129. The Jews knowingly commit sins in the belief that being God's chosen people they will necessarily be pardoned and spared God's punishment. As a result of this misconception, they neither repent nor refrain from committing sins. How unfortunate the Jews are! They received the Scriptures which could have made them leaders of all mankind. But they were so petty-minded that they aspired to nothing higher than paltry worldly benefits. Thus even though they had the potential of becoming the upholders of justice and righteousness across the world they ended up merely as worshippers of this world.
130. The people of Israel know well that the Torah does not unconditionally assure them salvation. They have never been promised by God or any of His Prophets that they will attain deliverance no matter what they do. Therefore they have absolutely no right to ascribe to God something which He never told them. What makes their crime even worse is that their claim to unconditional salvation constitutes a sacrilege of their covenant with God whereby they pledged never to attribute any false statement to God.
131. The above verse has two renderings. It may be either translated as above or it may be rendered thus: 'For the righteous, only the home in the Hereafter is the best.' Going by the first rendering, the verse means that salvation is not the exclusive privilege of a particular person or a family. It is absolutely out of the question that one will attain deliverance even if one commits sins, simply on account of being a Jew. A little reflection will help one realize that only the righteous and God-fearing will be rewarded in the Hereafter. In the light of the second rendering, only the unrighteous prefer worldly, gains to reward in the Hereafter. As for the righteous, they are conscious of the importance of the Hereafter and hence forego worldly benefits for the sake of reward in the Next World.
132. The allusion here is to the event which took place when Moses proclaimed
God's Divine Law at the foot of Mount Sinai.
Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their
stand at the foot of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because
the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke of it went up like the smoke
of a kiln, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. (Exodus 19: 17-18.)
This awesome atmosphere was created by God at the time when He made the people
of Israel enter into a covenant with Him in order to impress upon them the gravity
of the event and the supreme importance of the covenant. It should not be mistakenly
assumed, however, that the people of Israel, who were reluctant to make the
covenant, were forced to enter into it. In fact they were all believers and
had gone to the Mount merely to make the covenant. The extraordinary conditions
which God created were such as to make the Israelites realize that making a
covenant with God was not an ordinary matter. They were rather made to feel
that they were entering into a covenant with none other than Almighty God and
that violating it could spell their disaster.
This concludes the discourse especially addressed to the Israelites. From here
on the discourse is directed to all mankind, and particularly to the people
whom the Prophet (peace be on him) addressed directly.