Parables of the Qur’an II

Episode 22

The Story of the Cow and Its Significance

In the Name of Allah[1], the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.  Peace and blessing be upon Prophet Muhammad.  We continue with Prophet Musa (AS).  He is now in Diaspora.  He (AS)[2] was a smart and realistic leader thus he tried to organize the children of Israel into twelve Tribes (Asbat).  He didn’t insist that they should blend; he rather made an agreement coexistence between al- Asbat.  There is a great difference between their conduct and that of Muslims with Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) [3].  Al-Muhajirin[4] and al-Ansar[5] united in harmony while al-Asbat refused to unite

Amid all the coexistence efforts Prophet Musa was making, an incident happened that could have ruined everything he was trying to achieve.  It was the story of the Cow which surat[6] al-Baqarah in the Qur’an is named after.

The children of Israel dwelled in the Naqb desert in Jordan in a village called Batrah. In one village lived a good man who had a small family: a little boy and a wife.  The only thing he owned was a bright yellow cow.  He took care of it himself feeding it very well and never made it work in the fields.  When the man was dying, he told his family not to sell the cow until his son grew up.  He asked Allah (SWT)[7] to guard that cow for his son.  Observe the recurrent story of the good man who dies and bequeathes something for his children and how Allah (SWT) guards this heritage for his children. 

The man died.  Life was hard because his wife and son were poor and many people wanted to buy the cow.  Stressed, the woman decided to sell it.  But the boy objected out of loyalty to his father.  The buyer offered the boy a hefty sum of money but he still refused and said, ‘by Allah if you gave me its weight in gold I would not sell it’.  Because he was a loyal son he will be given its weight in gold afterwards.

Years passed, and in another village lived another young man who was the complete opposite of the loyal son.  His father died and he was poor and had a wealthy uncle who had a young girl.  His uncle did not give him much money because he noticed how reckless he was and the reckless boy hated that.  Notice the difference between the two boys although they had common circumstances. 

The reckless boy decided to kill his uncle to inherit his money and marry his daughter.  Yet he feared the retribution.  Therefore, he decided to kill him and implicate another person.  He killed his uncle and blamed the nearby village for his death.  Thus, by killing his uncle he would inherit him, marry his daughter and even receive his blood money.  According to Musa’s religion if a man is killed and his murderer is unknown the village near which his body was found is to be blamed.  In this case, fifty of the most religious and highly ranked men should be summoned from that village and find the murderer.  If they were unable to do so, they should swear by Allah (SWT) that none of their people had committed the murder and pay the blood money.. 

The young man went to his uncle and told him that he wanted him to come along to start a trade with another tribe.  At the outskirts of the village, he killed his uncle then returned to his village.  When people discovered the body, the young man screamed and cried and accused the other tribe of killing his uncle and of racism.  Racism is deeply rooted in the history of the Children of Israel.  .  The rational people asked Prophet Musa to help them but he could not find any evidence leading to the real killer and was bewildered.

Amid all this confusion came Jibril (AS) (Gabriel) and ordered them to slaughter a cow and hit the dead man with a part of it then he would come back to life and tell them who killed him then die again.  What is the aim of the Cow’s story?  Allah says what can be translated as, “And (remember) as you killed a self, (and) so you parried about it, and Allah is to bring out whatever you were keeping back. So We said, “Strike him with some (i.e. part of it) of it.” Thus Allah gives life to the dead and shows you His signs, that possibly you would consider” (TMQ[8], 2:72-73).

The children of Israel had many problems in their faith.  Their belief in the Day of Judgment and resurrection was weak as they were very materialistic.  They asked Musa before to make them an idol and wanted to see Allah.  As for Muslims, the first words in the Qur’an describe them as believing in the Unseen. 

Why slaughter a cow? Because within themselves there were still remains of their worship of the calf.  Allah knew that, so His order was to slaughter it by their own hands.  They thought they could hide the truth from Allah but Allah unveiled the truth that the calf was not totally out of their minds, ‘…Allah is to bring out whatever you were keeping back’ (TMQ,2:72).

When Musa (AS)  said that Allah ordered them to slay a cow they rudely asked Prophet Musa, “…Do you take us to yourself in mockery …?” (TMQ,2:67) That’s why Allah told them afterwards that their hearts were harder than stone.  Do you have a coarse heart? When was the last time you cried out of fear of Allah and prostrated in awe of Him?

Musa’s reply was, “…I take refuge in Allah from being one of the ignorant.” (TMQ, 2:67)  How polite he was!  He wanted to tell them that they were ignorant but in a polite Prophetic manner.

They began to stall asking, “What is its color? How does it look like? Is it old or young?” There were four types of them, the first is those who did not believe that the murdered man would come to life if hit by the cow part.  The second did not like to execute Allah’s orders because they were misers.  The third could not slay a cow because deep within, they still revered it.  The forth type were religiously fanatics and wanted to carry out Allah’s orders meticulously.  There was also a fifth type and these were the believers who were keen to implement the order and slay a cow.   

The more they asked the more Allah made it harder on them.  Not old or young means she gave birth once or twice only.  “They said, “Invoke your Lord for us that He make evident to us what color she is.” He said, “Surely He says that surely she is a yellow cow, bright (is) her color, pleasing to the onlookers” (TMQ, 2:69).

These descriptions applied to the loyal boy’s cow.  They did not want to slaughter an ordinary cow now they had to take the trouble of slaughtering this particular cow.  Because they were both misers and unbelievers they would pay as much as the cow’s weight in gold.

They said, “Invoke your Lord for us that He make evident to us what she is; surely the cows to us are similar to each other; and surely in case Allah so decides, we will indeed be rightly-guided.”   He said, “Surely He says that surely she is a cow not tractable (Literally made subservient) to stir the earth or to water the tillage, with no blemish in it…” (TMQ, 2:70-71).

Religious people do the same, they ask about details.  If Allah orders you to do something, do not make it hard on yourself by asking for details.  The believers said, “and surely in case Allah so decides, we will indeed be rightly-guided.” May be because they said so, Allah solved their problem.  They found the cow at last.  The Israelites made mistakes like arguing, stalling, being fanatics, being materialistic, having a weak belief in the hereafter, being impolite with the prophets and believing in idols.

They went to the loyal boy who asked for its weight in gold.  When they complained to Prophet Musa he said that he was free to ask whatever he wanted.  When Prophet Muhammad used to make a choice between two things he always opted for the easier so long as it was lawful. 

They slaughtered the cow and hit the dead man with part of it.  The man came back to life and said that his nephew killed him to inherit his money and marry his daughter, then he died again.  The story ends in the Qur’an with the ayah[9] which can be translated as, “Thereafter your hearts hardened even after that; so they were as stones, or (even) strictly harder...” (TMQ,2:74)  After all that, their hearts were still hard.  The story of the Children of Israel is for us to learn from and avoid their mistakes.   Never deny what Allah gives you or else your heart will harden.  Remember Allah’s blessings and worship Him a lot so that your hearts would become tender.

Translated by: The English Convoy – Dar al-Tarjama

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