The Quran

153

Preface

يَسأَلُكَ أَهلُ الكِتابِ أَن تُنَزِّلَ عَلَيهِم كِتابًا مِنَ السَّماءِ ۚ فَقَد سَأَلوا موسىٰ أَكبَرَ مِن ذٰلِكَ فَقالوا أَرِنَا اللَّهَ جَهرَةً فَأَخَذَتهُمُ الصّاعِقَةُ بِظُلمِهِم ۚ ثُمَّ اتَّخَذُوا العِجلَ مِن بَعدِ ما جاءَتهُمُ البَيِّناتُ فَعَفَونا عَن ذٰلِكَ ۚ وَآتَينا موسىٰ سُلطانًا مُبينًا

Yusuf Ali

The people of the Book ask thee to cause a book to descend to them from heaven: Indeed they asked Moses for an even greater (miracle), for they said: “Show us God in public,"¹ but they were dazed for their presumption, with thunder and lightning. Yet they worshipped the calf even after clear signs had come to them; even so we forgave them; and gave Moses manifest proofs of authority.

Cf. 2:55, for the thunder and lightning which dazed those who were presumptuous enough to ask that they should see God face to face, and 2:51 and n. 66, for the worship of the golden calf. The lesson is that it is presumptuous on the part of man to judge of spiritual things in terms of material things, or to ask to see God with their material eyes when God is above material forms and is independent of time and space.