2
اَلْبَقَرَۃِ
The Cow

 يٰبَنِيْٓ اِسْرَآءِيْلَ اذْكُرُوْا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِيْٓ اَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَ اَوْفُوْا بِعَهْدِيْٓ اُوْفِ بِعَهْدِكُمْ وَ اِيَّايَ فَارْهَبُوْنِ۔ وَ اٰمِنُوْا بِمَآ اَنْزَلْتُ مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا مَعَكُمْ وَ لَا تَكُوْنُوْٓا اَوَّلَ كَافِرٍ٘ بِهٖ وَ لَا تَشْتَرُوْا بِاٰيٰتِيْ ثَمَنًا قَلِيْلًا وَ اِيَّايَ فَاتَّقُوْنِ۔ وَ لَا تَلْبِسُوا الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَ تَكْتُمُوا الْحَقَّ وَ اَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُوْنَ۔ وَ اَقِيْمُوا الصَّلٰوةَ وَ اٰتُوا الزَّكٰوةَ وَ ارْكَعُوْا مَعَ الرّٰكِعِيْنَ۔ اَتَاْمُرُوْنَ النَّاسَ بِالْبِرِّ وَ تَنْسَوْنَ اَنْفُسَكُمْ وَ اَنْتُمْ تَتْلُوْنَ الْكِتٰبَ ؕ اَفَلَا تَعْقِلُوْنَ۔ وَ اسْتَعِيْنُوْا بِالصَّبْرِ وَ الصَّلٰوةِ ؕ وَ اِنَّهَا لَكَبِيْرَةٌ اِلَّا عَلَى الْخٰشِعِيْنَ۔ الَّذِيْنَ يَظُنُّوْنَ اَنَّهُمْ مُّلٰقُوْا رَبِّهِمْ وَ اَنَّهُمْ اِلَيْهِ رٰجِعُوْنَ۔

O Children of Israel, remember My favor which I have shown you, and fulfil My agreement! I shall fulfil your covenant. I am the One you should revere! Believe in what I have sent down to confirm what you already have, and do not be the first to disbelieve in it. Do not sell My signs for paltry price. I am the One you should heed! Do not cloak Truth with falsehood nor hide the Truth while you realize it. 

Keep up prayer, pay the welfare tax [charity], and worship along with those who bow their heads. Are you ordering people to be virtuous while forgetting it yourselves, even as you recite the Book? Will you not use you reason? 

Seek help through patience and prayer, since it is exacting except for the submissive who assume they will meet their Lord, and that they will return to Him. 

The greatest favor that God bestows upon a people is to send His prophet to them, thus opening for them the road to eternal salvation. Prior to the times of the Prophet Muhammad—the last of the prophets—this favor was the privilege of the Children of Israel. However, soon their religion ceased to be something that they accepted as a matter of conscious decision, and they let it deteriorate into a set of lifeless rituals passed on from one generation to the next. With the coming of the Prophet Muhammad the reality came to light. Those whose sensitivity to truth was still alive recognized the veracity of his prophethood and followed him. But those for whom religion had become a hereditary tradition found his message unfamiliar and failed to recognize the truth when they heard it; they rejected it and turned against the Prophet.

In view of the clear prophecies in the Torah of the coming of an Arab Prophet, it would not have been difficult for the Israelites to recognize the truth of his prophethood and believe in him; but to believe in him was not in their worldly interests. Over hundreds of years an ecclesiastical structure had developed, in which the Israelites had held pride of place. Being the successors of saints and prophets, they were looked up to for spiritual leadership. People also paid tribute and presented offerings to them all the year round. It appeared to them that if they accepted the Arab Prophet, their privileged religious position would come to an end and their whole profit structure would be demolished.

As the Israelites were considered representatives of revealed religion in the Arab world, people used to ask them about the Arab Prophet. Pretending innocence, they would put forward such points as would turn people away from the Prophet and his mission. They used to preach to people, exhorting them to follow the truth and live their lives according to it; in practice, however, they failed to accept the truth when their turn came to do so.

When a positive response to the call of God means relinquishing positions of high honor and prestige, then those who have gained religious rank through worldly elevation find it extremely difficult to follow this course. For the truly devout, however, these considerations are not a hindrance. The fulfillment that others find in worldly pleasures, true believers find in remembering God, in spending for His cause, in obeying His commandments and being steadfast in treading His path. They know full well that it is God’s punishment that is to be feared, not worldly loss.