Those who believe in God, in the Day of Judgment and do good deeds are assured of safely and bliss, The Breach of the Sabbath, sacrifice of the Cow, Moses demanded to describe the cow to be sacrificed.

Al-Baqarah Verses 62 - 71

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالنَّصَارَىٰ وَالصَّابِئِينَ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ

“Verily those who believe (in that) which is revealed unto thee, (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad) and those who Are Jews and the Christians and the Sabians and whosoever believeth in God and the Last Day (of Judgment) for them is their reward with their Lord, and there shall be no fear for them nor shall they grieve” (2:62).

وَإِذْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَاقَكُمْ وَرَفَعْنَا فَوْقَكُمُ الطُّورَ خُذُوا مَا آتَيْنَاكُمْ بِقُوَّةٍ وَاذْكُرُوا مَا فِيهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ

“And remember when We made a covenant with you and ^raised the ‘Tur’(a) (the Mountain) above you; (saying), “Hold ye fast that which We have bestowed upon you with the strength (of determination) and remember that which is therein so that ye may guard (yourself) against evil” (2:63).

ثُمَّ تَوَلَّيْتُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ فَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَتُهُ لَكُنْتُمْ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ

“(Yet) thereafter ye turned back, and had it not been for the grace and mercy of God on you, ye had been among the losers” (2:64).

وَلَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمُ الَّذِينَ اعْتَدَوْا مِنْكُمْ فِي السَّبْتِ فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ

“And indeed ye know of those amongst you who transgressed on the Sabbath, so We said unto them, “Be ye apes, despised and spurned!” (2:65).

فَجَعَلْنَاهَا نَكَالًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهَا وَمَا خَلْفَهَا وَمَوْعِظَةً لِلْمُتَّقِينَ

“So, We made it a lesson for (those of) their own times and for those (of their posterity) who came after them and an exhortation unto those who guard (themselves) against evil” (2:66).

وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَنْ تَذْبَحُوا بَقَرَةً قَالُوا أَتَتَّخِذُنَا هُزُوًا قَالَ أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ

“And remember when Moses said unto his people, “Verily, God commandeth you to sacrifice a heifer,” Said they, “Dost thou ridicule us?” He said, “I seek protection of God from being one of the ignorant ones” (2:67).

قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا هِيَ قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ لَا فَارِضٌ وَلَا بِكْرٌ عَوَانٌ بَيْنَ ذَٰلِكَ فَافْعَلُوا مَا تُؤْمَرُونَ

“They said, “Pray for us unto thy Lord to make it plain unto us what heifer it is!” He said, “sayeth He, she is a heifer neither too old nor too young, but of middling age; between that (and this) now act ye Therefore, as ye are commanded” (2:68).

قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا لَوْنُهَا قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ صَفْرَاءُ فَاقِعٌ لَوْنُهَا تَسُرُّ النَّاظِرِينَ

“They said, “Pray for us unto thy Lord that He maketh clear to us of what colour she is. He (Moses) said: “sayeth He, Verily, she is a yellow cow; her colour is intensely yellow, delighting the beholders” (2:69).

قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا هِيَ إِنَّ الْبَقَرَ تَشَابَهَ عَلَيْنَا وَإِنَّا إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَمُهْتَدُونَ

“They said, “Pray for us unto thy Lord to make (further) clear to us what (cow) she is. Lo! cows are all alike to us and if God willeth we shall surely be guided aright” (2:70).

قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ لَا ذَلُولٌ تُثِيرُ الْأَرْضَ وَلَا تَسْقِي الْحَرْثَ مُسَلَّمَةٌ لَا شِيَةَ فِيهَا قَالُوا الْآنَ جِئْتَ بِالْحَقِّ فَذَبَحُوهَا وَمَا كَادُوا يَفْعَلُونَ

“(Moses) Said, “Verily, sayeth He, Verily, she is a cow not (yet) used to till the soil or irrigate the tilth; sound and without blemish” They said, “Now hast thou brought the truth;” So they sacrificed her, though they had not the mind to do it” (2:71).

