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2173 The Book is the revelation given to the Children of Israel. Here it seems to refer to the burning words of Prophets like
Isaiah. For example, see Isaiah, chap. xxiv. or Isaiah v. 20-30, or Isaiah iii. 16-26. (17.4)
2174 What are the two occasions referred to? It may be that "twice" is a figure of speech for "more than once", "often". Or it
may be that the two occasions refer to (1) the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar in 586
B.C., when the Jews were carried off into captivity, and (2) the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70, after
which the Temple was never re-built. See n. 2168 above. On both occasions it was a judgment of Allah for the sins of
the Jews, their backslidings, and their arrogance. (17.4)
17:5 - When the first of the warnings came to pass We sent against you Our servants given to
terrible warfare: They entered the very inmost parts of your homes; and it was a warning
(completely) fulfilled. 2175
2175 A good description of the war-like Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonians. They were servants of Allah in the sense
that they were instruments through which the wrath of Allah was poured out on the Jews, for they penetrated through
their lands, their Temple, and their homes, and carried away the Jews, men and women, into captivity. As regards
"the daughters of Zion" see the scathing condemnation in Isaiah, iii. 16-26. (17.5)
17:7 - If ye did well ye did well for yourselves; if ye did evil (ye did it) against yourselves; so when
the second of the warnings came to pass (We permitted your enemies) to disfigure your faces
and to enter your Temple as they had entered if before and to visit with destruction all that fell
into their power. 2177217821792180
2177 This is a parenthetical sentence. If anyone follows Allah's Law, the benefit goes to himself: he does not bestow a
favour on anyone else. Similarly evil brings its own recompense on the doer of evil. (17.7)
2178 The second doom was due to the rejection of the Message of Jesus. "To disfigure your faces" means to destroy any
credit or power you may have got: the face shows the personality of the man. (17.7)
5:13 - But because of their breach of their Covenant We cursed them and made their hearts grow
hard: they change the words from their (right) places and forget a good part of the Message
that was sent them nor wilt thou cease to find them barring a few ever bent on (new) deceits:
but forgive them and overlook (their misdeeds): for Allah loveth those who are kind. 712713714
712 Cursed them: that means that because of the breach of their Covenant, Allah withdrew His overflowing Grace from
them. The withdrawal of Grace made their hearts grow hard in two ways: (1) they were no longer protected from the
assaults of evil, and (2) they became impervious even to the message of forgiveness and mercy which is open to all
Allah's creatures. (5.13)
713 Israel, when it lost Allah's grace as above, began to sin against truth and religion in three ways: (1) they began to
misuse Scripture itself, by either taking words out of their right meaning, or applying them to things for which they
were never meant; (2) in doing so, they conveniently forgot a part of the Message and purpose of Allah; and (3) they
invented new deceits to support the old ones. (5.13)
714 Cf. ii. 109 and n. 110, where I have explained the different shades of meaning in the words for "forgiveness." (5.13)
5:70 - We took the Covenant of the Children of Israel and sent them Apostles. Every time there
came to them an apostle with what they themselves desired not some (of these) they called
impostors and some they (go so far as to) slay. 780
5:71 - They thought there would be no trial (or punishment); so they became blind and deaf: yet
Allah (in mercy) turned to them: yet again many of them became blind and deaf. But Allah
sees well all that they do. 781
81 That is, they turned away their eyes from Allah's Signs and they turned a deaf ear to Allah's Message. (5.71)
7:138 - We took the children of Israel (with safety) across the sea. They came upon a people
devoted entirely to some idols they had. They said: "O Moses! fashion for us a god like unto
the gods they have." He said: "surely ye are a people without knowledge. 1097
1097 Who were these people? We are now in the Sinai Peninsula. Two conjectures are possible. (1) The Amalekites of the
Sinai Peninsula were at perpetual war with the Israelites. They were probably an idolatrous nation, but we have very
little knowledge of their cult. (2) From Egyptian history we know that Egypt had worked from very ancient times some
copper mines in Sinai. An Egyptian settlement may have been here. Like all mining camps it contained from the
beginning the dregs of the population. When the mines ceased to be worked, the settlement, or what remained of it,
must have degenerated further. Cut off from civilisation, its cult must have become still narrower, without the refining
influences which a progressive nation applies even to its idolatry. Perhaps Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis, lost all its
allegorical meaning for them, and only gross and superstitious rites remained among them. The text speaks of "some
idols they had," implying that they had merely a detached fragment of a completer religion. This was a snare in the
path of the Israelites, whom many generations of slavery in Egypt had debased into ignorance and superstition.
(7.138)
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