And when Moosa asked for water for his people, We said, “Strike this rock with your staff”; thereupon twelve springs gushed forth from it; each group recognised its drinking-place; “Eat and drink from what Allah has provided, and do not roam about the earth making turmoil in it.”

Said Moosa, “He says, ‘She is a cow not made to work, neither ploughing the soil nor watering the fields; flawless and spotless’; they said, “You have now conveyed the proper fact”; so they sacrificed it, but seemed not to be sacrificing it (with sincerity).

And We divided them into twelve tribes, as separate groups; and when his people asked him for water, We revealed to Moosa, “Strike the rock with your staff”; so twelve springs gushed forth from it; each group recognised its drinking-place; and We made the clouds a canopy over them and sent down the Manna and the Salwa (birds) on them; “Eat of the good things we have provided you”; and they did not wrong Us in the least, but they used to wrong themselves.

So have they taken the quenching of the pilgrims’ thirst and servicing of the Sacred Mosque as equal (in merit) to him who accepted faith in Allah and the Last Day, and fought in Allah’s way? They are not equal before Allah; and Allah does not guide the unjust.

“O my two fellow-prisoners! One of you will give his lord (the king) wine to drink; regarding the other, he will be crucified, therefore birds will eat from his head; the command has been given concerning the matter you had enquired about.”