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wa-qaṭṭaʿnāhumu thnatay ʿashrata ʾasbāṭan ʾumaman wa-ʾawḥaynā ʾilā mūsā ʾidhi stasqāhu qawmuhū ʾani ḍrib bi-ʿaṣāka l-ḥajara fa-nbajasat minhu thnatā ʿashrata ʿaynan qad ʿalima kullu ʾunāsin mashrabahum wa-ẓallalnā ʿalayhimu l-ghamāma wa-ʾanzalnā ʿalayhimu l-manna wa-s-salwā kulū min ṭayyibāti mā razaqnākum wa-mā ẓalamūnā wa-lākin kānū ʾanfusahum yaẓlimūna
We split them up into twelve tribal communities, and We revealed to Moses, when his people asked him for water, [saying], ‘Strike the rock with your staff,’ whereat twelve fountains gushed forth from it. Every tribe came to know its drinking-place. And We shaded them with clouds, and We sent down to them manna and quails: ‘Eat of the good things We have provided you.’ And they did not wrong Us, but they used to wrong [only] themselves.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-‘Araf – Verse 160
160 . “And We divided them into twelve tribal communities; and We revealed unto Moses, when his people asked him for water, (saying): ‘Strike the rock with your rod.’ So twelve fountains gushed forth from it. Each tribe, indeed, came to know its drinking-place. And We outspread the cloud to overshadow them, and We sent down manna and quails upon them, (saying): ‘Eat of the good things wherewith We have provided you.’ And they did no harm to Us but they were doing injustice to their own selves.”
Several kinds of Allah’s bounties upon the Children of Israel are referred to in this verse. At first, the Qur’ān says that Allah divided them into twelve groups, each of which were a branch of the progeny of Israel. He assigned a just order among them which was far from harsh conflicts. The verse says:
The next bounty was at the time when the people of Moses (as) were traveling toward Jerusalem in the hot desert where they entangled with a horrible blazing thirst. They asked him for water and Allah revealed him to strike the rock with his Rod, and he did so. After that twelve springs gushed forth from the rock. The verse says:
The water of these fountains were divided among them so regularly that each group knew their own spring very well. The verse says:
Another bounty came to them in that blazing desert, where there was no shelter nor any shadow. The Lord outspread the cloud to overshadow them with the cloud. The verse continues saying:
Finally, the fourth bounty was that Allah sent down manna and quails as some delicious and nutritious food for them to eat. The verse says:
But they ate the food and showed ungratitude. By that manner, they did no harm to Allah (s.w.t.), but they committed injustice to themselves. The verse ends as follows:
Some Explanations
The Arabic term /asbāt/ is the plural form of /sibt/ which is used for the children, grandsons, and sub-branches of a family. Every tribe of the Children of Israel were the progenies of one of the children of Jacob. The Qur’ānic term /manna/ means a kind of food like honey and some herbal expressed juice such as tamarix mannifera, and ‘salwa’ (a quail) is a bird lawful to be eaten, resembling pigeon and partridge. During a short moment there, several miracles took place: striking the rock by the Rod, plenty water being gushed forth, the number of fountains as many as the number of the tribes, and so on.