Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2 : 260
Translations
Pickthall
Yusuf Ali
Qur'an Dictionary
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| (2:260:1) wa-idh And when |
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| (2:260:2) qāla said |
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| (2:260:3) ib'rāhīmu Ibrahim |
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| (2:260:4) rabbi My Lord |
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| (2:260:5) arinī show me |
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| (2:260:6) kayfa how |
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| (2:260:7) tuḥ'yī You give life |
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| (2:260:8) l-mawtā (to) the dead |
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| (2:260:9) qāla He said |
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| (2:260:11) tu'min you believed |
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| (2:260:12) qāla He said |
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| (2:260:15) liyaṭma-inna to satisfy |
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| (2:260:16) qalbī my heart |
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| (2:260:17) qāla He said |
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| (2:260:18) fakhudh Then take |
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| (2:260:19) arbaʿatan four |
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| (2:260:21) l-ṭayri the birds |
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| (2:260:22) faṣur'hunna and incline them |
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| (2:260:23) ilayka towards you |
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| (2:260:25) ij'ʿal put |
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| (2:260:27) kulli each |
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| (2:260:28) jabalin hill |
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| (2:260:30) juz'an a portion |
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| (2:260:32) ud'ʿuhunna call them |
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| (2:260:33) yatīnaka they will come to you |
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| (2:260:34) saʿyan (in) haste |
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| (2:260:35) wa-iʿ'lam And know |
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| (2:260:37) l-laha Allah |
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| (2:260:38) ʿazīzun (is) All-Mighty |
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| (2:260:39) ḥakīmun All-Wise |
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Explanatory Note
Then follows another episode, involving the Prophet Abraham and the phenomena of life and death. It is the usual tale of curiosity about the great mystery of life and creation. When this curiosity is expressed by a devoted and pious person like the Prophet Abraham, it proves that there are times when even the most favoured and believing of God’s servants experience a passionate urge and ambition to discover the secrets of creation.
Here curiosity is not motivated by lack of conviction or the demand for proof to confirm one’s faith, but has a different flavour, excited by a spiritual yearning to see and share one of God’s most fascinating secrets. This privilege, even for someone like Abraham, has a unique honour and a flavour of its own, different even to that of faith itself. It is a natural and spontaneous desire to know and learn how the divine will operates, not in order to believe or obtain proof, but to experience total peace and gain reassurance.
Abraham’s experience and the short dialogue which accompanied it reveal several perceptions of faith which the human heart, if it so desires, can experience and enjoy.
Abraham was seeking the reassurance of seeing God’s hand at work and the satisfaction of seeing a hidden mystery unfold before him. God was aware that Abraham was a devout believer and that his inquisitiveness had arisen out of the quest for knowledge. The episode also serves to inform and educate and reveal God’s compassion and benevolence towards a faithful and curious servant.
God responds favourably to Abraham’s request and exposes him to a direct personal experience to satisfy his curiosity, giving him the following instructions: “Take four birds and draw them close to you, then [having cut them into pieces] place a part of them on each mountain. Then call them back and they will come to you in haste. Know that God is Almighty, Wise.”
The instructions meant that Abraham should choose four birds and make sure of having them close to him so that he would be able to know every little detail of their appearance so that he could unmistakeably identify them at any time. He would then have to kill them and cut them into pieces before placing different parts of their bodies on the surrounding mountains. He would then call them to come over to him, and their parts will join again, life is breathed into them and they could speedily come to him. All this took place in reality.
Thus Abraham was able to witness the secret of breathing life into the dead unfolding before his own eyes. It is the secret that occurs all the time, but people only see its effects after its process has been completed. It is the greatest mystery of life, which was created in the first instance by God out of nothing, and which renews itself an infinite number of times in every new living thing. Abraham saw with his own eyes the birds he killed and placed portions of their bodies far apart, returned to life and moving in full vigour.
How could all this take place? It is the one mystery that continues to elude human perception. Even if one was to undergo Abraham’s experience and witness the actual act of creation, one would not comprehend its reality or how it is accomplished. It is the prerogative of God Almighty, of whose perfect and absolute knowledge man can acquire nothing, except by His will. It is God’s will that this sphere should remain beyond the bounds of human knowledge, possibly because it is beyond man’s comprehension and is not required for the fulfilment of man’s mission on earth.
Until God allows the curtain to be raised on this issue, man’s aspiration to grasp the coveted secret of life shall remain unfulfilled. If, however, he were to persist in his defiance of God’s authority and continue to trespass in regions that are the exclusive domain of the Divine, his efforts would forever be in vain and yield nothing.
