2
اَلْبَقَرَۃِ
The Cow

يٰٓاَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوْا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِيْ خَلَقَكُمْ وَ الَّذِيْنَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُوْنَ۔ الَّذِيْ جَعَلَ لَكُمُ الْاَرْضَ فِرَاشًا وَّ السَّمَآءَ بِنَآءً وَّ اَنْزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَآءِ مَآءً فَاَخْرَجَ بِهٖ مِنَ الثَّمَرٰتِ رِزْقًا لَّكُمْ فَلَا تَجْعَلُوْا لِلّٰهِ اَنْدَادًا وَّ اَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُوْنَ۔ وَ اِنْ كُنْتُمْ فِيْ رَيْبٍ مِّمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلٰى عَبْدِنَا فَاْتُوْا بِسُوْرَةٍ مِّنْ مِّثْلِهٖ وَ ادْعُوْا شُهَدَآءَكُمْ مِّنْ دُوْنِ اللّٰهِ اِنْ كُنْتُمْ صٰدِقِيْنَ۔ فَاِنْ لَّمْ تَفْعَلُوْا وَ لَنْ تَفْعَلُوْا فَاتَّقُوا النَّارَ الَّتِيْ وَ قُوْدُهَا النَّاسُ وَ الْحِجَارَةُ اُعِدَّتْ لِلْكٰفِرِيْنَ۔ وَ بَشِّرِ الَّذِيْنَ اٰمَنُوْا وَ عَمِلُوا الصّٰلِحٰتِ اَنَّ لَهُمْ جَنّٰتٍ تَجْرِيْ مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْاَنْهٰرُ ؕ كُلَّمَا رُزِقُوْا مِنْهَا مِنْ ثَمَرَةٍ رِّزْقًا قَالُوْا هٰذَا الَّذِيْ رُزِقْنَا مِنْ قَبْلُ وَ اُتُوْا بِهٖ مُتَشَابِهًا ؕ وَ لَهُمْ فِيْهَآ اَزْوَاجٌ مُّطَهَّرَةٌ وَّ هُمْ فِيْهَا خٰلِدُوْنَ۔ اِنَّ اللّٰهَ لَا يَسْتَحْيٖٓ اَنْ يَّضْرِبَ مَثَلًا مَّا بَعُوْضَةً فَمَا فَوْقَهَا ؕ فَاَمَّا الَّذِيْنَ اٰمَنُوْا فَيَعْلَمُوْنَ اَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَّبِّهِمْ وَ اَمَّا الَّذِيْنَ كَفَرُوْا فَيَقُوْلُوْنَ مَا ذَآ اَرَادَ اللّٰهُ بِهٰذَا مَثَلًا يُضِلُّ بِهٖ كَثِيْرًا وَّ يَهْدِيْ بِهٖ كَثِيْرًا ؕ وَ مَا يُضِلُّ بِهٖٓ اِلَّا الْفٰسِقِيْنَ۔ الَّذِيْنَ يَنْقُضُوْنَ عَهْدَ اللّٰهِ مِنْ٘ بَعْدِ مِيْثَاقِهٖ وَ يَقْطَعُوْنَ مَآ اَمَرَ اللّٰهُ بِهٖٓ اَنْ يُّوْصَلَ وَ يُفْسِدُوْنَ فِي الْاَرْضِ ؕ اُولٰٓىِٕكَ هُمُ الْخٰسِرُوْنَ۔ كَيْفَ تَكْفُرُوْنَ بِاللّٰهِ وَ كُنْتُمْ اَمْوَاتًا فَاَحْيَاكُمْ ثُمَّ يُمِيْتُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُحْيِيْكُمْ ثُمَّ اِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُوْنَ۔ هُوَ الَّذِيْ خَلَقَ لَكُمْ مَّا فِي الْاَرْضِ جَمِيْعًا ثُمَّ اسْتَوٰٓى اِلَى السَّمَآءِ فَسَوّٰىهُنَّ سَبْعَ سَمٰوٰتٍ ؕ وَ هُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيْمٌ۔ 

O humankind, worship your Lord Who created you as well as those before you, so that you may do your duty! [He is] the One Who has made the earth a carpet for you and had the sky built above you, and sent water to pour down from the sky and brought forth fruit by means of it as sustenance for you. Do not set up rivals for God while you know [better]. 

If you (all) are in any doubt about what We have sent down to Our servant [Muhammad], then bring a chapter like it and call in your witnesses besides God if you are so truthful. If you do not—and you will never do so—then heed the Fire which has been prepared for disbelievers whose fuel is mankind and stones!

