(80–82) “O Children of Israel! We certainly saved you from your enemy, made an appointment with you at the right side of the Mount, and sent down manna and quails for you. Eat from the good things We have provided for you, but do not transgress therein, lest My wrath descend upon you. Whoever incurs My wrath has indeed fallen into ruin. Yet I am truly Most Forgiving to whoever repents, believes, does righteous deeds, and then remains rightly guided.”
Allah Most High reminds the Children of Israel of His immense favor to them in destroying their enemy and appointing a meeting with Moses, peace be upon him, at the right side of the Mount, where He would send down to him the Scripture containing sublime rulings and beautiful accounts. Thus, after the worldly blessing, His religious blessing to them would be made complete. He also reminds them of His favor during their wandering in the wilderness, when He sent down manna and quails and granted them abundant, wholesome provision without any effort on their part. He said to them:
“Eat from the good things We have provided for you”—that is, be grateful to Him for the blessings He has ⦗511⦘ bestowed upon you—“but do not transgress therein,” meaning: do not use His provision to disobey Him or respond to His blessing with insolent ingratitude. If you do so, “My wrath will descend upon you”; that is, I will be angry with you and then punish you. “Whoever incurs My wrath has indeed fallen into ruin”; that is, he has perished, failed, and lost, for he has been deprived of divine pleasure and favor and has incurred wrath and loss.
Despite this, repentance remains open, regardless of whatever sins a servant may have committed. He therefore says, “Yet I am truly Most Forgiving”—that is, abundant in forgiveness and mercy—“to whoever repents” of disbelief, religious innovation, and wickedness; believes in Allah, His angels, His scriptures, His messengers, and the Last Day; and performs righteous deeds with his heart and body and through the words of his tongue.
“And then remains rightly guided”—that is, follows the straight path, follows the noble Messenger, and adheres to the upright religion. Allah forgives such a person’s burdens and pardons his past sins and persistence in them, because he has fulfilled the greatest cause of forgiveness and mercy. Indeed, all the causes of forgiveness and mercy are encompassed by these matters: repentance erases what came before it; faith and Islam demolish what preceded them; righteous deeds, which are good deeds, remove evil deeds; and following every path of guidance—including acquiring knowledge, reflecting upon a verse or hadith until a guiding meaning becomes clear, calling to the religion of truth, refuting a religious innovation, disbelief, or misguidance, striving in Allah’s cause, migrating, and all other particular forms of guidance—expiates sins and secures the ultimate objective.