Translation:

Children of Israel, remember the blessing I have bestowed on you, and that I have exalted you above the nations. Guard yourselves against the day when no soul can avail another in the least; when neither intercession nor ransom shall be accepted from it, nor any help be given it. Remember how We delivered you from Pharaoh’s people who had oppressed you cruelly, slaying your sons and sparing only your women. Surely that was a great trial from your Lord. We parted the sea for you and, taking you to safety, drowned Pharaoh’s men before your very eyes. We communed with Moses for forty nights, but in his absence you took up the calf and worshipped it, thus committing evil. Yet after that We pardoned you, so that you might give thanks. And recall when We gave Moses the Scriptures and knowledge of right and wrong, so that you might be rightly guided; and when Moses said to his people: ‘You have wronged yourselves, my people, in worshipping the calf. Turn in repentance to your Creator and slay the culprits among you. That will be best for you in His sight.’ And He relented towards you. He is the Forgiving One, the Merciful. And when you said to Moses; ‘We will not believe in you until we see God with our own eyes,’ a thunderbolt struck you whilst you were looking on. Then We raised you after your death, so that you might give thanks. We caused the clouds to cast their shadow over you and sent down for you manna and quails, saying: ‘Eat of the good things We have given you.’ Indeed they did not wrong Us, but they wronged themselves.

Tafsir (Commentary):

The Jews were favored by God. He selected them for a special task: they were to receive God’s Scriptures and pass His commandments on to the rest of mankind. In relation to this office, they were granted many other blessings and facilities: victory over their enemies, forgiveness of their sins, special help in times of peril, divine provision for their physical needs, and so on. This misled later generations of Jews into thinking that they were God’s chosen people, and were assured of salvation in the next world. But salvation is a matter between the individual and God; such matters are not hereditary. Latter generations are to be judged on their own merits. On the Day of judgement people will be judged individually, according to their actions. To think that anything other than good deeds will avail one then is to underestimate the rigours of that day.

True piety is to worship God alone, to believe in Him though one has not seen Him, to live in fear of Judgement-day, to subsist on the pure things of the earth, to prevent whomsoever one can from falling into sin. It is those who adopt this way of life who will be successful in the next world.

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