Chapter 2: Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow), verses 91-96


Translation:

When it is said to them: ‘Believe in what God has revealed,’ they reply: ‘We believe in what was revealed to us.’ But they deny what has since been revealed, although it is the truth, corroborating their own Scriptures. Say: ‘Why did you kill the prophets of God, if you are true believers? Moses came to you with clear signs, but in his absence you worshipped the calf and committed evil.’ When We made a covenant with you and raised the Mount above you (saying): ‘Hold firmly to what We have given you and hear (Our Commandments),’ they replied: ‘We hear, but disobey.’ For their unbelief, they were made to imbibe (the love of) the calf into their very hearts. Say: ‘Evil is that to which your faith prompts you if you are indeed believers.’ Say: ‘If the abode of the Hereafter with God is for you alone, to the exclusion of all others, then invoke death if you are sincere.’ But they will never invoke death, because of what they did; for God knows the evil-doers. Indeed, you will find that they love this life more than other men: more than the pagans do. Every one of them wishes to live a thousand years. But this prolonged life will surely not save them from (due) punishment. God is watching over their actions.

Tafsir (Commentary):

The Jews were not ready to accept the Qur’an because they thought they were already rightly guided. They were sure that the very fact that they were Israelites would be enough to earn them salvation. But, in fact, this was more a feeling of ethnic superiority on their part than an affinity for truth: the Jews had been recipients of divine scriptures in the past, so they felt that they, and only they, were custodians of truth. If they had really been on the path of truth, they would have rushed to accept the pure, untainted version of it revealed in the Qur’an, especially since it confirmed the prophecies in their own scriptures; they would have realized that once the Qur’an had been revealed, its teachings should be followed rather than those which had been handed down to them by their forefathers.

The fact that the Jews were not really concerned with truth is proved by their own history. It was they who had slain their own prophets, such as Zakaria and John the Baptist, the only reason for their action being that these prophets had criticized the Jews’ mode of living, and sought to bring them back to the divine way (Nehemiah, 9:26). They had seen Moses perform undeniable miracles, but when he left them to spend forty days on Mount Sinai, they started worshipping the calf; it had only been his personal authority which had kept them in line. When the Mount was raised threateningly above their heads, they temporarily agreed to do “all that the Lord hath spoken” (Exodus, 19:5, 8, 16, 18), but, after that, most of them returned to their disobedient ways. If they had really been seeking God, their attention would have been entirely focused on the life after death; but, in fact, they, more than all others, were attracted to the life of this world.