him or set up equals to Him. The expression, Surely you are an Though the words and are ignorant people, contains the answer 1032