SURAH BAQARAH THE COW VERSES 40-60 Now the next 84 verses are a discourse upon Bani Israel

We need to understand before we start reading those verses, why has Allah swt mentioned bani Israel, why has he mentioned the jews over here? The jews were the chosen ummah before the Muslims. Allah tells us a tale of their broken covenant. Its a tale of treachery, disobedience and ingratitude. Why does Allah tell us how they violated their pact with Allah is it because the Qur an is an anti Semitic discourse, its anti jews? No. Allah swt is holding up a case study. In a case study you analyse what went wrong. In the same way, since the jews were our predecessors, Allah is warning us, this is where they went wrong. This is why this honour was taken away from them, So O Muslims analyse yourselves. So when we read these verses we shouldn t be thinking O these sinful Jews, we should be applying it to ourselves and thinking does the Muslim ummah possess these faults today and if the Muslim ummah does possess these shortcomings then we know what to expect. O Children of Israel, remember my favour which I bestowed upon you and fulfil my covenant so that I fulfil your covenant and fear none but me. Muslims nowadays lament Why doesn t Allah help us, why are the Muslims downtrodden? . Its simple. Allah is saying when you fulfil your covenant then will I fulfil my covenant and Allah s help comes only to those who are obeying Allah. And believe what I have sent down, confirming that which is with you and be not the first to disbelieve therein and buy not with my verses a small price and fear me and me alone. And mix not truth with falsehood nor conceal the truth while you know the true. And perform salat, and give zakat and bow down along with those who bow down Do you enjoin righteousness on people and you forget yourselves. When we preach the truth but we are not practicing it Allah dislikes this intensely. While you recite the book. Have you then no sense. And seek help in sabr and prayer. And truly prayer is extremely heavy, extremely difficult except for those who are humble. Those who know that they will meet their Lord and that o him they will return. Sabr and salat are the two most potent weapons, the most valuable weapons a mu min has been given in his quest. What are these sabr and salat. Sabr has three connotations; 1. That we persevere in good deeds we are constant in good deeds 2. We are constant in abstaining from evil 3. We are patient in times of difficulty Allah links sabr and salat together. Why? Because salat alone sustains sabr and only one who can read the five prayers regularly with the observance of all the rules therein. Allah says this is possible only for the humble ones who know that they are going to meet their Lord and that to him they will return

O children of Israel, remember my favour which i bestowed upon you in that i preferred you to the world and fear a day of judgment when a person shall not help another, nor will intercession be accepted from him, nor will compensation be taken from him, nor will they be helped. The four worldly props we rely on we get in trouble, we ring up our friends, we ring up people we know, people who have influence, we pull a few strings and will have forgiven our sins and we will be let off the hook. Allah says that day all these wordly props will fail you Fear a day when a person shall not be able to help another And remember when we delivered you from Pharoah s people who were afflicting you with a terrible torment killing your sons and sparing your women and therein was a mighty trial from your Lord. And remember when we separated the sea for you, and saved you and drowned Firaun s people while you were looking And remember when we appointed for Musa forty nights and you took the calf for worship and you were wrongdoers Then after that we forgave you so that you might be grateful Its a catalogue of the past sins of the Jews. And remember when we gave Musa the book and the criterion of right and wrong so that you could be guided aright. What happened was that whilst Prophet Musa had gone upto Mount Sinai to commune with Allah, the Jews built a calf out of gold and they started worshipping it. When Musa AS returned to his people he said to them O my people, indeed you have wronged yourselves by worshipping the calf, so turn in repentance to your creator and kill yourselves, that will be better for you with your creator. Then he accepted your repentance, truly he is the one who accepts repentance, the most merciful. And remember when you said O Musa, we shall never believe in you until we see Allah plainly but you were seized with a thunderbolt while you were looking. Then we raised you up after your death so that you might be grateful. About seventy Jews went with Musa AS and when they went there suddenly a fit of arrogance seized them and they said we will only believe in Allah if we see him. So Allah killed them all because of their insolence. But then Musa AS pleaded with Allah, that O Allah grant them life so they were raised up after their death so that the people could see for themselves and believe in resurrection. And we shaded you with clouds and sent down on you Manna and the quails saying eat of the good lawful things we have provided for you. And they did not wrong us, but they wronged themselves. This is the tragedy of man when he sins Allah is not affected, Allah does not care whether we sin or not, its his mercy upon us that he keeps reminding us not to sin. Allah says remember you alone suffer when you sin

And remember when we said enter this town and eat bountifully therein with pleasure and delight, wherever you wish and enter the gate in prostration and say forgive us and we shall forgive you your sins and shall increase reward for the goodoers. But those who did wrong changed the word from what had been told to them for another. So we sent upon the wrongdoers a punishment from the heaven because of their rebelling against Allah s And remember when Musa asked for water for his people, we said strike the stone with your stick then gushed therefrom twelve springs, for the twelve tribes of Israel, each group of people knew its own place for water.eat and drink of that which Allah has provided, and do not act corruptly, making mischief on the earth. This is the beautiful viewpoint of Islam. Allah says utilise the blessings which I have given you but stay within the boundaries of obedience