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Moses was afraid of delivering the Torah to the Children of Israel:
Moses (peace be upon him) did not deliver the Torah to the Children of Israel lest they should differ after his death about its interpretation. In Deuteronomy, Moses said to the Children of Levi: “Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark[1] of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?”[2]
Here we see Moses (peace be upon him) expecting his people—and he knew them well—to ill treat Allah’s Book and therefore he refused to deliver it to all of them and instead he delivered it to the Levites. “And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD.”[3] Thus Moses (peace be upon him) protected the Torah from the Children of Israel in general. [1] The Ark: is one of the most sacred things to the Children of Israel. It is a wooden box that they claimed Allah had ordered them to make in a particular shape. They used to face it in their prayers. When Solomon (peace be upon him) built Jerusalem he placed it in what they called “Sanctum Sanctorum”, which was a small room they faced in their prayers. All these sacred things disappeared after the destruction of the Temple at the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion. Dirasat fi al-Adyan, S‘ud al-Khalaf, p. 71. [2] Deuteronomy: 31:26. [3] Deuteronomy: 31:9 |