and said, “Would you exchange that which is inferior for that which is better? Go down to any city, for there you will have what you have asked.”

That is: what you are now seeking in place of the favors in which you presently live is already to be found among the inhabitants of the towns, great and small alike; it is available there in abundance. If you descend to them—meaning, if you abandon this lofty station for which you have shown yourselves unfit—you will find whatever you crave of the lowly dishes and inferior foods you have named. But here and now I will not comply with that request, nor will I grant the fanciful wishes with which you burden me.

All the qualities just mentioned about them, and the deeds that issued from them, show that they did not refrain from what they had been forbidden, just as the Most High says: “Do not transgress therein, lest My wrath descend upon you; and whoever My wrath descends upon has surely fallen” (Tā-Hā 20:81). That is, he has perished, and—by Allah—ruin and destruction are his due, for upon him has come the wrath of the Sovereign, the Compeller. Yet the Almighty mingled this severe threat with hope for whoever turns back and repents and does not persist in following the rebellious Satan, saying: “Indeed, I am Ever-Forgiving to whoever repents, believes, does righteous deeds, and then remains rightly guided” (Tā-Hā 20:82).

The Request to See Allah

The Most High says:
“We appointed for Moses thirty nights and completed them with ten, so the appointed time of his Lord was fulfilled—forty nights. Moses said to his brother Aaron, ‘Take my place among my people, set things right, and do not follow the path of the corrupters.’
When Moses came at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show me, that I may look at You.’ He said, ‘You will never see Me, but look at the mountain: if it remains in place, then you will see Me.’ When his Lord manifested Himself to the mountain, He levelled it, and Moses fell unconscious. When he regained his senses, he said, ‘Exalted are You! I repent to You, and I am the first of the believers.’
He said, ‘O Moses, I have chosen you over the people with My messages and with My speech; so take what I have given you and be among the grateful.’
And We wrote for him on the tablets admonition of every kind and a detailed explanation of all things. ‘Hold to them with firmness, and command your people to take the best of them. I will show you the abode of the defiantly disobedient.
I shall turn away from My signs those who act arrogantly on the earth without right; even though they see every sign, they still will not believe in it. If they see the path of guidance, they will not take it as their path, but if they see the path of error, they will adopt it as their path. That is because they denied Our signs and were heedless of them.
Those who deny Our signs and the meeting of the Hereafter—their deeds have come to nothing. Are they recompensed for anything except what they used to do?’” (Al-Aʿrāf 7:142–147).

A number of the early scholars—among them Ibn ʿAbbās, Masrūq, and Mujāhid—said: The thirty nights were the complete month of Dhū al-Qaʿdah, and they were brought to forty by the ten nights of Dhū al-Ḥijjah. According to this view, Allah spoke to him on the Day of Sacrifice; and on such a day Allah likewise perfected the religion for Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and established His proofs and evidences.

The point is that when Moses (upon him be peace) completed the appointed term—and he was fasting throughout—it is said that he did not ask for any food