would say, “We shall do it, if Allah wills. So make them my community.” He said, “It is the community of Muhammad.”

Moses said, “My Lord, I find a community who consume their expiatory offerings and their charitable alms, whereas the earlier peoples used to burn their charitable offerings with fire. They answer the call and their prayers are answered; they intercede and their intercession is accepted. So make them my community.” He said, “It is the community of Muhammad.”

He said, “My Lord, I find a community such that, whenever one of them ascends a height, he magnifies Allah, and whenever he descends into a valley, he praises Allah. Clean earth is a means of purification for them, and the earth is a place of prayer for them wherever they may be. When they cannot find water, they purify themselves from major ritual impurity with clean earth, just as they purify themselves with water. They will come radiant and marked on their limbs by the traces of ablution. So make them my community.” He said, “It is the community of Muhammad.”

He said, “My Lord, I find a community such that, if one of them intends a good deed but does not perform it, a good deed equal to it is recorded for him; and if he performs it, it is recorded for him tenfold, up to seven hundred times over. If he intends an evil deed but does not commit it, it is not recorded against him; but if he commits it, a single evil deed equal to it is recorded against him. So make them my community.” He said, “It is the community of Ahmad.”

He said, “My Lord, I find a community shown mercy, though weak, who inherit the Book: ‘Then We gave the Book as inheritance to those of Our servants whom We chose. Among them are those who wrong themselves, some who are moderate, and some who excel in good deeds.’ Yet I find none among them except that he is shown mercy. So make them my community.” He said, “It is the community of Muhammad.”

He said, “My Lord, I find a community whose copies of the Quran are within their breasts. They wear garments in the colors of the people of Paradise; in their prayer they stand in rows like the rows of the angels; the sounds in their mosques are like the buzzing of bees. None of them shall ever enter the Fire, except one who sees the reckoning as one sees a stone from beyond al-Shihr. So make them my community.” He said, “It is the community of Ahmad.”

When Moses marveled at the goodness Allah had granted Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and his community, he said, “Would that I were among the companions of Muhammad and his community!” Allah then revealed to him three verses by which He satisfied him: “O Moses, I have chosen you above all people by entrusting you with My messages and by speaking to you,” up to His words, “I will show you the abode of the defiantly disobedient”; and, “Among the people of Moses is a community that guides by the truth and judges by it.” Thus Moses was fully satisfied. (2)

“And We wrote for him upon the Tablets an admonition concerning all things and a detailed explanation of all things: ‘Take hold of them firmly, and command your people to uphold the best of them. I will show you the abode of the defiantly disobedient.’” (145)

His saying, exalted is He, “And We wrote for him,” means: for Moses; “upon the Tablets.” Ibn Abbas said: He means the tablets of