2. Surah Al Baqarah

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَإِذْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ وَالْفُرْقَانَ ...

2: 53. And remember We gave Moses the Scripture and the criterion (between right and wrong),

C68. Allah's revelation, the expression of Allah's Will, is the true standard of right and wrong. It may be in a Book or in Allah's dealings in history. All these may be called His Signs or Miracles.

In this passage some commentators take the Scripture and the Criterion (Furqan) to be identical.

Others take them to be two distinct things:

- Scripture being the written Book and

- the Criterion being other Signs.

I agree with the latter view.

The word Furqan also occurs in 21:48 in connection with Moses and Aaron and in the first verse of Surah 25, as well as in its title, in connection with Muhammad.

As Aaron received no Book, Furqan must mean the other Signs.

Mustafa had both the Book and the other Signs: perhaps here too we take the other Signs as supplementing the Book.

Cf. Words worth's "Arbiter undisturbed of right and wrong." (Prelude, Book 4)

... لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ ﴿٥٣﴾

there was a chance for you to be guided aright.

Other versions:

2: 53

Asad And [remember the time] when We vouchsafed unto Moses the divine writ-and [thus] a standard by which to discern the true form the false – so that you might be guided aright; (note 38)

Yusuf Ali And remember We gave Moses the Scripture and the criterion (between right and wrong) there was a chance for you to be guided aright.

Pickthall And when We gave unto Moses the Scripture and the Criterion (of right and wrong), that ye might be led aright.

Transliteration Wa iza_taina_ mu_sal kita_ba wal furqu_na la'allakum tahtadu_n(a).

[Asad’s note 38: Muhammad Abduh amplifies the above interpretation of al-furqan

…….by maintaining that it applies also to “human reason, which enables us to distinguish the true form the false” …….While the term “furqan” is often used in the Quran to describe one or another of the revealed scripture, and particularly the Quran itself, it has undoubtedly also the commutation pointed out by ‘Abduh: for instance, in 8:29, where it clearly refers to the faculty of moral valuation which distinguishes every human being who is truly conscious of God.]

[Ali’s note: 68 God's revelation, the expression of God's Will, is the true standard of right and wrong. It may be in a Book or in God's dealings in history. All these may be called His Signs or Miracles. In this passage some commentators take the Scripture and the Criterion (Furqan) to be identical. Others take them to be two distinct things: Scripture being the written Book and the Criterion being other Signs. I agree with the latter view. The word Furqan also occurs in xxi. 48 in connection with Moses and Aaron and in the first verse of Sura xxv, as well as in its title, in connection with Muhammad. As Aaron received no Book, Furqan must mean the other Signs. Mustafa had both the Book and the other Signs: perhaps here too we take the other Signs as supplementing the Book. Cf. Wordsworth's "Arbiter undisturbed of right and wrong." (Prelude, Book 4) (2.53) ]