And when we said, “Enter this city,²³ and eat therefrom plentifully, at your will, and enter the gate with prostrations, and say, ‘Forgiveness;’ and we will pardon you your sins, and give an increase to the doers of good:”—

But the evil-doers changed that word into another than that spoken to them,²⁴ and we sent down upon those evil-doers wrath from heaven, for that they had done amiss:

And when Moses asked drink for his people, we said, “Strike the rock with thy rod;” and from it there gushed twelve fountains: each tribe²⁵ knew their drinking-place:— “Eat and drink,” said we, “of what God hath supplied, and do no wrong on the earth by licentious deeds:”

And when ye said, “O Moses! we will not put up with one sort of food: pray, therefore, thy Lord for us, that He would bring forth for us of that which the earth groweth, its herbs and its cucumbers and its garlic and its lentils and its onions:” He said, “What! will ye exchange that which is worse for what is better? Get ye down into Egypt;— for ye shall have what ye have asked:” Vileness and poverty were stamped upon them, and they returned with wrath from God: This, for that they disbelieved the signs of God, and slew the Prophets²⁶ unjustly: this, for that they rebelled and transgressed!

Verily, they who believe (Muslims), and they who follow the Jewish religion, and the Christians, and the Sabeites²⁷ —whoever of these believeth in God and the last day, and doeth that which is right, shall have their reward with their Lord: fear shall not come upon them, neither shall they be grieved.

Call to mind also when we entered into a covenant with you, and lifted up the mountain²⁸ over you:—“Take hold,” said we, “on what we have revealed to you, with resolution, and remember what is therein, that ye may fear:”

But after this ye turned back, and but for God’s grace and mercy toward you, ye had surely been of the lost! Ye know too those of you who transgressed on the Sabbath, and to whom we said, “Be changed into scouted apes:”²⁹

And we made them a warning to those of their day, and to those who came after them, and a caution to the God-fearing:

And when Moses said to his people, “Verily, God bids you sacrifice a COW;”³⁰ they said, “Makest thou a jest of us?” He said, “God keep me from being one of the foolish.” They said, “Call on thy Lord for us that He would make plain to us what she is.” He said, “God saith, ‘She is a cow neither old nor young, but of the middle age—between the two:’ do therefore what ye are bidden.”

They said, “Call on your Lord for us, that he would make plain to us what is her colour.” He said, “God saith, ‘She is a fawn-coloured cow; her colour is very bright; she rejoiceth the beholders.’ ”

They said, “Call on they Lord for us that He would make plain to us what cow it is—for to us are cows alike,—and verily, if God please, we shall be guided rightly:”

He said, “God saith, ‘She is a cow not worn by ploughing the earth or watering the field, sound, no blemish in her.’ ” They said, “Now hast thou brought the truth:” Then they sacrificed her; Yet nearly had they done it not:

And when ye slew a man, and strove among yourselves about him, God brought to light what he had hidden:

For we said, “Strike the corpse with part of her.” So God giveth life to the dead, and sheweth you his signs, that haply ye may understand.