Commentary

Verse 62

About the ‘Sabians’ Mr. Badsha Husayn in his commentary states:

Sabians - These are representatives of the oldest Chaldean religion having Seth and Enoch, Noah for their prophets, but rejecting all others from Abraham downwards, indeed decidedly hostile to them. Their chief temple was in Harran where they all congregated for performing a sort of Hadj. Star - worship was the distinctive feature of their religion, Otherwise, they were monotheists, and their ceremonials contained several things very much resembling Islam. Thus, they had three, or five, or seven times of daily prayer and had one full month for fasting. The star worship was in main due to belief in the propitious and malignant influence of stars on the life and fortunes of men and their powers to produce or withhold rain. Their religion was much modified at various times and places by Jewish, Gnostic and Zoroastrian influences, and so there are conflicting accounts of them in various Muslim authors. One variety of them existing at the present day is described as a semi - Christian sect of Babylonia closely resembling the so - called Christians of St. John the Baptist. The majority of Muslim divines do not include them among the Ahl Al-Kitab (i.e. people following a revealed Book).

Some people draw the inference, basing their argument upon this verse, saying that salvation is not reserved only for Islam but to anyone and everyone who believes in God, the Day of Judgment and does good deeds, no matter what religion he professes, whether he embraced Islam or not. This is a direct contradiction to 3:85 which clearly proclaims that:

وَمَنْ يَبْتَغِ غَيْرَ الْإِسْلَامِ دِينًا فَلَنْ يُقْبَلَ مِنْهُ وَهُوَ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ

“Whosoever liketh any other than Islam for his religion, it shall never he accepted of him; and in the hereafter he shall be of the losers” (3:85).

An intelligent reflection makes the matter clear. This verse obviously refers to those of the Sabians, the Jews, and Christians, who were the true and the faithful followers of their respective prophets strictly following the original teachings of those prophets without any adulteration of the truth exposed to them by those apostles of God, believing in God and the Day of Judgment and died strictly after the holy Prophet Muhammad’s proclamation of his ministry and the news of the advent of the Holy Prophet had not reached them, for such true and faithful followers of these apostles of God would surely have embraced Islam if they had only known its advent.

It must not also be lost sight of that the correct belief in the Unity of God and the Day of Judgment is the soul or the spirit of the faith or religion Islam and this was the religion what all the previous apostles of God preached to their people and themselves believed in and practiced.

It is also made clear by this verse that it is the consistency of faith in God welded with or proved by the virtues of the personal character and conduct of the adherent, which is the chief requisite of Islam without which mere lip - profession on the part of any believer will not be sufficient to profit the individual in the least.

Verse 63

The verse clearly says that the mountain was raised above their heads. The same event is stated in Verse 7:171. Here again the Ahmadi commentator resorts to interpret it to deny the raising of the mountain over their heads and resorts to the statement of Exod. 19/171 which clearly states the actual raising of the mountain over their heads saying:

وَإِذْ نَتَقْنَا الْجَبَلَ فَوْقَهُمْ كَأَنَّهُ ظُلَّةٌ وَظَنُّوا أَنَّهُ وَاقِعٌ بِهِمْ

“We shook the mountain over them as though it had been a covering and they approached it was falling upon them” (7:171).

Besides the Jews who had with them the original statements of this event and who knew the text better, record this event in Talmud Aboda Sara, 1/2 which says:

“I will cover you with the mountains like a roof” - Talmud.

The text of Sabbath fol. ‘88/1 “R - Addimi - saith, these words teach us, that the Holy One, blessed be. He turned the mountain over them like a vessel and said to them, “if ye still receive the law well, but if not, there shall be your grave”1

Vide note to verse 56 regarding the tendency of the modern commentators to deny miracles. (A.P.)

Verse 65

The miracle of the violators of Sabbath being metamorphosed into apes is again repeated in 7:166.

The Ahmadi commentator while unable to establish his contention resorts to etymological interpretation of the word ‘Qirad’ (ape) and adds (as) before the word ape while translating the verse. Besides it needs to be remembered that in those days miracles were of much frequent occurrence to convince the people who were not sufficiently advanced in intellect to be convinced through straightway rational arguments.

