Tafsir of Al-Baqarah 2:47

(O Children of Israel, remember My favor which I bestowed upon you) The reminder is repeated for emphasis and to signal their utter negligence in fulfilling the rights of the favor, and to connect the severe promise that follows it, so that the invitation is completed by both encouragement and warning. It is as if He, the Exalted, is saying: "If you do not obey Me for the sake of My preceding favors, then obey Me out of fear of My subsequent punishment." It also serves to remind them of the preference, which is the greatest of favors; it is, therefore, worthy of having the reminder specifically attached to it, while drawing attention to its loftiness by repeating the word "favor," of which [this preference] is a single instance: (And that I favored you over the worlds).

This is a conjunction to "My favor," being an instance of connecting the specific to the general. It is one of the aspects unique to the waw (and), as mentioned in al-Bahr, and this type of conjunction is called tajrid (abstraction); it is as if the conjunct was extracted from the sentence and singled out for mention due to the importance placed upon it. The speech implies the omission of a genitive (mudaf), meaning: "I favored your forefathers," for they are the ones who existed before the alteration, or [it is understood] in the sense that the favor bestowed upon the forefathers is a favor upon them. al-Zajjaj said: "The evidence for this is His, the Exalted's, saying: 'And when We saved you...' etc.," yet the addressees did not see Pharaoh or his people. However, He, the Exalted, reminds them that He has never ceased bestowing favors upon them.

By "(the worlds)" is meant all those existing at the time of the preference. Their preference was by virtue of the favors granted to them, which are indicated by His, the Exalted's, saying: "And when Moses said to his people: 'O my people, remember the favor of God upon you when He placed prophets among you and made you kings.'" Thus, the verse does not necessitate their preference over the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, nor over his nation, who are the "best nation produced for mankind." Likewise, it is not valid to deduce from it that humans are superior to angels in every aspect; if that were true, it would necessitate the superiority of the commoners among them over the elite of the angels, and no one argues for that.

Among the subtle points is that God, the Exalted and Almighty, made the Children of Israel witness the superiority of their own selves, so He said: "(And that I favored you)..." while He made the Muslims witness the superiority of His own Self, so He said: "Say: 'In the bounty of God and in His mercy—in that let them rejoice.'" How vast is the difference between one whose witness is the bounty of his Lord and one whose witness is the bounty of his own self! The former necessitates self-annihilation, while the latter necessitates vanity. And praise be to God who has favored us over many of those He created with a manifest favor.