In response to Moses' plea for his people, Allah defines the scope of His mercy. This verse serves as the legal preamble to the famous "Prophetic Signature" in the next verse, setting the conditions for who actually receives the mercy that supposedly "encompasses all things."
Surah 7:156:
And ordain for us in this world good and in the Hereafter; indeed, we have turned back to You.' said, 'My punishment - I afflict with it whom I will, but My mercy encompasses all things.' So I will ordain it for those who fear Me and give zakah and those who believe in Our signs
The Islamic Dilemma asks: If the Quran confirms the Torah, why does it ignore the Torah’s core message?
In the Torah (which the Quran just called "Guidance and Mercy" in 7:154), mercy is intrinsically tied to the sacrificial system and the covering of sin. But Allah redefines mercy as something "ordained" for those who pay Zakah. (Money to charity)
If the Torah is the Word of God, and the Torah says "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness," then Surah 7:156 is contradicting the very book it claims to confirm.
The mention of Zakah (a specific Islamic pillar) in the context of the Sinai wilderness is a glaring historical anachronism.
A Christian polemicist points out that Allah is speaking 7th-century Arabic jurisprudence to a 15th-century BC Hebrew audience.
If the Quran is "confirming" the previous scriptures, it shouldn't be inserting its own future rituals into the past. This suggests the "Allah" of this verse is simply projecting Muhammad's environment back onto Moses.
The verse ends by saying mercy is for those who believe in "Our signs" (Ayatina).
The very next verse (7:157) identifies the primary "sign" as following the "Unlettered Prophet."
This means that, according to the Quran, the Jews of Moses' day were only eligible for mercy if they believed in a future Arabian prophet. If that prophet isn't actually in the Torah (which he isn't), then the "Mercy" promised in 7:156 is built on a foundation of a false prophetic claim.
Surah 7:156 shows that the Quranic "Allah" gives with one hand and takes with the other. He claims universal mercy but then locks it behind a door of Islamic works that were unknown to the very prophets (like Moses) he is supposedly addressing.
By confirming the Torah in 7:154 and then ignoring its sacrificial requirements in 7:156, the Quran proves it is not a "guardian" of the previous word, but a replacement of it.