- Ibn Kathir writes, "Therefore, Ibrahim caught four birds, slaughtered them, removed the feathers, tore the birds to pieces and mixed the pieces together. He then placed parts of these mixed pieces on four or seven hills. Ibn `Abbas said, "Ibrahim kept the heads of these birds in his hand. Next, Allah commanded Ibrahim to call the birds to him, and he did as Allah commanded him. Ibrahim witnessed the feathers, blood and flesh of these birds fly to each other, and the parts flew each to their bodies, until every bird came back to life and came walking at a fast pace towards Ibrahim, so that the example that Ibrahim was witnessing would become more impressive. Each bird came to collect its head from Ibrahim's hand, and if he gave the bird another head the bird refused to accept it. When Ibrahim gave each bird its own head, the head was placed on its body by Allah's leave and power. ''
- ذَكَرُوا لِسُؤَالِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ، أَسْبَابًا، مِنْهَا: أَنَّهُ لَمَّا قَالَ لِنُمْرُوذَ: ﴿رَبِّيَ الَّذِي يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ﴾ أَحَبَّ أَنْ يَتَرَقَّى مِنْ عِلْمِ الْيَقِينِ فِي ذَلِكَ إِلَى عَيْنِ الْيَقِينِ، وَأَنْ يَرَى ذَلِكَ مُشَاهِدَةً فَقَالَ: ﴿رَبِّ أَرِنِي كَيْفَ تُحْيِ الْمَوْتَى قَالَ أَوَلَمْ تُؤْمِنْ قَالَ بَلَى وَلَكِنْ لِيَطْمَئِنَّ قَلْبِي [Ibn Kathir - Be the first to translate this....]
- Allah Almighty has used 'birds' to demonstrate and explain lessons on life and death also in the story of Prophet Isa bin Maryam [Jesus]. In Surah Ale-Imran, "'Indeed I have come to you with a sign from your Lord in that I design for you from clay [that which is] like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird by permission of Allah" (3:49). Also in the story of the son of Adam who killed his brother, a bird was used to teach him a lesson. Allah says, "Then Allah sent a crow searching in the ground to show him how to hide the disgrace of his brother. He said, "O woe to me! Have I failed to be like this crow and hide the body of my brother?" And he became of the regretful." (5:35)
- The theme of Life and Death is key to this portion of the Surah. In (2:243), we have the mention of thousands fleeing death, followed by the story of Talut and Jalut and those how refused to fight with Talut when they saw the numbers in the army of Jalut. Allah mentions He is 'al-Hayy' 'The Living' in (2:255). Then we have the stories of Ibrahim and the king who thought he is in control of life and death, then the prophet who questioned how a town will come back to life after being desemated, to the the story of Ibrahim [mentioned in this Ayat]. There are some amongst the scholars who understand these Ayat to be revealed pre-battle of Badr and which serve as teaching the Muslims that in Jihad, life and death is in His control and the need to have Yaqin in the Akhirah.
Further reflections needed
- Ibrahim was told to gather 4 birds. Why the number of birds being four as opposed to 3 or 2. [the wisdom of this number]
- الطَّيْرِ - The triliteral root ṭā yā rā (ط ي ر) occurs 29 times in the Qur'an.
3. Surah Overview
The scholars are unanimous that Surah al-Baqarah is Madani and that it was the first Surah revealed in Madinah. [Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in Fath al-Bari no. 160/8].
Despite it being the first Surah to be revealed in Madinah, it contains Ayaat from a later period also. In fact, according to Ibn Abbas [as mentioned in Ibn Kathir] the last Ayat revealed to the Prophet was Ayat no. 281 from Surah al-Baqarah and this occurred 8 days or so before his death [which corresponds to the year 11 Hijri].
In order to understand the meaning of this Surah, we should know its historical background:
1. At Makkah, the Quran generally addressed the polytheist Quraysh who were ignorant of Islam, but at Madinah it was also concerned with the Jews who were acquainted with the creed of Monotheism, Prophethood, Revelation, the Hereafter and Angels. They also professed to believe in the law which was revealed by God to their Prophet Moses, and in principle, their way was the same (Islam) that was being taught by Prophet Muhammad. But they had strayed away from it during the centuries of degeneration and had adopted many un-Islamic creeds, rites and customs of which there was no mention and for which there was no sanction in the Torah. Not only this: they had tampered with the Torah by inserting their own explanations and interpretations into its text. They had distorted even that part of the Word of God which had remained intact in their Scriptures and taken out of it the real spirit of true religion and were now clinging to a lifeless frame of rituals. Consequently their beliefs, their morals and their conduct had gone to the lowest depths of degeneration. The pity is that they were not only satisfied with their condition but loved to cling to it. Besides this, they had no intention or inclination to accept any kind of reform. So they became bitter enemies of those who came to teach them the Right Way and did their utmost to defeat every such effort. Though they were originally Muslims, they had swerved from the real Islam and made innovations and alterations in it and had fallen victims to hair splitting and sectarianism. They had forgotten and forsaken God and begun to serve material wealth. So much so that they had even given up their original name “Muslim” and adopted the name “Jew” instead, and made religion the sole monopoly of the children of Israel. This was their religious condition when the Prophet went to Madinah and invited the Jews to the true religion. That is why more than one third of this Surah has been addressed to the children of Israel. A critical review of their history, their moral degeneration and their religious perversions has been made. Side by side with this, the high standard of morality and the fundamental principles of the pure religion have been put forward in order to bring out clearly the nature of the degeneration of the community of a prophet when it goes astray and to draw clear lines of demarcation between real piety and formalism, and the essentials and non-essentials of the true religion.
