As salaam alaikum,
I know the reading was from verse 50-120 but I actually went back to 40 (as that is the beginning of a series of verses and passages talking to the children of Israel)
The translation I used was
Muhammad Asad
I used this recitation, the next passage of verses are found in the queue of videos at the right. Also for each verse I have quoted from Surah Baqara there is a timestamped link, the Chapter and Verses are the link, so that you can listen to the recitation of the verse as you read, if you wish. I did this because it is important to understand that the Qur'an is first and foremost an oral document (the name Qur'an itself means to recite). This was the means the Arabs of Mecca first heard the Prophet Muhammad preach and it Muslim belief that this speech is the unerrant word of Allah transmitted to Angiel Gabriel transmitted to the Prophet transmitted to the world. It was the leaders of the Quraysh who warned strangers to close their ears to the Qur'an labeling it as hypnotic and magical, something that overcomes the sense.
[youtube]Ykpg56_krgQ[/youtube]
The Qur'an | (Chapter 2: verses 40-66) Surah al-Baqarah - YouTube
Before the rest of my post I would just like to make a clear distinction. I will be using the term bani Israel and children of Israel numerous times. The phrase will carry two very different tones. This is because within Sura Baqara there are those who are admonished and those who are given glad tidings among bani Israel. This is not me cherry picking or ignoring verses some would call "unpleasant" rather it is the Qur'an, itself, providing the contextualization for its praise and condemnation. I did not search across the chapters and verses, these ayats were within our assigned reading.
The repudiation of Allah is addressed to the people of the following qualities: worshiping the golden calf in the absence of Moses, a descent into symbolic worship of material goods and polytheism (Asad Note 78) in Islam the former is also considered a form of shirk (polytheism) [2:51], proclaiming disbelief in Moses' message until they were granted sight of God [2:52], commanded, by God, to enter Israel in the spirit of humility (prostration) but instead were bent on evildoing [2:58-59], who went to Egypt in shame for they enjoyed the paltry comforts (herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, and onions) of captivity [2:61], who turned away from the pledge at Mount Sinai [2:64], who profaned the Shabbath to "be as apes" as a warning, 'for further detail of the Sabbath-breakers, and the metaphorical allusion to "apes" see 7:163-166' (Asad Note 52) [2:65], who made obstinate and obdurate demands when commanded to sacrifice a cow [2:67-71], whose hearts hardened and became like rocks or even harder [2:74], who rewrote the divine writ for their own trifling gain [2:79], who slay one another and drive one another from their homelands [2:85], and when the apostle of God would be sent some would be gloried in arrogance, and some would give the lie, and some would slay [2:87 and 2:91].
The above is an incomplete list. The distinction, within bani Israel, is stated clearly in the following verse
[url=http://youtu.be/9OLHhANVGtI?t=3m02s]Al-Qur'an 2:75[/url] said:
Can you, then, hope that they will believe in what you are preaching [60] - seeing that a good many of them were wont to listen to the word of God and then, after having understood it, to pervert it knowingly? [61]
Where a "good many" or party of them would listen to God's word and then pervert it with their grievances (some of which listed prior). Not "all of them" or even just "they".
Indeed the Qur'an also has this to say about the Jews and the Christians
[url=http://youtu.be/Ykpg56_krgQ?t=7m46s]Al-Qur'an 2:62[/url] said:
Verily, those who have attained to faith [in this divine writ], as well as those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Christians, and the Sabians [49] -all who believe in God and the Last Day and do righteous deeds-shall have their reward with their Sustainer; and no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve. [50]
As Allah is talking about bani Israel he has described two groups with two traits and two destinies that Allah states as shown by the ayats
[url=http://youtu.be/9OLHhANVGtI?t=5m01s]Al-Qur'an 2:80-82[/url] said:
...Say [unto them]: "Have you received a promise from God - for God never breaks His promise - or do you attribute to God something which you cannot know? Yea! Those who earn evil and by their sinfulness are engulfed - they are destined for the fire. therein to abide; whereas those who attain to faith and do righteous deeds -they are destined for paradise, therein to abide.
