So they went out, and Moses went out with them. They carried the Torah, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Tablets. They called upon Allah and beseeched Him. Then Moses stepped aside to hold intimate discourse with his Lord and ask Him to give them rain to drink. So Allah revealed to him: "O Moses, I have only withheld the rain from them because of a man among them who strives in evil [slander]. So let them expel him from their midst so that I may give them rain to drink."

So Moses returned to the Children of Israel and said to them: "O Children of Israel, indeed Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says to you: 'Indeed, He has only withheld the rain from you and cut it off from you because there is a slanderer among you. So expel him from your midst so that He may give you rain to drink.'"

So some of them cried out to others and said: "Whoever possesses this attribute, let him fear his Lord and identify himself to us, or let him depart from our midst."

Yet not one of them confessed nor spoke. So they returned to Moses and said to him: "O Prophet of Allah, no one has confessed to us, and we do not know him. So ask Allah to make him known to us so that we may expel him from our midst and our abodes."