2. At Makkah, Islam was mainly concerned with the propagation of its fundamental principles and the moral training of its followers. But after the migration of the Prophet to Madinah, where Muslims had come to settle from all over Arabia and where a tiny Islamic State had been set up with the help of the ‘local supporters’ (Ansar), naturally the Quran had to turn its attention to the social, cultural, economic, political and legal problems as well. This accounts for the difference between the themes of the Surahs revealed at Makkah and those at Madinah. Accordingly about half of this Surah deals with those principles and regulations which are essential for the integration and solidarity of a community and for the solution of its problems.
After the migration to Madinah, the struggle between Islam and disbelief (Kufr) had also entered a new phase. Before this the Believers, who propagated Islam among their own clans and tribes, had to face its opponents at their own risk. But the conditions had changed at Madinah, where Muslims from all parts of Arabia had come and settled as one community, and had established an independent city state. Here it became a struggle for the survival of the Community itself, for the whole of non-Muslim Arabia was bent upon and united in crushing it totally. Hence the following instructions, upon which depended not only its success but its very survival, were revealed in this Surah:
a. The Community should work with the utmost zeal to propagate its ideology and win over to its side the greatest possible number of people.
b. It should so expose its opponents as to leave no room for doubt in the mind of any sensible person that they were adhering to an absolutely wrong position.
c. It should infuse in its members (the majority of whom were homeless and indigent and surrounded on all sides by enemies) that courage and fortitude which is so indispensable to their very existence in the adverse circumstances in which they were struggling and to prepare them to face these boldly.
d. It should also keep them ready and prepared to meet any armed menace, which might come from any side to suppress and crush their ideology, and to oppose it tooth and nail without minding the overwhelming numerical strength and the material resources of its enemies.
e. It should also create in them that courage which is needed for the eradication of evil ways and for the establishment of the Islamic Way instead. That is why God has revealed in this Surah such instructions as may help achieve all the above mentioned objects.
At the time of the revelation of Al-Baqarah, all sorts of hypocrites had begun to appear. God has, therefore, briefly pointed out their characteristics here. Afterwards when their evil characteristics and mischievous deeds became manifest, God sent detailed instructions about them. [REF: Mawdudi]
- The Messenger of Allah said 'We are more liable to be in doubt than Ibrahim when he said, "My Lord! Show me how You give life to the dead.'' Allah said, "Don't you believe'' Ibrahim said, "Yes (I believe), but (I ask) in order to be stronger in faith.'' [Bukhari]
10. Wiki Forum
11. Tafsir Zone
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Overview (Verse 260) |
Ibn Kathir (English)
Sayyid Qutb
Sha'rawi
Al Jalalain
Mawdudi
الطبري - جامع البيان
ابن كثير - تفسير القرآن العظيم
القرطبي - الجامع لأحكام
البغوي - معالم التنزيل
ابن أبي حاتم الرازي - تفسير القرآن
ابن عاشور - التحرير والتنوير
ابن القيم - تفسير ابن قيّم
السيوطي - الدر المنثور
الشنقيطي - أضواء البيان
ابن الجوزي - زاد المسير
الآلوسي - روح المعاني
ابن عطية - المحرر الوجيز
الرازي - مفاتيح الغيب
أبو السعود - إرشاد العقل السليم
الزمخشري - الكشاف
البقاعي - نظم الدرر
الهداية إلى بلوغ النهاية — مكي ابن أبي طالب
القاسمي - محاسن التأويل
الماوردي - النكت والعيون
السعدي - تيسير الكريم الرحمن
عبد الرحمن الثعالبي - الجواهر الحسان
السمرقندي - بحر العلوم
أبو إسحاق الثعلبي - الكشف والبيان
الشوكاني - فتح القدير
النيسابوري - التفسير البسيط
أبو حيان - البحر المحيط
البيضاوي - أنوار التنزيل
النسفي - مدارك التنزيل
ابن جُزَيّ - التسهيل لعلوم التنزيل
علي الواحدي النيسابوري - الوجيز
السيوطي - تفسير الجلالين
المختصر في التفسير — مركز تفسير
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Overview (Verse 260) |
- Ultra Slow Motion Bird Flying https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSzpM8vEAFA
