This verse comes after the law of entry, the changing of the word, and the descent of rijz. Now the scene of provision and mercy opens again: Musa asks for water for his people, and the One God causes twelve springs to flow from within the stone.

The important question is this: why twelve springs? If the aim were only to remove thirst, one large spring would seem sufficient. So the number twelve in this verse is not merely a historical detail; it is a sign of social order, distributive justice, and the management of plurality.

Elsewhere, the Qur'an presents the Children of Israel as divided into twelve asbat, meaning twelve branches and groups. So this people were not one borderless, undifferentiated mass. Each branch had its own identity, need, population, inner order, and history. God did not erase these differences; for each group He placed a mashrab, a drinking place and path of benefit.

In the desert, water is the boundary between life and death. If all of them had gathered around one spring, the likelihood of crowding, domination, claims over shares, conflict, and the deprivation of weaker groups would have increased. The verse says: each group knew its drinking place. That means ambiguity was removed. Each group knew where to drink and from which path to receive its share.

Here an important principle appears: justice does not always mean making everything identical. Sometimes justice means that paths and shares become clear so no one's right is trampled. Unity also does not mean erasing differences. True unity is that differences become ordered under one shared principle.

The image of the verse is very beautiful: the source is one, the stone is one, the command is from one Lord; but the springs are twelve. In other words, the origin of provision is one, but the paths of benefit are many. A healthy society is also like this: unity in source, plurality in path, and justice in distribution.

On the surface, mashrab means a place for drinking water. But on the human level, mashrab can also be understood as a path of benefit, a capacity for receiving, a defined share, and the route of each group. All are kept alive by water, but not everyone has to drink from one mouth of the spring. When the drinking places are clear, plurality does not turn into conflict. When the drinking places are ambiguous, even ni'mah can turn into war.

Of course, this plurality of drinking places must not become fragmentation and island-making. Each group has its own mashrab, but no group should forget that the water is from God's provision, not from tribal power. If a group treats its spring as its absolute property and forgets the shared origin, that merciful order again turns into fanaticism and corruption.

In this verse, al-hajar, the stone, comes with the definite article. It is as if the speech concerns a specific stone, not just any stone. The Qur'an does not explain its natural or geographical details, because the aim of the verse is not geology. But this much is clear: a hard, closed, and seemingly impenetrable barrier stood before the water; and by God's command and Musa's action, that hardness was split and the path of life was opened.

The root hajar is connected with stone, hardness, prevention, and boundary. So the water coming out from the stone means the opening of the path of life from within a barrier that appeared closed and impenetrable. This image is not only about an outer stone; it also speaks about dead ends in life and society. Sometimes provision, path, understanding, and life are hidden behind the hardest barriers.

Fa-infajarat also carries a powerful image. The water was hidden, it had the capacity to appear, but its path was closed. When the barrier was split, the springs came out. In Surah Al-A'raf, the same event appears with the expression inbajasat, meaning water gushed or came out. These two expressions together show both the beginning of the opening and the visible flowing of it.

Musa's staff in this verse is not merely an ordinary piece of wood. The staff is support, an instrument of movement, a sign of prophetic authority, and a tool of control and order. Musa asked for water for his people; God commanded; Musa acted with the means he had in his hand; and provision emerged from a place that outwardly seemed dry and closed. So the verse shows supplication, means, action, and divine opening all together.

Here the choice of the word unas is very precise. For the human being in Arabic, two important root fields are involved: one is the root N W S, connected with movement, motion, swaying, and the general condition of people; and the other is the root A N S, connected with familiarity, companionship, living together, bonding, and finding calm beside another. In this verse, instead of the more general expression nas, the Qur'an uses unas. This choice is not accidental. The verse does not merely say that every human or every individual knew his drinking place; rather, it says that every human group that had bonds, familiarity, kinship, history, and collective identity among themselves knew its mashrab.

