71 He said: "He says a heifer not trained to till the soil or water the fields; sound and without blemish." They said: "Now hast thou brought the truth." Then they offered her in sacrifice but not with good-will.
72 Remember ye slew a man and fell into a dispute among
yourselves as to the crime but Allah was to bring forth what ye did hide. 81
73 So We said: "Strike the (body) with a piece of the (heifer)." Thus Allah
bringeth the dead to life and showeth you His Signs perchance ye may understand.
74 Thenceforth were your hearts hardened; they became like a rock and even worse in
hardness. For among rocks there are some from which rivers gush forth; others there are
which when split asunder send forth water; and others which sink for fear of Allah. And
Allah is not unmindful of what ye do. 82
75 Can ye (O ye men of Faith) entertain the hope that they will believe in you? Seeing
that a party of them heard the word of Allah and perverted it knowingly after they
understood it.
76 Behold! when they meet the men of Faith they say: "We believe" but when they
meet each other in private they say: "Shall you tell them what Allah hath revealed to
you that they may engage you in argument about it before your Lord?" Do ye not
understand (their aim)? 83
77 Know they not that Allah knoweth what they conceal and what they reveal?
78 And there are among them illiterates who know not the Book but (see therein their own)
desires and they do nothing but conjecture. 84
79 Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say: "This is
from Allah" to traffic with it for a miserable price! Woe to them for what their
hands do write and for the gain they make thereby.
80 And they say: "The fire shall not touch us but for a few numbered days"; Say:
"Have ye taken a promise from Allah for He never breaks His promise? Or is it that ye
say of Allah what ye do not know?" 85
Commentry:
81 In Deut. xxi. 1-9 it is ordained that if the body of a slain
man be found in a field and the slayer is not known, a heifer shall be beheaded, and the
elders of the city next to the slain man's domicile shall wash their hands over the heifer
and say that they neither did the deed nor saw it done, thus clearing themselves from the
blood-guilt. The Jewish story based on this was that in a certain case of this kind, every
one tried to clear himself of guilt and lay the blame at the door of others. In the first
place they tried to prevaricate and prevent a heifer being slain as in the last parable.
When she was slain, Allah by a miracle disclosed the really guilty person. A portion of
the sacrificed heifer was ordered to be placed on the corpse, which came to life and
disclosed the whole story of the crime. The lesson of this parable is that men may try to
hide their crimes individually or collectively, but Allah will bring them to light in
unexpected ways. Applying this further to Jewish national history, the argument is
developed in the following verses that the Children of Israel played fast and loose with
their own rites and traditions, but they ould not thus evade the consequences of their own
sin. (2.72)
82 The sinner's heart gets harder and harder. It is even harder than
rocks, of which a beautiful poetical allegory is placed before us. In nature we think
there is nothing harder than rocks. But there are rocks that weep voluntarily, like
repentant hearts that come to God of their own accord; such are the rocks from which
rivers and springs flow spontaneously, sometimes in small trickles, sometimes in big
volumes. Then there are rocks which have to be split or dug into or blown up with
dynamite, and underneath we find abundant waters, as in wells beneath rocky soil. Such are
the hearts of a less degree of fineness, which yet melt into tears when some great blow or
calamity calls the mind to higher things. And lastly, there are the rocks which slip or
sink by geological pressure or in an earthquake, and send forth large spouts of water, as
happened, for example, in the Bihar earthquake of 1934; such sinking or quaking may be
poetically ascribed to fear. So there are hearts which will come to God by no higher
motive than fear, but yet fear will melt them into tears of repentance. But the hardened
sinner is worse than all these. His case is worse than that of rocks, for nothing will
melt him. (2.74)
83 The immediate argument applies to the Jews of Medina, but the more
general argument applies to the people of Faith and the people without Faith, as we shall
see below. If the Muslims of Medina ever entertained the hope that the Jews in their city
would as a body welcome Muhammad Mustafa as the Prophet prophesied in their own books,
they were mistaken. In Deut. xviii. 18, they read: "I will raise them up a Prophet
from among their brethren, like unto thee." (i.e., like unto Moses) which was
interpreted by some of their doctors as referring to Muhammad, and they came into Islam.
The Arabs are a kindred branch of the Semitic family, and are correctly described in
relation to the Jews as "their brethren"; and there is no question that there
was not another Prophet "like unto Moses" until Muhammad came; in fact the
postcript of Deuteronomy, which was written many centuries after Moses, says: "There
arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to
face." But the Jews as a body were jealous of Muhammad, and played a double part.
When the Muslim community began to grow stronger they pretended to be of them, but really
tried to keep back any knowledge of their own Scriptures from them, lest they should be
beaten by their own arguments. The more general interpretation holds good in all ages.
Faith and Unfaith are pitted against each other. Faith has to struggle against power,
position, organization, and privilege. When it gains ground, Unfaith comes forward
insincerely and claims fellowship. But in its own mind it is jealous of the armoury of
sience and knowledge which Faith brings into the service of Allah. But Allah knows all,
and if the people of Faith will only seek knowledge sincerely wherefver they can find
it,-even as far afield as China, as Muhammad said, they can defeat Unfaith on its own
ground. [Even though the directive that Muslims should derive knowledge regardless of its
location is an acceptable proposition from the Islamic viewpoint, the tradition to which
the author refers here is not authentic]. (2.76)
84 The argument of i. 76 is continued. The Jews wanted to keep back
knowledge, but what knowledge had they? Many of them, even if they could read, were no
better than illiterates, for they knew not their own true Scriptures, but read into them
what they wanted, or at best their own conjectures. They palmed off their own writings for
the Message of God. Perhaps it brought them profit for the time being; but it was a
miserable profit if they "gained the whole world and lost their own souls"
(Matt. xvi. 26). "Writing with their own hands" means inventing books
themselves, which had no divine authority. The general argument is similar. Unfaith erects
its own false gods. It attributes things to causes which only exist in its own
imagination. Sometimes it even indulges in actual dishonest traffic in the ignorance of
the multitude. It may pay for a time, but the bubble always bursts. (2.78)
85 The Jews in their arrogance might say: Whatever the terror of Hell may
be for other people, our sins will be forgiven, because we are the children of Abraham; at
worst, we shall suffer a short definite punishment and then be restored to the "bosom
of Abraham". This bubble is pricked here. Read this verse with ii. 81-82. The general
application is also clear. If Unfaith claims some special prerogative, such as race,
"civilation," political power, historical experience, and so on, these will not
avail in Allah's sight. His promise is sure, but His promise is for those who seek Allah
in Faith, and show it in their conduct. (2.80)
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