Surah 2. Al-Baqara

269The Bible says, "Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish .........And he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice young man and a goodly person: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. And the asses of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. And Kish said to Saul his son, Take now one of the servants with thee, and arise, go seek the asses ..... And when they were come into the city, behold, Samuel came out against them..........And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said unto him, behold the min whom I spake to thee of! this same shall reign over my people ....... And Samuel took Saul and his servant, and brought them into the parlour and made them sit in the chiefest place among them that were bidden which were about thirty persons ....... Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head.......and said, the Lord hath appointed thee to be captain over his inheritance ........ And Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen ....... (I Samuel, chapters 9, 10).

Saul was appointed to be leader of Israel at the command of God like Aaron. David and Christ (God's . peace be upon them all), but the Qur`an or the Traditions do not say explicitly whether he was appointed as a Prophet as well. His appointment as king by God does not necessary mean that he was also made a Prophet.

270Though the Bible differs a little from the Qur'an about the details of the Ark, yet we learn much from it.

The Israelites considered the Ark to be very sacred, that is the Ark of the Covenant. They believed that by means of it "God may come among us and rescue us from the power of enemies." That is why its return gave them (shechinah) peace of mind and courage.

The Ark contained the sacred relics of the house of Moses and Aaron. These were the fragments of the tablets given to Moses on the Mount Sinai. Besides, there was the original copy of the Torah which was written under the guidance of Moses and given to the Levites. It also contained a bottle of manna so that the future generations of Israel should be grateful to Allah for the blessing which He had bestowed upon their forefathers in the desert. Probably it also contained the staff of Moses, which was a great sign of Allah.

Probably the Qur'an refers to the incident mentioned in chapters 4, 5, 6, of I Samuel.

The Ark of the Lord was captured by the Philistines in a battle in which the Israelites were routed. The Israelites were so disheartened that they cried, "The glory is gone from Israel on account of the capture of the Ark of God." The Ark remained in the land of the Philistines for seven months but there was deadly panic in every town to which it was driven, for "God laid a heavy hand upon them there." So much so that they began to cry, "The Ark of the God of Israel must not remain amongst us any longer for His hand is severer on us." Then they decided to send it back to Israel. "They took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart. And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh" .

As the cart was driven without any driver, obviously it was being driven by the angels towards the children of Israel under the direction of God.