[And when you said,] 'Moses, we will not endure one sort of food, that is, spiritual nourishment in the way of science, gnosis and widsom; pray to your Lord for us, [that He may bring forth for us of what the earth produces - green herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, onions'; He said, 'Would you exchange what is better with what is lowlier?'] Pray to your Lord that provide for us generously and grant us dispensation with regard to what the earth of our souls produces in the way of vile passions, base pleasures and cold amusements and [with regard to] all that comprehends the shares of the soul and its chastisement.
'Go down to a city, the city of the body, you shall have, therein, what you demanded'; And abasement, the concomitant of the pursuit of passions and the eager desire to acquire possessions, and wretchedness, that is, constant need and constant abiding in the lower aspect [were cast upon them]; and they incurred, they deserved, God's wrath, distance and banishment, that was because, of their veiling themselves from God's signs and His self-disclosures: the remainder is manifest [enough]. According to the second sense, [because of] their slaying of the prophets of the hearts without any established motive against them that would require such [a response], nay by their sheer falsehood in disobeying the commands of the hearts and the intellects and their animosity towards the manifestation [of these commands] they used to disbelieve the signs of God and slay prophets without right; that was because they disobeyed, and they were transgressors.