The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

2. THE COW
This is a Medinan sura and the longest in the Quran, containing material
revealed over several years, and named after the story of the cow which the
Israelites were ordered to slaughter (verses 67 ff.). The sura opens with a
response to the plea for guidance in Sura 1, ‘The Opening’, dividing mankind
into three groups in their response to this guidance––the believers, the disbelievers,
and the hypocrites––and closes confirming the tenets of faith given in
the opening verses (3–5). The addressee shifts as the sura progresses: at various
times the text addresses mankind in general (verses 21 ff.), where they are urged
to serve God who has been so gracious to them (they are reminded that God
created Adam and favoured him over the angels), the Children of Israel
(verses 40 ff.), who are reminded of God’s special favours to them and urged to
believe in scriptures that do indeed confirm their own, and the believers (verses
136 ff.), who are given instruction in many areas––prayer, fasting, pilgrimage,
defence, marital law, and financial matters.
In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy
1 Alif Lam Mim a
2 This is the Scripture in which there is no doubt, b containing guidance
for those who are mindful c of God, 3 who believe in the unseen, d
a These are the names of the three Arabic letters a, l, and m. Twenty-nine suras of
the Quran begin with separate alphabetical letters like these, from one individual letter
up to five. Various interpretations have been offered. It is sufficient to mention two here:
(1) these letters indicated to the Arabs who first heard the Quran that the Quran
consists of letters and words of their own language, although it was superior to any
speech of their own, being of divine origin; (2) they are an exclamatory device intended
to arrest the listeners’ attention, similar to the custom of starting poems with an
emphatic ‘No!’ or ‘Indeed!’ Exegetes normally added, after expounding their theories,
‘God knows best.’
b The Arabic construction la rayba fihi carries more than one meaning, including
‘there is nothing dubious about/in it’ and ‘it is not to be doubted’ as regards its origin or
contents.
c The root w–q–y in this morphological form has the meaning of being mindful or
being wary of something. The opposite of being mindful of God is to ignore Him or
have no reference to Him in your thought, feeling, or action. This is a fundamental
concept about God and the believers’ relation to Him. Many translators render the term
as ‘those who fear God’, but this is an over-expression of the term and does not
correctly convey the meaning of the concept, which is a very common one in the Quran.
d What is beyond their perception, literally ‘absent’–this applies to the nature of
God, the Hereafter, historical information not witnessed, etc.