Quran Garden

Welcome to the Tafsir of Surah Al-Baqarah.  Congratulations on taking the first bold step in this enlightening spiritual journey, which will bring you spiritual nourishment and inner peace.  You've already proven you're ready for real change by showing up today.  Each Aya we explore together is a stepping stone that will wrap your heart in warmth and get you closer to Allah.  Let's begin with a brief introduction, followed by an amazing story most Muslims do not know.  

Session 21

Chapter Two Surah Al-Baqarah

An introduction

The second chapter in the Quran is named "The Cow." At first glance, this name seems a bit odd because the Quran was revealed in the Arabian Desert, where cows were not among the livestock commonly found in the area.  However, as we take a closer look at this chapter, we realize that the name is derived from a story based on the central Islamic issue of resurrection.  This is the basis of religion, because whoever does not believe in resurrection, in the hereafter, and in accountability does whatever he or she desires without restraint.  This life becomes his or her objective, and religion loses all meaning.

The foundation of worship is that true life begins in the hereafter, while our world is a place of trials and tests.  Even if you are the wealthiest person on earth, either you will leave all wealth and pleasures behind by death, or they will leave you through loss and troubles.  As for the hereafter, life, pleasure, and luxuries are perpetual and eternal.  This should make the goal of every believer to gain reward and attain Paradise in the hereafter.  As you can see, the entire faith is based on our belief in resurrection.

This brings us back to the name of this chapter, which is derived from a story involving a tribe among the Israelites at the time of Prophet Moses, peace be upon him.  They witnessed resurrection firsthand while still in this world.  The story begins with a wealthy man who owned a vast estate but had no heir to inherit his wealth.  His nephew, filled with greed, conspired against and killed him.  When night fell, he threw the body at the doorstep of another village in order to frame them for his uncle's murder.  The next morning, as people saw the body, they naturally accused the village of the murder and, despite their denial, the relatives of the victim insisted on blaming them.  After matters escalated and the two villages clashed, they decided to seek Prophet Moses so that he could ask God to resolve the issue and identify the murderer.  The story continues in the following verses:

Remember when Moses said to his people, "God commands you to sacrifice a cow." They said, "Are you making fun of us?" He answered, "God forbid that I should be so ignorant." They said, "Ask your Lord to make it clear to us what it is." He said, "He says it should be a cow, not old or virgin, but somewhere between the two.  So do as you have been told."  They said, "Call on your Lord for us, to show us what color it should be." He answered, "God says it should be a bright yellow cow, pleasing to the eye." They said, "Call on your Lord for us, to show us what it is: all cows are more or less alike to us.  With God's will, we shall be guided." He replied, "He says it is a perfect and unblemished cow, not trained to till the earth or water the fields." They said, "Now you have brought the truth," and so they slaughtered it, though they almost failed to do so.  Then, when you killed someone and started to blame one another –although God was to bring what you had concealed to light– We said, "Strike the body with a part of the cow." Thus God brings the dead to life and shows His signs so that you may understand.  (2:67-73)

From the verses above, we see that God commanded the Children of Israel to slaughter a cow.  Had they just listened and followed God's command by slaughtering any cow and striking the dead man with any part of it, life would have returned to him, and the murderer would have been identified.  But instead of carrying out God's command immediately, they first denied it and said, "Are you making fun of us?" Then they continued asking questions, delaying, and requesting a detailed description of the cow, until God specified all its qualities to them.

While the villagers were busy complicating things for themselves, God was helping a pious man on his straight path.  Let's listen to his story,

in a small village, there lived a very poor but righteous man.  He did not have much in life….a small hut and a good wife.  He earned his living doing manual labor for the people of his village.  This man was honest in all his dealing, even though the villagers around him were mostly greedy and corrupt.   His dream in life was to buy a goat; a goat is easy to take care of, and it would give him and his family milk to drink, and some to sell.  He needed the extra income because his wife just gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.

The man took all his savings and went to the town square to buy a goat, but he could not find a goat that he could afford because the merchants did not treat the poor well, and often cheated their customers.  The man was devastated.  As he left the market, a vendor yelled:

'Hey, you, come on back, I have something for you." "Why don't you buy this calf!'

'A calf, ' thought the man, 'I could never afford one.' 

He turned around and saw the calf the vendor was trying to sell him.  He immediately understood why.  It was an odd-looking calf that was very weak and sick.

He thought to himself, "A calf is much more expensive to raise than a goat; it will not give me any milk for another year or two.  But this is all I can afford…maybe if I work extra hard and take excellent care of it, I can have a small fortune." 

Sure enough, the man bought the calf and took on a couple of extra evening jobs to raise it.

After a few months of hard work, the man fell ill.  He tried to rest and drink whatever medicine he could afford.  But his health kept deteriorating.  He soon realized that he would not live for much longer.

