His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿O Children of Israel, We have saved you from your enemy and We made a promise to you beside the right side of the Mount, and We sent down upon you manna and quails﴾ ﴿Eat from the good things We have provided for you and do not transgress therein, lest My anger should descend upon you; and whoever My anger descends upon, he has certainly fallen﴾ ﴿And indeed, I am Most Forgiving to whoever repents, believes, and does righteous work, then is guided﴾

The apparent meaning of these verses is that this statement was made to the Children of Israel at the time of the arrival of these blessings that Allah, exalted and majestic is He, enumerated for them. There is a duration and incidents between their exit from the sea and this statement. However, Allah, exalted and majestic is He, specifies what He wills from that. It is possible that this statement was addressed to those contemporaneous to the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him. The meaning is: this is what We did for your ancestors. And His saying, glorified and exalted is He, "Eat" is to be understood as: it was said to them: eat. Thus, the verse - on this interpretation - is an interruption during the story of Moses, peace be upon him, intended as a reprimand to those present since their predecessors did not endure in expressing gratitude for the blessings of Allah, blessed and exalted is He. The first meaning is more apparent and clearer.

Ibn Kathir, Nafi', Ibn 'Amir, and Abu 'Amr read: [We saved - and We made a promise - and We sent down upon you - and We provided for you], except that Abu 'Amr read: "We made a promise to you" without the alif in all of the Qur'an. Hamzah and Al-Kisai read: [I saved - and I made a promise - and I sent down - and We provided for you]. And His saying: "And We made a promise to you" is said to be a dialectical form of "made a promise" that does not necessitate the action of two.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And if it is taken to refer to the known, it is because the receiving, the covenant, and the determination upon that take the place of the promise.

(p-117) And the story of this verse is that Allah, exalted and majestic is He, when He saved the Children of Israel and Pharaoh drowned, He, glorified and exalted is He, promised the Children of Israel and Moses, peace be upon him, that they would walk beside Mount Sinai so that Moses could speak to Him and converse with Him about what would be good for them in their commands and prohibitions. When they began to walk, Moses, peace be upon him, hastened to meet his Lord as will be mentioned later.

And one group said: this mountain is the one where Allah, exalted and majestic is He, first spoke to Moses when he saw the fire while he was on his way from Syria to Egypt. Another group said: it is not that one, and "the Mount" refers to the mountain that has no vegetation upon it. And His saying: "the right side" could mean the direction of the right, or it could refer to the right side in relation to "the one on the right," whether human or otherwise. And "manna and quails" are their food, and the explanation of them has already been covered in Al-Baqarah.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿from the good things We have provided for you﴾ means the lawful and delightful; because the meaning in this context has combined both. People have differed on what is primarily meant by the term "good" in the Qur'an. Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said: it is the lawful, and Ash-Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on him, said: it is what is pleasing to the souls. And this disagreement has been derived from their understanding of the trivial and the repugnant from animals.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And do not transgress therein﴾ means: you exceed the limit and act unjustly, like those who did. The majority of the people read: "fayahillu" with a kasrah on the ح, and "yuhallilu" with a kasrah on the ل. Al-Kisai alone read: "fayahullu" with a dammah on the ح, and "yahullu" with a dammah on the ل. The meaning of the first is: it is obligatory and rightful, and the meaning of the second is: it occurs and descends. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿Then he has fallen﴾ means: he has fallen from high to low, and from it is the saying of Khanafir:

So he fell like the fall of the eagle.

(p-118) Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And if it is not a fall, then it is a comparison to that which has fallen. The fall is a reality, the saying of the other is:

....................... ∗∗∗ The fall of the bucket, the rope has released it.

And he compared the one who fell into a calamity or a predicament after having been safe from it to that which has fallen. Thus, the verse is about this, meaning: he has fallen into Hell and into the wrath of Allah. It is said: the action is taken from the hawiyah, which is the bottom of Hell.

And because Allah, blessed and exalted is He, warned of His anger and transgression in His blessings, He opened the door of hope for the repentant. Repentance is obligatory upon all people, as He, exalted is He, said in Surah An-Nur: ﴿And turn to Allah all of you, O believers﴾ [An-Nur: 31]. And the people in it are of ranks: either a sinner who has the ability to commit it still, so his repentance is regret for what has passed and complete abandonment of it in the future; or one who committed the sin and then lost the ability to do so due to old age or affliction, so his repentance is regret and the belief in abandonment if he had the ability; and as for one who has not committed a sin, his repentance is the determination to abandon every sin. And repentance from a sin is valid while remaining upon other than it, and it is a conditional repentance. If the servant repents and then returns to the same sin after a period, the knowledgeable among the people of the Sunnah hold that Allah, exalted is He, may not return the first sin upon him, because the repentance was sincere, and it is possible that He may return it upon him because it was a repentance that he did not fulfill.

And the people have differed regarding His saying, exalted is He: ﴿Then he was guided﴾ in terms of finding guidance within faith and action. One group said: it means: then he adhered to Islam until he dies upon it. Another group said: it means: he did not doubt in his faith. Another group said: it means: then he was upright. Another group said: it means: then he followed the Sunnah of his Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. Another group said: it means: then he performed the righteous deeds. Another group said: it means: then he recognized the matter of his elder. Another group said: it means: he allied with the people of the household.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And all of these are specifications of one of them without what is of a type that is distant and not strong. And what is strong in the meaning of "then he was guided" is that he preserved his beliefs from conflicting with the truth in any of the matters. For guidance - in this regard - is not faith and not action. And there may be a believer who performs righteous deeds but his lack of guidance has led him to destruction, like the Qadariyyah, the Murji'ah, and the rest of the people of innovation and the Khawarij. So the meaning of "then he was guided" is: then he walked in the beliefs of the Shari'ah on a straight path. May Allah, exalted is He, make us among them.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And in preserving beliefs, the greatness of the matter of the Law is confined.