Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:55
And [recall] when you said, "O Moses, we will never believe you until we see Allah outright"; so the thunderbolt took you while you were looking on.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَإِذْ قُلْتُمْ يَا مُوسَى لَنْ نُؤْمِنَ لَكَ حَتَّى نَرَى اللَّهَ جَهْرَةً (And when you said: "O Mūsā, we will not believe you until we see Allah plainly.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The explanation of this is: And remember likewise when you said: "O Mūsā, we will not believe you and we will not acknowledge what you have brought us, until we see Allah plainly (jahratan) — with our own eyes, through the veil between us and Him being removed and the screen between us and Him being lifted, until we behold Him with our own eyes." This is like a well "becoming clear" (tajhar): that is when its water was covered by mud, after which what covered it is removed until the water comes forth and becomes clear. Of this one says: "I cleared the well (jahartu al-rakiyya), I clear it, jahran and jahratan." And this is why one says: "So-and-so made this matter open (jāhara), openly and in full openness (mujāharatan wa-jihāran)," when he made it visible to the eye and made it known, as al-Farazdaq ibn Ghālib said:
He is among those by whom the thousand men remain kneeling in fear of him, openly (jihāran).
947 — And as al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning حتى نرى الله جهرة (until we see Allah plainly): he said: openly (ʿalāniyatan).
948 — And it was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning حتى نرى الله جهرة (until we see Allah plainly): he says: with the eyes, in plain sight (ʿiyānan).
949 — And Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning حتى نرى الله جهرة (until we see Allah plainly): until He shows Himself to us.
950 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning حتى نرى الله جهرة (until we see Allah plainly): that is to say: with the eyes, in plain sight (ʿiyānan).
Thus He — exalted is His mention — reminded them of the obstinacy of their forefathers and of the poor uprightness of their predecessors toward their prophets, despite the many signs of Allah — Mighty and Exalted is He — and His lessons which they beheld with their own eyes, the least of which would calm the hearts and by which souls find rest through faith. And that was accompanied by successive proofs against them and by the abundance of Allah's favors toward them. And despite this, they would ask their prophet at one time to make for them a god besides Allah; at another time they worshiped the calf instead of Allah; and at another time they said: "We will not believe you until we see Allah plainly"; and at yet another time, when they were called to battle, they said to him: "Go you and your Lord, and fight, you two; we will remain sitting here." And at another time it was said to them: "Say: 'Remission!' (ḥiṭṭa) and enter the gate while you bow down, and We will forgive you your sins," whereupon they said: "Wheat (ḥinṭa) in a barleycorn!" and they entered the gate upon their backsides — besides yet other of their deeds by which they wronged their prophet, peace be upon him, deeds too numerous to enumerate.
Thus our Lord — blessed and exalted is His mention — made known to those whom He addressed with these verses, namely the Jews of the Banū Isrāʾīl who were in the midst of the place of emigration of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, that they — in their denial of Muḥammad ﷺ, their rejection of his prophethood, and their failure to acknowledge him and what he brought, despite their knowledge of him and their awareness of the truth of his affair — would be no different from their predecessors and forefathers, about whom He has set forth to them the stories in detail: how they fell away from their religion time after time, and rose up against their prophet Mūsā — Allah's blessings and peace be upon him — time after time, despite the great trials of Allah — Mighty and Exalted is He — which they underwent and the abundance of His blessings over them.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: فَأَخَذَتْكُمُ الصَّاعِقَةُ وَأَنْتُمْ تَنْظُرُونَ (55) (Then the thunderbolt (al-ṣāʿiqa) seized you, while you were looking on.)
The people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning the nature of the thunderbolt that seized them. Some of them said, as:
951 — al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying فأخذتكم الصاعقة (then the thunderbolt seized you): he said: they died.
952 — And it was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning فأخذتكم الصاعقة (then the thunderbolt seized you): he said: they heard a sound and were struck by the thunderbolt (ṣaʿiqū); he means: they died.
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And others said, as:
953 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn al-Hamdānī related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning فأخذتكم الصاعقة (then the thunderbolt seized you): and the thunderbolt (al-ṣāʿiqa) is: fire.
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And others said, as:
954 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, who said: The earthquake (al-rajfa) seized them, and that is the thunderbolt, and they all died.
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The root meaning of "al-ṣāʿiqa" is: every awe-inspiring event that [a person] sees, beholds, or that befalls him — such that through its terror and its tremendousness he falls into ruin and destruction, or into loss of reason and unconsciousness of understanding, or into the loss of one of the organs of the body — whether that be a sound, or fire, or an earthquake, or a shock. And what indicates that a person may be struck by the thunderbolt (maṣʿūq) while he is alive and not dead is the saying of Allah — Mighty and Exalted is He —: وَخَرَّ مُوسَى صَعِقًا [al-Aʿrāf: 143] (And Mūsā fell down, struck by the thunderbolt), that is to say: unconscious. And of this also is the saying of Jarīr ibn ʿAṭiyya:
And was al-Farazdaq ever anything but an ape that was struck by the thunderbolts and turned away?
For it is known that Mūsā — when he became unconscious and was struck by the thunderbolt — was not dead, because Allah — Mighty and Exalted is He — has reported about him that, when he came to, he said: تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ [al-Aʿrāf: 143] (I turn to You in repentance). Nor did Jarīr compare al-Farazdaq, while he was still alive, to a dead ape. Rather, its meaning is as we have described.
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And by His saying وأنتم تنظرون (while you were looking on) He means: while you were looking at the thunderbolt that struck you. He says: the thunderbolt seized you visibly and openly, while you were looking at it.