Proclaim to those who believe and perform honorable deeds that they will have gardens through which rivers flow. Each time they are provided with fruits from it for their sustenance, they will say: “This is what we were provided with before!” They will be given similar things and have clean-living pure spouses there. They will live in it for ever!

God does not hesitate to compare things to a mosquito nor to anything bigger than it. Those who believe realize that it is the Truth from their Lord, while those who disbelieve say: “What does God want in such a comparison?” He lets so many go astray through it, and guides many by means of it. Yet only immoral persons are led astray by it!

Those who break God's covenant after they have pledged to keep it, and sever whatever God has ordered to be joined, and act depraved on earth, will be the losers!

How can you disbelieve in God when you once were dead and He furnished you with life? Soon He will let you die once more, then bring you back to life again; then unto Him will you return!

He is the One Who has created everything that is on earth for you; then He soared up to Heaven and perfected it as seven heavens. He is Aware of everything!

Though the Koran invites all human beings to its message, to benefit or not to benefit from it depends on whether the people are really willing and inclined to benefit from it and on God’s grace accordingly. Therefore, in the preceding verses distinction has been made between the people to show as to which of them can benefit from the guidance of this Book and which cannot. Now, the actual message for which the Koran was revealed is presented before all mankind but it’s up to us to save ourselves from errors of judgement and action in the world and from the punishment of God in the Hereafter.

“When you yourselves admit and acknowledge that all this has been done only by God, then you should serve and worship Him alone.” “To set up others to equal in rank with God” means to hold others besides God as worthy of some kind of service and worship. As will be explained by the Koran, there are certain kinds of worship which should exclusively be performed for the sake of God; associating others with these is the shirk (polytheism) for the eradication of which the Koran was sent down.

“If you be in doubt whether the Book We have sent down to Our Servant is from Us (God) or not, then produce, at least, one Chapter like it.” This challenge had been given several times in the Koran at Mecca. It was meant to convince the opponents that the Koran is Divine Word and could not be produced by human mind. Here, it was reiterated at Medina. (See Yunus 10:38-39, Hud 11:13-14, Bani Israel 17:88, Tur 

52:33-34).

God alone has created man and all that is in the heavens and on earth. He has invested the world with profound significance and He constantly looks after its needs. The proper course for a man is to take God as his Creator, Master and Sustainer, and not attempt to set up anyone as a partner with Him; that is, a man should give himself up entirely to God. But since He is invisible, it often happens that man gives importance to some visible object and worships that instead of God. He equates the created with the Creator—sometimes just a part of it and sometimes creation in its entirety, at times calling it by the name of God and at times doing so without taking God’s name.

Therein lies man’s basic error. The prophets taught man to glorify God alone, and forsake the other things that he had elevated to a position of glory. People whose hearts are attached to objects other than God consider the call of true religion repugnant. They have become so greatly attached to their supposed ‘deities’ that they cannot believe that they are unreal. They cannot believe that the truth is what is proclaimed by a mortal just like themselves.

“Fire which has been prepared for the disbelievers and which shall have men and stones for fuel

The call of truth is indisputably marked with a divine radiance. Its inimitable style and its irrefutable reasoning go to show that it is a message from God. Those who deny it, irrespective of this, shall find no refuge in God’s universe. Those who find God in the word of God are already given a glimpse of the next world. They are the ones who shall be admitted into the gardens of Paradise.

Man’s first duty to God is to be true to the covenant made between the Creator and His creatures at the beginning of the world, namely, that man should remain God’s servant. Then, his conduct towards his fellow men should be such that all the ties that God has enjoined man to keep may be consolidated. Thirdly, man should not turn people away from following the divine call raised by one of God’s servants by inventing groundless arguments against it. The message of truth seeks to harmonize man with his own nature: those who prevent others from receiving it are guilty of spreading corruption in the land.

God has created man from nothing. This is a favor great enough to make man completely surrender himself to God. But God has not just created man and left it at that: He has given him an earth made to suit his needs perfectly. But there is more to the matter than merely this. Immediately after his demise, he will be brought before the Lord of the Universe to be judged. This state of affairs demands that he devote himself entirely to God; that he remember and obey God throughout his life, forever remaining His humble servant.

When the divine message is so clear and reasonable, why do people not accept it? The chief cause is unwillingness to learn. This manifests itself in various ways: deliberate denigration of God’s message, attempts to belittle it by finding flaws in it, or misrepresenting it as irrational or concerned with mere trivialities. One who is not willing to learn from sound advice does not think seriously about it. When some argument is presented to him, he looks at it superficially and sets about finding some shortcomings in it. But those who are willing to learn take the trouble to give those arguments serious thought and they do not take long to realize that they are faced with the truth. It does not make any difference to them that the truth has been explained in parables of mere gnats, and other equally insignificant creatures.