And when the Children of Israel were the most knowledgeable of people regarding the manifestation of the glory of Allah in the cloud, due to what their ancestors witnessed of it when they exited from Egypt, and at Mount Sinai, and the Dome of Time, and what was in that according to what was conveyed to them of the abundance of awe and the greatness of majesty, Allah, the Most High, said in response to one who seemed to say: How can this be? ﴿Ask﴾ by transferring the movement of the eye to the letter 'fa', thus sufficing from the hamzat al-wasl. ﴿The Children of Israel﴾ means those who are the most envious of the Arabs. Then he sought clarification or resumed the news: ﴿How many clear signs have We given them﴾ from that and from others ﴿of clear signs﴾ through their prophets. For they are unable to deny that, and their silence upon hearing it from you is an acknowledgment from them.

And al-Harali said: And when this which they were warned of was a general matter, they were referred in the details of events and the specification of calamities and the occurrence of similarities and parallels to what had preceded and what had occurred as an example among the Children of Israel, for the repetition of what happened to them from this nation is like the shoe to the shoe and the thread to the thread. So he said: ﴿Ask﴾ as an inquiry into their state, not for informing them and notifying them. The Prophet's ﷺ attention to what Allah witnesses of the conditions of the Children of Israel, their kings, their scholars, their days, their divisions, their disagreements, and the types of their calamities is his question and his seeking insight, not that he asks one and he informs him; thus it ended - so he said. The apparent meaning is that it is permissible to ask them, for he ﷺ did not ask them about anything and they lied in their response to him, except that they were known for lying, like the story of the punishment for adultery, and the case of their questioning about their father, and the case of the poisoned sheep, and similar to this. In that is an increase in the faith of those who witness it and an establishment of the proof against them and other benefits.

And when the estimation was: So they would, if they changed something of Our signs and belittled it, We would punish them, thus We intensified their punishment, as indicated by what I have cited from the Torah in this record for whoever reflects. He added to it His saying: ﴿And whoever changes﴾ from alteration, which is the transformation of a thing to other than what it was ﴿the favor of Allah﴾ meaning that which there is no favor except from Him, which is the cause of guidance; so he makes it a cause for misguidance or a cause for gratitude, thus he makes it a cause for disbelief, regardless of who it is.

Al-Harali said: The root of this alteration is the rejection of the knowledge of the scholar upon him, and the rejection of the righteousness of the righteous upon him, and the failure to follow the knowledge of the scholar and to be guided by the righteousness of the righteous. And that is the participation that occurs between the common people and the scholars and the righteous, and it is the disbelief in the favor of Allah and its alteration - thus it ended.

And when the perceptive among the people seeks to attract blessings before they come to him, and the dull-witted fool is pleased with them after they have been bestowed upon him, and the danger is the alteration of them at a certain time, not at all times, Allah, the Most High, said: ﴿After it has come to him﴾ meaning and he has firmly established knowledge of it, indicating that whoever alters it in that state has descended from the lowest of humanity and has joined what does not understand from the animals.

And when the decree was: Allah will destroy him, He explained it by saying: "Indeed, Allah," meaning the One of great status, "is severe in punishment," and it is a punishment that follows the crime. He mentioned some of what indicates the truth of the claim in the knowledge of the Children of Israel regarding what is manifested of glory in the cloud from the terror and what He gave them of clear signs. He said in the beginning of the fifth book of the Torah: "Now listen, O Children of Israel, to the laws and the commandments that I teach you so that you may act upon them and live and enter and inherit the land that Allah, the Lord of your forefathers, is giving you. Do not add to the commandment that I command you with. You have seen what Allah did to Baal-Peor, for every man who followed Baal-Peor, Allah your Lord destroyed him from among you, and you who followed Allah your Lord are alive - safe until today. Look, I have taught you the laws and the commandments as Allah commanded me so that you may act upon them in the land that you are entering and preserve them and act upon them, for they are your wisdom and understanding before the nations that will hear from you all these laws and will say when they hear them: "How wise is this great people! And how excellent is its understanding! What great nation has a god so near to it as Allah our Lord is whenever we call upon Him! And what great nation has laws and just commandments like this law that I recite to you today! But take heed and be cautious for yourselves, and do not forget all the signs that you have seen, and let them not depart from your hearts all the days of your life. Rather, teach them to your children and your children's children, and inform them of what you saw on the day you stood before Allah your Lord at Horeb, the day the Lord said: "Gather this people before Me so that I may let them hear My words and they may learn to fear Me all the days of their lives on the earth, and they shall teach their children as well." And you advanced and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire, and its flames rose to the sky, and you saw the darkness and the mist and the cloud. And the Lord spoke to you from the mountain out of the fire; you heard the sound of the words but did not see any form. So He manifested to you His covenant and commanded you to know the ten signs.

And He wrote it on two tablets of stone. Be very cautious and preserve yourselves, for you did not see any likeness on the day when Allah, your Lord, spoke to you from the mountain from the fire. Be cautious, do not corrupt yourselves and do not take idols and their likenesses from every kind of male or female likeness or the likeness of any beast on the earth or the likeness of any bird in the air or the likeness of any creeping things of the earth. And do not raise your eyes to the sky and look at the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the hosts of the heavens, and be led astray by them and prostrate to them and worship them, which all the peoples under the heavens have taken. As for you, Allah has drawn you near and brought you out from the iron clutches of the land of Egypt to become for Him an inheritance like today - this is its text and that has preceded as a complete account from the second book of the Torah at His saying, 'And when Moses asked for water for his people' [Al-Baqarah: 60]. So the return is to recount what Allah, glorified and exalted is He, means from the conditions of the Children of Israel for the past purposes to the utmost of what can be from the rulings and in the highest peak of good organization and the manifestation of the angels in the shadows of the clouds is a familiar matter. From what is authentic from Al-Bara', may Allah be pleased with him, he said: 'There was a man reading Surah Al-Kahf and beside him a horse tied with two ropes. Then a cloud overshadowed him and kept coming closer and closer, and his horse began to rear up. When he woke up, he went to the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and mentioned it to him. He said: That is tranquility that descended with the Quran.' And from Imran ibn Husayn, may Allah be pleased with him, 'While he was reading Surah Al-Baqarah and his horse was tied beside him, the horse began to move around, so he stopped and it calmed down. Then he read again and it moved again, so he turned away. When he woke up, he told the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and said: I raised my head to the sky and saw like a canopy in it resembling lamps. I raised my head until I could no longer see it. He said: Do you know what that was? He said: No. He said: Those are the angels who drew near to your voice, and if you had continued reading, the people would have seen them and they would not have concealed themselves from them.