Al-Alwah
Definition
Al-alwah — the tablets — are the stone tablets upon which the Torah was inscribed and given to Musa on Mount Sinai, containing guidance and a detailed specification of religious law for the Israelites. Ibn Kathir describes Musa's return from Sinai to find his people worshipping the golden calf, and his casting of the tablets down in anger — a physical shattering that mirrored the covenant the people had just broken. The tablets were gathered and restored, and the Torah they contained became the foundational scripture of the Israelite prophetic tradition. Their breaking and restoration is itself a theological narrative: even when the people have violated the covenant, Allah's guidance is not permanently destroyed — it can be and must be returned to.
As understood in the classical tradition of Ibn Kathir and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
1 book in the library
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