wonders so overwhelming that a human being would embrace faith after witnessing only a fraction of them; yet afterward they declared, “We will never believe you until we see God openly.” (1) [Q 2:55].

Allah—exalted is He—had already instructed Moses to choose seventy of their finest men for the appointed meeting. Moses selected them and led them to the mountain. When he drew near, a pillar of cloud descended and enveloped the mountain (2). He said to the people, “Come closer.” They stepped forward (3) until, once they had entered the veil, they fell down in prostration. There they heard the Lord—majestic and sublime—speaking to Moses, commanding him, forbidding him, and entrusting him with His covenant. But when the cloud lifted they said, “We will never believe you until we see God plainly.”

Another instance of their ignorance is that when Aaron died and Moses buried him, the Children of Israel said to Moses, “You killed him—out of envy for his noble character, his gentleness, and the affection Israel had for him.” Moses replied, “Choose seventy men.” They chose seventy and stood at Aaron’s grave (4). Moses then called out, “O Aaron! Were you murdered or did you die naturally?” He answered, “I died; no one killed me!”

Such is the measure of a nation’s ignorance and hard-heartedness: they accused their prophet of murdering his own brother. Moses said, “I did not kill him,” yet they would not believe until he let them hear Aaron’s own words, clearing his brother of the slander they had hurled at him!

Still another sign of their ignorance is that Allah—glorified be He—likened them, in that they carried the Torah without understanding it or acting upon it, to a donkey laden with books. This comparison exposes their ignorance in several respects: