(71) He said: “He says: “It is a cow neither humbled by tilling the earth, nor by watering plants; unblemished, and its colour is untainted””. They said: “Now you have come with the Truth!” They slaughtered it—barely did they do so.
(72) ˹Remember˺ When you killed a soul and disputed over it[108]. Allah reveals what you were bent on hiding.
[108] This aya concludes the episode of the cow and the debate surrounding it. Commentators agree that the details given here provide a foregrounding of how Moses’ people argued with him in what had been Divinely ordained. al-Biqāʿī is of the opinion that the episode is divided into two sections by way of drawing attention to two separate favours. Firstly, the favour of forgiveness for being reluctant to obey what is Divinely ordained. Secondly, the favour of revealing the killer by way of a miracle. On the other hand, al-Biqāʿī also sees that attention is being drawn to the fact that there is an issue of admonishment here. Firstly, they are being admonished for not being polite enough with their Prophet by accusing him of ‘deriding’ them, and not being observant enough of God’s commands. Secondly, they are being reproached for killing an inviolable, sacrosanct soul, and the evil such an act incurs. al-Biqāʿī then concludes that this instance of foregrounding is, consequently, more relevant to the preceding and numerous violations. Thereby, the theme of reproach is still being continued here.
(73) We said: “Strike him ˹the victim˺ with a piece of it ˹the cow˺[109]”. It is in this manner that Allah brings to life the dead and shows you His Signs so that you might think[110].
[109] It is reported that having been hit with a piece of the cow, the victim came back to life and pointed his killer out. (al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī) [110] In this way, they were invited to think over their actions and to be more heedful, obeying God more willingly. (al-Ṭabarī, Saʿdī)
(74) ˹Yet˺ After that your hearts became akin to rocks or ˹even˺ harder; truly among rocks some from which rivers gush forth, some crack and water seeps through, and some come tumbling down in fear of Allah—Allah is not heedless of what you do.
(75) Do you ˹Believers˺ then hope that they will Believe in you[111], when a party of them used to hear the words of Allah[112] and distort them even after they had fully comprehended them and fully realizing what they were doing?
[111] That is to listen to you and Believe in what you call them to (al-Ṭabarī). This is the reason behind recounting, in detail, the Israelites’ numerous violations in the previous ayas. The residents of Madinah, who made up the majority of the Believing community at the time, had lived alongside the Jews for a very long time and came to regard them as their moral superiors, having the Book and the knowledge that they lacked. These views were also shared further afield by other illiterate Arab pagans, who only had a most rudimentary knowledge of the religion of Abraham (عليه السلام). The Israelites were so imprinted in the Arab psyche that nothing but telling their truth in great detail would actually make the Believers fully comprehend the actual reality. It is, in a way, establishing Faith on a clean slate (but not exactly from scratch as we will be told shortly of the relatedness of Islam to the Abrahamic creed), and correcting collective societal misconceptions. [112] The Torah. (al-Wāḥidī, al-Wajīz; Ibn ʿAṭiyyah, Ibn Kathīr)
(76) When they meet up with the Believers, they say: “We Believe!”, but when they are alone with each other, they say: “Do you tell them what Allah has blessed you with the knowledge of which[113] so that they might use it in argument against you before your Lord; have you no sense?
[113] That their Book tells of the advent of a Messenger who is described in much detail (cf. 2:89). (al-Ṭabarī, Ibn ʿAṭiyyah)
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API specs
Endpoints:
Sura translation
GET / https://quranenc.com/api/v1/translation/sura/{translation_key}/{sura_number} description: get the specified translation (by its translation_key) for the speicified sura (by its number)
Parameters: translation_key: (the key of the currently selected translation) sura_number: [1-114] (Sura number in the mosshaf which should be between 1 and 114)
Returns:
json object containing array of objects, each object contains the "sura", "aya", "translation" and "footnotes".
GET / https://quranenc.com/api/v1/translation/aya/{translation_key}/{sura_number}/{aya_number} description: get the specified translation (by its translation_key) for the speicified aya (by its number sura_number and aya_number)
Parameters: translation_key: (the key of the currently selected translation) sura_number: [1-114] (Sura number in the mosshaf which should be between 1 and 114) aya_number: [1-...] (Aya number in the sura)
Returns:
json object containing the "sura", "aya", "translation" and "footnotes".