ISRAELITES AND THE HOLY LAND (VERSE NO. 20)

      Through these few short verses, the Holy Quran tries to incite courage and revive the spirit of gratitude and thankfulness in the Jacob's descendants, and to waken up their sleepy conscience against their frequent wrongs and faults:-

      ``Remember when Moses said to his people:- `O, My people! Remember the favours of Allah bestowed upon you.''

      Although favour of God here, may mean all sorts of His extensive bounties, but only three of them have been specified here and pointed to:-

      1) That there was a long line of prophets and apostles among them, before and after Moses, such as; ABRAHAM, JACOB, ISAAC, JOSEPH - MOSES, SHOEIB, DANIAL, JOHN, and JESUS.

      2) `And made you MOLUK= KINGS= YOUR OWN OWNERS'

      Although the Arabic word MOLUK, which is the plural for MALIK, literally means the Kings, it figuratively means owners, not subject or in the charge of any body else. We know that the Israelites were kept in fetters and chain of poverty, slavery, and hardship, for years under the dictatorship of Pharaoh, and government of the cruel Egyptains. It was through the blessings of the advent of Moses that they became free, and could own themselves once again. So if we catch the meaning of Moluk literally as the king, we come to the obstacle that the Israelites very rarely were kings, a couple of instances to name, might be David and Solomon. Therefore the proper answer to that; can be the tradition that we have received from our prophet that:-

      ``Whenever someone from among Jacob's descendants could have a wife, a servant, and a mount, he called himself a king or owner. Therefore we have translated the Arabic word Moluk as `the owners of yourselves' instead of the kings.''

      3) And the third favour of God bestowed upon the children of Israel was:-

      ``And Allah gave you what, He had not given to any one among the nations.''

      These bounties were immense and extensive, such as their wonderful release from the slavery chain of the cruel Pharaoh and his Egyptain followers and hosts. Then the amazing state of the PASS OVER! That they were provided with heavenly food of Manna and Quails, and eventually the Divine Law and the Scriptures that were sent down to them, and many other unique bounties and blessings and miracles.