So kullu unas in this verse does not point to scattered individuals; it points to social units. Each branch of the Children of Israel, with its inner bond, knew its own drinking place. This is completely harmonious with the twelve springs. If the Qur'an had said nas, the view would have been more general; but unas shows that the matter was not only giving water to individuals, but organizing the relation between human groups. The One God saw their plurality, did not ignore their inner bonds, and placed a clear path of benefit for every group so social familiarity would not turn into tribal conflict.

After the springs flow, the command comes: eat and drink from God's provision. This sentence corrects the gaze. The water comes from the specific spring of each group, but the true owner of the water is not that group. Provision is from God. If each group imagines that the spring is only its own property, ni'mah again turns into fanaticism, hoarding, and wrongdoing.

For this reason, the end of the verse warns: do not strive through the earth as corrupters. After water comes the warning against corruption, because ni'mah, if not accompanied by ethics, becomes a tool of superiority, conflict, and destruction.

La ta'thaw does not simply mean do not commit corruption. It also carries the sense of negative movement, inward decay, and gradual ruining. In other words, do not rot society from within; do not destroy bonds through jealousy, greed, exclusivity, trespassing against the share of others, and breaking the order of provision. Sometimes a society appears ordered on the outside, but from within it becomes hollow through injustice, unhealthy competition, and misuse of ni'mah. The verse prevents this very danger.

Here the connection of the verse with transgression in ni'mah is also clear. God gives provision, but He does not leave provision without boundary. In another verse it is said: eat from the wholesome things We provided you, but do not transgress in it. So the problem is not only hunger; fullness also has its test. The human being sometimes loses patience in constriction, and sometimes after opening, forgets his own boundary.

This verse is also clear for today. A society made of different groups, ethnicities, languages, religious communities, and cultures, if it does not recognize just paths of benefit, will turn its shared resources into a battlefield. But if every group knows its share, path, and responsibility, plurality can be ordered under one shared principle.

So verse 60 does not speak only about water; it speaks about the way to build society. The One God answers the biological need, but at the same time He moves the society toward order, justice, and responsibility. Twelve springs means recognizing plurality, preventing conflict, clarifying shares, and preserving unity under divine provision.

The lesson of the verse is this: eat and drink, but do not corrupt. Benefit from God's provision, but do not turn it into the property of your self, tribe, or group. Know your own drinking place, but do not forget the source. Accept differences, but do not turn them into tools of superiority and destruction. If provision does not reach gratitude, order, and justice, the very spring of life can become the source of conflict.

• Al-A'raf 7:160— The division of the Children of Israel into twelve tribes and the gushing of twelve springs; the closest parallel verse to Al-Baqarah 2:60.
• Al-Baqarah 2:57— The shade of the cloud, mann, salwa, and eating from wholesome things; verse 60 continues the logic of provision, gratitude, and avoiding wrongdoing.
• Al-Baqarah 2:58— Entry into the town, abundance of provision, prostrating humility, and hittah; useful for understanding social order after entering ni'mah.
• Al-Baqarah 2:59— Changing the word and the descent of rijz; verse 60 gives ni'mah again, but with a warning against corruption in the earth.
• Al-Baqarah 2:61— Ingratitude before provision and the request for other foods; the continuation of their test before divine provision.
• Al-Baqarah 2:74— Some stones are such that rivers burst from them; an important witness for the relation between stone, the bursting of water, and hardness of hearts.
• Taha 20:80-81— The rescue of the Children of Israel, the descent of mann and salwa, eating from wholesome things, and the prohibition of transgression in provision; provision joined to ethical boundary.
• Ash-Shuara 26:63— Musa striking with his staff and the sea splitting; useful for understanding the staff as a means that, by God's command, opens a closed path.
• Ar-Rum 30:41— Corruption appearing on land and sea because of what people's hands have earned; a witness that human corruption affects the earth and the order of life.
• Al-A'raf 7:74— Do not cause corruption in the earth; a witness for the prohibition of turning ni'mah and power into ruin.
• Hud 11:85— Short-measuring and corruption in the earth; a witness for the relation between social justice, giving people their due measure, and avoiding corruption.