Sabbath days were the days reserved exclusively for prayers and people were forbidden to do anything other than prayer. Fishing was forbidden on the Sabbath days, but the people did not desist from fishing and adopted cunning ways of allowing the fish to be caught. The prophets repeatedly warned the people against violating the Sabbath and ultimately, they were metamorphosed into apes, and after three days, all of them died and their corpses by a violent wind were cast into the sea. The incident is said to have taken place in the town of Elah on the Red Sea during the time of Apostle David. (A.P.)

Misinterpreting a passage of the Holy Qur’an by inappropriately comparing the wording of one passage of it to the other passages without any grammatical reasoning or the identity of the meaning, is an attempt to confuse the identity of the meaning of one with the other which the Holy Prophet has strongly prohibited and condemned it terming it in fidelity.

It must be remembered that the following wonderful event wrought under a divine and a supernatural phenomenon are counted in the Holy Qur’an as the miracles given to Moses as the proof of his prophethood viz.:

1. The Rod of Moses becoming a serpent.

2. The Palm of Moses shining bright.

3. The Splitting of the sea.

4. The Gushing of water from the Rock.

5. The Shower of the Manna and Salva from heaven.

6. The Shadowing of the cloud over the heads of the Isra’ilites.

7. The Raising of the dead to life.

8. The Suspension of the Mountain over the heads of the people.

9. The transformation of the transgressors into derided apes.

To misinterpret all these divine signs as a figurative presentation of some natural phenomenon is nothing but the denial of the supernatural forces which can effect changes in the usual natural course of events, and it leads to the denial of the divine authority and power. Hence it is the denial of the religion in a hypocritical garb and dishonesty to the work undertaken and a gross disloyalty to the faith. (A.P.)

Verse 67

The original law of Moses compelled 50 men of the suspected tribe to swear their innocence and ignorance (in case they were not able to trace out the murderer), and on this they were to pay the blood - money of the deceased. This raised great murmurs when a case of this description actually occurred, and they insisted on Moses for praying to God to reveal the name of the murderer, which Moses was refusing, that being contrary to the principle of temporal government. This apparently led to scepticism in the half - heathen faith of those days; and as the case actually proved to be a concocted one it appears there was already a conspiracy to try the prophetic powers of Moses in this last case. On his praying in the matter, instead of revealing the name, the command of God was to slay a cow which was still more offensive to them as with the heathen thoughts they still retained2. Cows and bulls were held in great veneration.

They laughed this away and on being insisted to do it, they began to worry Moses with questions, once about its size, then about its colour, and so forth. This, either to delay the unpleasant task till inability to find one answering to the description might afford them a pretext for non-compliance, or this was due to the Judaic spirit of finding out niceties about formalities which are clearly ridiculed and reprobated in these verses. The Eighth Holy Imam Ali Ar-Ridha’ says that any cow would have been sufficient, but they imposed the particulars upon themselves, and the more they did so, the more did God impose the restrictions as a punishment for their persistent demand for unnecessary details. All this while Moses acting under inspiration, was driving them to purchase a particular cow belonging to a particular man who was very holy and pious and deserved to be favoured. They had to pay him an enormous price for this cow which was the only one then available. Hence, they were very near not doing it”

The cow being slain, its tail was put on the sacral part of the murdered man, and he rose to tell that the very men who had raised the cry for his blood, had murdered him3. It was probably for a memory of this event that the Isra’ilites got to have a custom of killing a red heifer in case of an uncertain murder.

The incident gives us the beginning of the Judaic spirit of seeking out niceties about formal things of no consequence. (B.H.)

It is quite obvious that the object of relating stories of the people of ancient times cannot be but to warn the Muslims against similar events in their lives. The habit of questioning about the given orders is reprobated in 5:101.

• 1. See also D. Lewis Pent. Prayers. Fol. 150. (Rodwell and B.H.).
• 2. Witness their worship of the golden calf. See note on Verse 84
• 3. See next verse