The Qur’an has mentioned at various places the magnificent favors that were bestowed upon the Israelites. Many of these blessings are of an extraordinary nature. Some were granted through their prophets and some were bestowed directly. Allah Almighty has referred to them with the words āyatin bayyinah (clear signs). It is stated in Surah Al-Baqarah:
سَلْ بَنِيْ٘ اِسْرَآءِيْلَ كَمْ اٰتَيْنٰهُمْ مِّنْ اٰيَةٍۣ بَيِّنَةٍ.
Ask the Israelites: “How many a manifest sign We bestowed upon them; [but to what benefit?]” (2:211)
Among these clear signs, two prominent ones are that clouds were made to cast a shadow over them and mann and salwa were sent down. It is stated:
وَظَلَّلْنَا عَلَيْكُمُ الْغَمَامَ وَاَنْزَلْنَا عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَنَّ وَالسَّلْوٰيﵧ كُلُوْا مِنْ طَيِّبٰتِ مَا رَزَقْنٰكُمْ....
And We made the clouds draw their shadow over you and sent down upon you mann and salwa. “Eat these pure things that We have provided you.” (2:57)
These are indeed the blessings that Allah bestowed upon them in the Sinai desert. In this barren desert, they did not have houses, tents, or any form of shelter. Thousands of people were living under the open sky. In this situation, to protect them from the scorching heat of the sun, Allah provided them shade through clouds. Maulana Abul A‘la Maududi writes:
The Israelites had left Egypt in hundreds of thousands, and in the region of Sinai, they did not even have tents to shelter themselves, let alone houses. If, during that time, God had not kept the sky overcast for a period, this nation would have perished from the sun. (Tafheem-ul-Quran 1/77-78)
Allah provided them with clouds for shelter and arranged mann and salwa as a banquet of blessings. To benefit from this banquet, they did not have to prepare the land, nor endure the labor of sowing and harvesting, nor trouble themselves with cooking. The Qur’an refers to this banquet as mann and salwa. Javed Ahmed Ghamidi has written about this in reference to the Book of Exodus in the Bible:
This (mann) was a substance akin to dew that dripped onto the ground and solidified like grains of frost. The Israelites would gather it before the sun grew hot. Once the heat increased, these grains would melt away. In a barren desert, where sources of food were absent, this was a great blessing bestowed upon the Israelites without any labor, as a reward for migrating with the prophet by God’s command. The meaning of ‘mann’ is grace and favor. It seems that due to this very association, it was named ‘mann’.
By ‘salwa’, it is meant the birds that Allah Almighty sent for the Israelites in the Sinai desert. These were similar to quails and, like quails, were very easy to hunt. (Al-Bayan 1/68-69)