Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 61 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:61

وَإِذْ قُلْتُمْ يَـٰمُوسَىٰ لَن نَّصْبِرَ عَلَىٰ طَعَامٍ وَٰحِدٍ فَٱدْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُخْرِجْ لَنَا مِمَّا تُنۢبِتُ ٱلْأَرْضُ مِنۢ بَقْلِهَا وَقِثَّآئِهَا وَفُومِهَا وَعَدَسِهَا وَبَصَلِهَا ۖ قَالَ أَتَسْتَبْدِلُونَ ٱلَّذِى هُوَ أَدْنَىٰ بِٱلَّذِى هُوَ خَيْرٌ ۚ ٱهْبِطُوا۟ مِصْرًا فَإِنَّ لَكُم مَّا سَأَلْتُمْ ۗ وَضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلذِّلَّةُ وَٱلْمَسْكَنَةُ وَبَآءُو بِغَضَبٍ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ يَكْفُرُونَ بِـَٔايَـٰتِ ٱللَّهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ ٱلنَّبِيِّـۧنَ بِغَيْرِ ٱلْحَقِّ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ بِمَا عَصَوا۟ وَّكَانُوا۟ يَعْتَدُونَ

“And [recall] when you said, "O Moses, we can never endure one [kind of] food. So call upon your Lord to bring forth for us from the earth its green herbs and its cucumbers and its garlic and its lentils and its onions." [Moses] said, "Would you exchange what is better for what is less? Go into [any] settlement and indeed, you will have what you have asked." And they were covered with humiliation and poverty and returned with anger from Allāh [upon them]. That was because they [repeatedly] disbelieved in the signs of Allāh and killed the prophets without right. That was because they disobeyed and were [habitually] transgressing.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Fed from heaven each morning, they pined for the onions of their old life, and small disobediences grew into rejecting Allah's signs.

A reflection

Craving the onions of the old life

A fourteen-year-old goes on a school exchange to Italy. Every night his host family serves fresh pasta, home-made sauces, fruit from their own trees. On the fifth day he texts his mother asking her to post him a packet of instant noodles.

The people in the wilderness ate manna that fell from heaven each dawn and quails driven to them by the wind. They said: 'We can never endure one food. Ask your Lord to bring out for us what the earth grows: its herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils and onions'.

The commentaries ask why. One says they had been farming people, and they pined for their old ways. Its word for the old ways is ʿikr, the dregs at the bottom of a jar. A classical theologian lists several reasons without condemning all of them. After forty years they had simply tired of it. People often prefer what they were raised on, however humble, to what they never grew up with, however fine. Perhaps they were tired of the wilderness and wanted the towns where such food grew. He adds that wanting variety is not in itself a sin.

What makes the request painful is Mūsā's answer. He asked whether they would exchange what is lower for what is better. The same theologian explains what made the manna better. It was present, certain, and came without labour. What they wanted was absent, uncertain, and would have to be sweated for. They were trading a sure gift for a hoped-for effort.

We do this constantly. We tire of a steady blessing because it is steady. A faithful spouse, a quiet job, a healthy body, a daily prayer: the ordinary sameness that keeps us alive starts to feel like 'one food'. The test is not whether we long for variety. It is whether we let the longing make us despise what is better.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.