the sea, and as the foremost of them were about to emerge, Allah, exalted is He, commanded the sea to take them. It closed over them and drowned them all. The distance between the two shores of the sea was four leagues. It was the Sea of Qulzum, an arm of the Persian Sea. Qatadah said: It was a sea beyond Egypt called Isaf. This happened in full view of the Children of Israel. This is the meaning of His saying, exalted is He: “while you looked on”—that is, upon the places where they fell. It was also said: upon their destruction.

“And when We appointed for Moses forty nights; then you took the calf after him, while you were wrongdoers. (51) Then We pardoned you after that, so that you might give thanks. (52) And when We gave Moses the Book and the Criterion, so that you might be rightly guided. (53) And when Moses said to his people, ‘O my people, you have indeed wronged yourselves by taking the calf. So repent to your Creator and kill yourselves. That is better for you in the sight of your Creator.’ Then He accepted your repentance. Indeed, He is the Accepter of repentance, the Most Merciful. (54)”

The wording “We appointed” employs a reciprocal verbal form that may be used with only one party, as in such expressions as, “May Allah grant you well-being,” “I punished the thief,” and “I reinforced the sandal with an additional layer.” Al-Zajjaj said: The command came from Allah, and the acceptance from Moses; hence it is expressed as an appointment made by both parties. The people of Basra recited it, “And when We promised Moses,” using the verb “to promise.”

Moses is a Hebrew name that was Arabized. In Hebrew, “mu” means water and “sha” means tree. He was so named because he was taken from between the water and the tree. Then the dotted shīn was changed to sīn in Arabic.

“Forty nights”: that is, their completion—thirty from Dhu al-Qa'dah and ten from Dhu al-Hijjah. The reckoning was connected to the night rather than the day because the months of the Arabs were based on the course of the moon, and the crescent appears only at night. It was also said: because darkness preceded light, and the night was created before the day. Allah, exalted is He, says: “And a sign for them is the night: We strip from it the day” (Ya-Sin 36:37).

For when the Children of Israel had become secure from their enemy and entered Egypt (1), they had no Book or law to which they could refer. So Allah promised Moses that He would send down the Torah to him. Moses said to his people, “I am going to the appointed time of your Lord. I shall bring you a Book that sets forth what you are to do and what you are to leave undone.” He appointed them forty nights: thirty from Dhu al-Qa'dah and ten from Dhu al-Hijjah, and he appointed his brother Aaron as his successor over them.

When the appointed time came, Gabriel arrived on a horse called the Horse of Life: nothing that it touched but came to life, and he had come to take Moses to his Lord. When the Samiri saw him—he was a goldsmith from the people of Bajarma, and his name was Mikha; Sa'id ibn Jubayr said that he was from the people of Kerman; Ibn Abbas said that his name was Moses ibn Muzaffar (2); and Qatadah said that he was an Israelite from a tribe called Samirah—he was a hypocrite who outwardly professed Islam, and he belonged to a people who worshipped cattle. When he saw Gabriel upon that horse and saw