Surah 7. Al-A'raf, Ayah 143

Lit., "then, in time (sawfa) wilt thou see Me". As these words express the impossibility of man's seeing God - which is clearly implied in the Arabic construction - a literal rendering would not do justice to it.

Since Moses was already a believer, his words do not merely allude to belief in God's existence but, rather, belief in the impossibility of man's seeing God (Ibn Kathir, on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas).

Even the best of us may be betrayed into overweening confidence of spiritual ambition not yet justified by the stage we have reached. Moses had already seen part of the glory of Allah in his Radiant White Hand, that shone with the glory of Divine light (vii. 108, n. 1076). But he was still in the flesh, and the mission to his people was to begin after the Covenant of Sinai.

But Allah-the Cherisher of all His creatures-treats even our improper requests with mercy, compassion, and understanding. Even the reflected glory of Allah is too great for the grosser substance of matter. The peak on which it shone became as powder before the ineffable glory, and Moses could only live by being taken out of his bodily senses. When he recovered from his swoon, he saw the true position, and the distance between our grosser bodily senses and the true splendour of Allah's glory. He at once turned in penitence to Allah, and confessed his faith.

"First to believe." Cf. the expression "first of those who bow to Allah in Islam" in vi. 14 and vi. 163. "First" means here not the first in time, but most zealous in faith. It has the intensive and not the comparative meaning.