Carrying on with my own impressions then, the reading starts with an address to the children of Israel, but I want to ask. Is this
only a dialogue between Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and bani Israel? I do not think so, but rather it serves as a double meaning to the Muslims as well. A cautionary tale to the Muslims that, just as we have been blessed and empowered by Allah, so were the children of Israel and if some of them could fall awry of the straight path what prevents a Muslims from similarly being misguided from sirat al mustaqeem? For how many Muslims do we know could use this reminder and admonishment?
[url=http://youtu.be/Ykpg56_krgQ?t=1m15s]Al-Qur'an 2:44[/url] said:
Do you bid other people to be pious, the while you forget your own selves -and yet you recite the divine writ? Will you not, then, use your reason?
That they recite the Qur'an and profess its beliefs and yet do not follow the manners befitting that of a Muslim. This is the advice of the Qur'an to these people
[url=http://youtu.be/Ykpg56_krgQ?t=1m23s]Al-Qur'an 2:45-46[/url] said:
And seek aid in steadfast patience and prayer: and this, indeed, is a hard thing for all but the humble in spirit who know with certainty that they shall meet their Sustainer and that unto Him they shall return.
Seek
humility in your manner and innerself inshAllah
There is often confusion when Moses, alay as salaam, is telling his people to sacrifice the cow (verses 67-71). The importance and necessity of the cow as a sacrifice is clear in the following verse
[url=http://youtu.be/9OLHhANVGtI?t=1m51s]Al-Qur'an 2:72[/url] said:
For, O children of Israel, because you had slain a human being and then cast the blame for this [crime] upon one another -although God will bring to light what you would conceals [56]
The sacrifice is then a command to the collective community (implied by the "you had slain") to sacrifice a cow in the case of an unresolved murder. This is an Old Testament ordinance and examined in greater detail in 2:67 [Muhammad Asad Note 53]. But
the most relevant thing I find about this is when Allah states in verse 71 about this incident
[url=http://youtu.be/9OLHhANVGtI?t=1m43s]Al-Qur'an 2:71[/url] said:
...Said they: "At last thou hast brought out the truth!"-and thereupon they sacrificed her, although they had almost left it undone. [55]
This is, at times, overlooked I think in the day to day mentality of the Muslims. If you look at the further notes its importance in how we approach our religion becomes immediately relevant
Muhammad Asad Note 55 (Quran Ref: 2:71 ) said:
I.e., their obstinate desire to obtain closer and closer definitions of the simple commandment revealed to them through Moses had made it almost impossible for them to fulfil it. In his commentary on this passage; Tabari quotes the following remark of Ibn 'Abbas: "If [in the first instance] they had sacrificed any cow chosen by themselves, they would have fulfilled their duty; but they made it complicated for themselves, and so God made it complicated for them." A similar view has been expressed, in the same context, by Zamakhshari. It would appear that the moral of this story points to an important-problem of all (and, therefore, also of Islamic) religious jurisprudence: namely, the inadvisability of trying to elicit additional details in respect of any religious law that had originally been given in general terms-for, the more numerous and multiform such details become, the more complicated and rigid becomes the law. This point has been acutely grasped by Rashid Rida', who says in his commentary on the above Qur'anic passage (see Manar I, 345 f.): "Its lesson is that one should not pursue one's [legal] inquiries in such a way as to make laws more complicated .... This was how the early generations [of Muslims] visualized the problem. They did not make things complicated for themselves-and so, for them, the religious law (din) was natural, simple and liberal in its straightforwardness. But those who came later added to it [certain other] injunctions which they had deduced by means of their own reasoning (ijtihad); and they multiplied those [additional] injunctions to such an extent that the religious law became a heavy burden on the community." For the sociological reason why the genuine ordinances of Islamic Law - that is, those which have been prima facie laid down as such in the Qur'an and the teachings of the Prophet-are almost always devoid of details, I would refer the reader to my book State and Government in Islam (pp. 11 ff. and passim). The importance of this problem, illustrated in the above story of the cow-and correctly grasped by the Prophet's Companions-explains why this surah has been entitled "The Cow". (See also 5:101 and the corresponding notes 120-123.) (Quran Ref: 2:71 )
