And when He praised them, He began to remind them of something of the blessings He had bestowed upon them for the sake of these guided ones, of the increase after the decrease and the honor after the humiliation, by making them among those who are sought for help by others. He also mentioned some of their punishments as a warning. He said: ﴿And We divided them﴾ meaning: We differentiated between them by individuals after they had been one water from one person, which is Israel, peace be upon him; and He explicitly stated the multitude after hinting at it with the division by saying: ﴿Twelve﴾ and distinguished it - the place of the singular which is the distinguishing of the ten - by the plural to indicate that each tribe includes, due to its multitude, several clans by His saying: ﴿tribes﴾ and the tribe - with a kasra - is the offspring of the offspring, and the clan among the Jews. This material revolves around multitude and expansion; and He clarified their greatness and the vastness of their spread and branching by His saying: ﴿nations﴾ meaning: they are worthy of being sought by people due to their multitude, strength, and religion, or that each nation among them is sought for something different than what the others seek from other than them in religion.

And when He described them with this multitude, and that was a pretext for mentioning the favor upon them with sufficiency in food and drink, He mentioned a miraculous blessing regarding water, and He began with it because it is the origin of life. This is of the type of their division from one soul, indicating their oppression and their hastiness in seeking help. He said: ﴿And We revealed to Moses when﴾ meaning: at the time when ﴿his people asked him for water﴾ meaning: they requested from him in a wilderness where there was no water to give them drink, and that was in the wilderness, and the mention of the people is an indication of their rebuke for being a people of strength and not emulating Moses, peace be upon him, in patience until Allah, who commanded them with this journey, would bring relief. Rather, they requested from him that in the manner mentioned in Al-Baqarah, showing anxiety and complaint: ﴿Strike with your staff﴾ meaning: the one which We made a sign for you and with which you struck the sea and it split. ﴿the stone﴾ meaning: any stone you wanted from this type; and He clarified, glorified and exalted is He, the swiftness of Moses' compliance and the quick effect of his striking by omitting: so he struck it, and His saying indicating it: ﴿and there gushed forth﴾ meaning: it split and appeared and gushed forth. [And this is enough in reprimanding them and condemning them for their disbelief after the favor of it, and this context, which is to clarify their hastiness in seeking help, does not contradict that it could be in the manner of the explosion, and the reprimand at that time would be more severe.] ﴿twelve springs﴾ according to the number of the tribes, and He indicated the severity of their distinction by His saying: ﴿Indeed, each people knew﴾ meaning: from the tribes ﴿its watering place﴾ and when there was no prior mention for food, nor was this the context of favor, He did not mention what completed this verse with in Al-Baqarah.

And when he mentioned the cooling of the livers with water, he followed it with the cooling of them with shade, saying: ﴿And We shaded them﴾ meaning: in the wilderness ﴿with clouds﴾ meaning: so that they would not be harmed by the sun; and when he completed the cooling of the livers, he followed it with the nourishment of the bodies, saying: ﴿And We sent down upon them manna﴾ meaning: bread ﴿and quails﴾ meaning: a side dish; and Samawal ibn Yahya said: it is a small bird resembling the quail, and its characteristic is that eating its meat softens the hard hearts. It dies if it hears the sound of thunder, just as the swallow is killed by the cold. Allah, glorified and exalted is He, inspires it to inhabit the islands of the sea where there is no rain or thunder until the time of rain and thunder separates, then it comes out from the islands and spreads over the land.

And when he mentioned His greatness in that, he mentioned its result, saying: ﴿Eat of the good things We have provided you﴾ meaning: with the attribute of the overpowering greatness of what We want from what you have not dealt with in any kind of dealing. And it indicated that they responded to this kindness with tyranny, injustice, and aggression by His saying, in reference to what you estimate: they turned away from the permissible good things and ate the filthy things that We prohibited for them by hunting on the Sabbath - as will come - and they did other things from the prohibited matters, thus they wronged themselves by that: ﴿And they did not wrong Us﴾ meaning: by anything from what they responded to the kindness with disbelief ﴿but they were﴾ meaning: always by nature and disposition ﴿wronging themselves﴾ meaning: specifically ﴿they were wrongdoers﴾ and this - along with being one of the evidences for ﴿I will turn away from My signs﴾ [Al-A'raf: 146] - is evidence for the correctness of describing this messenger as a prophet; for indeed, whoever knows these details from their news while being unlettered and having not mixed with any of their scholars, (p-135) is truthful about the Knower of the unseen without any supporter, and so is what follows.