[2:50] 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 were sharp, so He unveiled His signs secretly (sirran) to them. This is how His (s) way (sunna) goes. For those who are sharper in the perceptive faculty, the affair will be more subtle for them and the allusions with it more abundant. [The Prophet] (ṣ) said, 'I was given the all-comprehensive words (jawāmiʿ al-kalim) and then the speech (kalām) was shortened for me'.
When they 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, this community, because of their being foremost in their belief in the Messenger of God (ṣ) and because of the power of their perceptive faculties, [had] one youth [who] 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 between one who sees with his own eyes yet doubts, and one who learns by hearsay and yet it is like eye-witnessing for him because of the power of his belief!