'Who would take care of my family?" He thought.  "My wife cannot afford to take care of my son and feed this calf…..I have to do something." 

The next morning, he took the calf to the town square to look for someone to raise it for his family.

When the merchants saw this dying man with a calf, they rushed to take advantage of him.  He went from merchant to merchant, only to see greed in their eyes.  He could not trust them with his only possession.  Devastated, the man returned home with the calf.

That night, during his prayers, he turned to God and said, "My Lord, Lord of Abraham and Jacob, I have tried my best, and I cannot find anyone whom I can trust but you.  I entrust my wife, my little boy, and my only possession, this calf, to your care." The next morning he told his wife about his prayers, and then he let the calf loose.  Later that day, this righteous man died.  

After a few years had passed, the mother turned to her grown son and said, "Son, your father left you a small fortune,  A calf that he bought a few months before he died; it should be a grown cow by now."

The son was astonished, "that is great!  Where is it?"

She replied, "Your father knew I could not take care of it, so he entrusted it to God and set it free, why don't you go and look for it?"

'You are joking, right?!  Look for it….You want me to find a cow in the fields years after my dad let it go?!  I wouldn't even know where to start"

The mother looked at him and said, "Son, you are a good man; have some faith, be like your father and pray for God to guide you.'

That night, the son sat in prayer and said "Dear God, Lord of Abraham and Moses, I put my trust in you just as my father did, please guide me to my father's cow."

The next morning the young man set on his search.  He aimlessly roamed from field to field, not even sure what he was looking for.  Shortly after noon, a cow came out of the woods, walked towards him, and stopped submissively.  He could barely believe his eyes.  It was exactly as his mom described.  He checked it all around; there were no markings on it; its ears have not been tagged; this cow belonged to no one!

He peaked under the cow and found its udder overfilled with milk.  Thirsty from his search, he took a drink.  It was the best tasting milk he ever had!

'Wow!" the young man thought to himself.

As he led the cow back to his hut, he started daydreaming, "Our poverty days are over!" "Thank God!  Thank you, my Lord!  We will have so much milk to drink, and so much leftover to sell." 

'I can afford medicine for my mother, and in a month or two, I can fix the leaky roof, and maybe buy a chicken or two!" 

'If we sell enough of this tasty milk, I can get married next year." 

The young man was so lost in his daydreams that he did not notice the town's merchants rushing at him.

"STOP," one of them yelled, "STOP!"

The young man was startled as these men rushed in and started circling his cow.  This went on for almost two minutes until one of them said,

'This is it…this is the yellow cow Moses has been describing to us!  Here young man, take five gold coins and give us the cow." The young man hesitated.  Another merchant said, "Give him more, here take ten gold coins for the cow." 

'I…I cannot sell you this cow; it belongs to my family.  I have to take it to my mother." 

The merchants said "We will go with you."

As they reached the hut, the merchants offered the mother 10 then 25 then 50 gold coins; all they heard from the mother was "I won't sell for that price." 

The son got agitated and whispered to his mother "MOM…the cow is worth much less than they are offering…PLEASE take the money!" 

But as the merchants got louder and more aggressive, the son became irritated with them and yelled, "I will not sell this cow without my mother's approval even if you give me its skin-fill of gold." The mother smiled and said, "Let that be the price, The cow's skin-fill of gold."

The merchants who had endlessly argued with Prophet Moses had no choice.  They had backed themselves into a corner and had to buy this cow at any price.

Allah punished the merchants for their years of dishonesty and for the hardship they put Prophet Moses through.  Allah rewarded this low-income family because the father and mother were righteous people who took their faith seriously.

Thus, we can conclude that the name of this chapter, "The Cow," affirms the central issue of resurrection in Islamic creed.  In addition, the story teaches us that parents' righteousness plays a central role in the protection of their children.  Through the good deeds of the parents, God facilitates the affairs of the children and protects them from harm.  When the righteous man entrusted all he had to Allah, Allah blessed, protected and nurtured it so that his son could find a great treasure when he grew older.  We find this notion repeated in many verses of the Quran, such as the following:

The wall belonged to two young orphans in the town and there was buried a treasure beneath it belonging to them.  Their father had been a righteous man, so your Lord intended them to reach maturity and then dig up their treasure as a mercy from your Lord.  I did not do these things of my own accord: these are the explanations for those things you could not bear with patience.  (18:82)

Being upright and righteous is the best insurance you can give your children, as it instills God's blessing and protection into every aspect of the child's life.

Today's session was just a glimpse into the vast ocean of wisdom in Surah Al-Baqarah.  Here's a question for you: can you commit 10 minutes a day to the Tafsir of Surah Al-Baqarah?  We promise that those few moments will unlock incredible spiritual growth and bring peace into your home.  The road ahead may be long, but all you need to do is challenge yourself to make this tiny yet impactful step a part of your daily routine.