The Heifer (Al-Baqarah) البقرة 168–171
168
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُواْ مِمَّا فِي الأَرْضِ حَلاَلاً طَيِّباً وَلاَ تَتَّبِعُواْ خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ
O mankind, eat whatever is lawful and wholesome on the earth; and do not follow in the footsteps of Satan; for he is indeed your avowed enemy.
169
إِنَّمَا يَأْمُرُكُمْ بِالسُّوءِ وَالْفَحْشَاء وَأَن تَقُولُواْ عَلَى اللّهِ مَا لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ
He bids you only to do evil and to commit deeds of abomination and to attribute to God something of which you have no knowledge.
170
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ اتَّبِعُوا مَا أَنزَلَ اللّهُ قَالُواْ بَلْ نَتَّبِعُ مَا أَلْفَيْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءنَا أَوَلَوْ كَانَ آبَاؤُهُمْ لاَ يَعْقِلُونَ شَيْئاً وَلاَ يَهْتَدُونَ
But when they are told, ‘Follow what God has sent down,’ they answer, ‘We will follow the ways of our fathers,’ even though their fathers did not use their reason, and were devoid of all guidance.
171
وَمَثَلُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي يَنْعِقُ بِمَا لاَ يَسْمَعُ إِلاَّ دُعَاء وَنِدَاء صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لاَ يَعْقِلُونَ
Those who deny the truth are like animals which hear nothing in your call but the sound of a voice, without understanding its meaning. They are deaf, dumb and blind. They understand nothing.
No class discussions published for this verse group yet.
(a) What is polytheism? It is the worship of something other than God in order to satisfy one’s feelings of devotion and veneration. God is the greatest and most essential need of man. The urge to worship God is so integral to human nature that no one can live without Him. Man’s going astray does not mean that he abandons God altogether. What actually happens is that the real God is replaced by a false god. That is why the Islamic law holds unlawful all those things which, in any degree, lead to deviation, i.e. diverting man’s natural desire for God in some other direction. The polytheists set certain animals free in the name of their deities. These animals are not used for food or service. This is akin to according divinity to an object; a divinity which is a prerogative of none save God. It is akin to diluting man’s natural feelings of reverence and devotions meant only for God, and which should be exclusively reserved for God alone. Satan encourages human beings to channelise their feelings of awe and reverence on to different paths in order that their attachment to God may be weakened. (a) Once an object, which is not God, is accepted as God as a result of man’s superstitious attitude, many other accompanying evils ensue. An animal may come to be regarded as possessing supernatural powers—something possessed only by God. That animal is then held to be a means of achieving proximity to God and is expected to be a source of blessings. In the next generation all these superstitious beliefs become firmly rooted in the human psyche and are upheld with great zeal and fervour as the sacred way of the forefathers. At this stage, people become resistant to any rational analysis of these superstitious beliefs. The situation deteriorates further with succeeding generations. People reach a level where they are totally unable to hear or understand any argument put forward to them. They act as if they have neither eyes nor ears to see and hear, nor brains to give thought to any argument presented to them.