Introduction to Surat-Al Baqarah(The Cow)

[Dr. Jawad]

Introduction to Sura 2 [Surat Al- Baqarah---The Cow]

As the Opening Sura sums up in seven beautiful verses the essence of the Quran, so this Sura sums up in 286 verses the whole teaching of the Quran. It is a closely reasoned argument.

Summary:
It begins(verses 1-29) with mystic doctrine as to the three kinds of men and how they receive God’s message.

This leads to the story of the creation of man, the high destiny intended for him, his fall, and the hope, held out to him.(verses 30-39)

Israel’s story is then told according to their own records and traditions----what privileges they received and how they abused them (verses 40-86), thus illustrating again as a parable the general story of man.

In particular, reference is made to Moses and Jesus and their struggles with an unruly people: how the people of the Book played false with their own lights and in their pride rejected Muhammad, who came in the true line of apostolic succession(verses 87-121).

They falsely laid claim to the virtues of Father Abraham: he was indeed a righteous Imam, but he was the progenitor of Ismail’s line(Arabs) as well as of Israel’s line, and he with Ismail built the Kaaba (Temple of Mecca) and purified it, thus establishing a common religion, of which Islam is the universal exponent(verses 122-141).

The Kaaba was now to be the centre of universal worship and the symbol of Islamic unity(verses 142-167).

The Islamic Ummat(brotherhood) having thus been established with its definite centre and symbol, ordinances are laid down for the social life of the community, but in faith, kindness, prayer, charity, probity, and patience under suffering. The ordinances related to food and drink, bequests, fasts, jihad, wine, and gambling, treatment of orphans and women,etc.(verses168-242).

Lest the subject of jihad should be misunderstood, it is taken up again in the story of Saul, Goliath and David, in contrast to the story of Jesus(verses 243-253).

And so the lesson is enforced that true virtue lies in practical deeds of manliness, kindness, and good faith(verses 254-283), and God’s nature is called to mind in the sublime of Ayat-ul-Kursi, the Verse of the Throne(verse 255).

The Sura ends with an exhortation to Faith, Obedience, a sense of Personal Responsibility, and Prayer(verses 284-286).

This is the longest Sura of the Quran, and in it occurs the longest verse(verse 282). The name of the Sura is from the Parable of the Heifer in verses 67-71, which illustrates the insufficiency of carping obedience. When faith is lost, people put off obedience with various excuses: even when at last they obey in the letter, they fail in the spirit, which means that they get fossilized, and their self-sufficiency prevents them from seeing that spiritually they are not alive but dead. For life is movement, activity, striving, fighting against baser things. And this is the burden of the Sura.

Translation and commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali

P.S. InshaALLAH, as Brother Muhammad suggested we will keep one thread for Sura Al-Baqarah as it will be more organized.