“…those who follow the Messenger – the unlettered Prophet whom they find written about in the Torah and the Gospel” (al-Aʿrāf 7:157).
Moses then said, “My Lord, I asked You to grant repentance to my people, but You answered that Your mercy would be prescribed for a people other than mine. If only You had deferred me so that You might bring me forth in the nation of that blessed man!”
Allah replied, “Their repentance is that every one of them must slay—by the sword, without hesitation—whomever he encounters, whether father or son.” Accordingly, those whose sin had been concealed from Moses and Aaron were exposed; they confessed, carried out the command, and Allah forgave both the killer and the slain.
After that Moses, peace be upon him, set out with them toward the Holy Land. Once his anger had subsided he picked up the tablets and charged them with the duties Allah had enjoined. The burden seemed heavy to them and they refused to accept it. Allah therefore raised the mountain above them like a canopy, bringing it so near that they feared it would fall. They seized the Book with their right hands while their ears were turned toward it and their eyes fixed on the mountain; the Scripture was in their hands, yet they stood behind the mountain lest it collapse upon them.
They then journeyed on until they reached the Holy Land and found a city inhabited by a people of enormous stature whose appearance was most intimidating; even the size of their fruit was astonishing. The Children of Israel said, “O Moses, in it are a powerful people; we have no strength to face them. We shall never enter it while they remain there, but if they leave it, then we will enter.” Allah says: “Two men from among those who feared [Him] said—” It was asked of Yazīd, “Is this how he recited it?” He replied, “Yes”—these two were from the giants who had believed in Moses; they came out to him and said, “We know our people better than you do. If the only thing that frightens you is their bodies and their numbers, know that they have no hearts and no real defense. Enter the gate against them; once you enter it, you will surely prevail.” Others say the two men were from the people of Moses.
But those who were afraid among the Children of Israel said, “O Moses, we shall never enter it so long as they remain there. Go, you and your Lord, and fight; we will sit right here” (al-Māʾidah 5:24).
They enraged Moses, who prayed against them and called them “defiantly disobedient.” Never before, despite all the sin and wrongdoing he had witnessed from them, had he supplicated against them—until that day. Allah answered his supplication, labeling them as Moses had: “defiantly disobedient.” He therefore forbade the land to them for forty years, during which they wandered aimlessly in the earth, setting out each morning with no place to settle.
Yet in that wilderness Allah shaded them with clouds, sent down manna and quail, made their garments neither wear out nor soil, and placed in their midst a square stone. He ordered Moses to strike it with his staff, and twelve springs gushed forth—three on each side. Every tribe was shown its own spring from which to drink, and they never departed from one campsite but that they found the stone in the very spot it had occupied the previous day.
Ibn ʿAbbās traced this narration back to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. What confirms this for me is that Muʿāwiyah heard the same report from Ibn ʿAbbās and objected to the claim that it was a man of Pharaoh’s household who informed against Moses concerning the slain Egyptian. He said, “How could a man from Pharaoh’s people inform on him when he knew nothing of the matter? Only the Israelite who was present could have known of it.” Ibn ʿAbbās became angry and, taking him by the hand—