Texts of Islam

The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Moses: Moses Choosing Seventy Men For God's Appointed Tryst

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This is an Islamic exegetical text retelling a Quranic episode in which Moses selects seventy of the most faithful Israelites—chosen through successive rounds of selection from 700,000 people—to accompany him to Mount Sinai to hear God's speech. Upon hearing the divine voice from all directions simultaneously, most of the seventy lose faith and demand to see God physically; they are struck down by lightning or overwhelmed when God reveals a portion of His light to the mountain, but are subsequently resurrected after Moses intercedes on their behalf. The narrative serves as a framework for contrasting the Israelites' spiritual obstinacy with the superior faith of those who follow the Prophet Muhammad, whose coming the text presents as foretold in this very Quranic passage. The text takes a distinctly Shia Muslim perspective, arguing that God's mercy is specifically ordained for those loyal to Muhammad and his Household (the Ahl al-Bayt)—naming Fatima, Ali, Hasan, and Husain explicitly—and that no deed by any person is spiritually valid without this loyalty. A particularly strong claim is made that the names of Muhammad and his Household, along with the obligation of loyalty to them, are preserved in the Torah and other prophetic scriptures despite textual alterations, and were prophesied to Moses over 1,500 years before their appearance.

The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Moses: Moses Choosing Seventy Men For God's Appointed Tryst

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