enter it without exception, rather than some entering and others not. Hence He said to them:

“But if you slip after clear proofs have come to you, then know that Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.” (209) [al-Baqarah 209]

Those who persist in disbelief, misguidance, and error, like the Jews, are not told, “If you slip.” He then treated His words,

“Do they await anything but that Allah should come to them in canopies of clouds?” [al-Baqarah 210]

as an expression of the Jews’ corrupt belief, rather than words of Allah warning His servants, and adopted this as the answer to be relied upon. Does not every believer who has read the Quran know, as a matter of self-evident reason and faith, that this is among the gravest lies and fabrications against the Lord of all worlds, and that refuting it requires no proof?

It is also a lie about the Jews, for no one has reported that, in the time of Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—they were waiting for Allah to come to them in canopies of clouds to address them. Scholars of Quranic exegesis, prophetic biography, hadith, and accounts of the Prophet’s military campaigns have recorded the exchanges between the Jews living in the Hijaz and the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Despite the large number of Jews in the Hijaz and the many Quranic passages revealed in connection with them, no one has reported this.

Likewise, his report that they used to say that He manifested Himself to Moses on the Mount in canopies of clouds is something Allah, exalted is He, did not relate about them in this form. If, then, this was truly their belief and they were