﴿ وَإِذْ قُلْتُمْ يَٰمُوسَىٰ لَن نُّؤْمِنَ لَكَ حَتَّىٰ نَرَى ٱللَّهَ جَهْرَةًۭ فَأَخَذَتْكُمُ ٱلصَّٰعِقَةُ وَأَنتُمْ تَنظُرُونَ ﴾

“And [remember] when you said, "O Moses. indeed we shall not believe thee unto we see God face to face!" - whereupon the thunderbolt of punishment overtook you before your very eyes.”

And when you said �O Moses we will not believe you till we see God openly�; and the thunderbolt took you while you were beholding. Demanding to see the Essence without divine blessing is an open act of sacrilege which is one of the signs of distance and misery whereas attest- ing to the attribute of [divine] governance in the unveilings of might as linked to the kindnesses of nearness is one of the marks of communion and the tokens of felicity. Surely when they spoke from ignorance without any sense whatsoever of shame the convulsion and the thunderbolt blast overtook them.