When We divided for you the sea and We delivered you and drowned Pharaoh's folk while you were beholding. The perceptive faculties baṣāÌir of the children of Israel had become diminished so He showed them miracles openly ʿayānan whereas the perceptive faculties of this community [Muslims] were sharp so He unveiled His signs to them secretly sirran. This is His سبحانه way sunna. For those who are sharper in the perceptive faculty the matter will be more subtle for them and the allusions within it more abundant. [The Prophet] ﷺ said “I was given the all-comprehensive words jawāmiʿ al-kalim and then the speech kalām was shortened for me.” When [the children of Israel] saw these manifest signs in the splitting of the sea and the drowning of the people of Pharaoh they were seized with doubt and said “They did not drown even though they were cast into the sea” but the children of Israel did see them drowning. On the other hand in this community because of their being foremost in their belief in the Messenger of God ﷺ and because of the power of their perceptive faculties one youth said “It is as if I was with the people of the garden exchanging visits and as if I was with the people of the fire clamoring to one another and as if I saw the throne of my Lord in plain sight.” What a difference [there is] between one who sees with his own eyes yet doubts and one who only hears [about something] and yet sees it like an eyewitness because of the power of his belief!
