Musa (Moses) - The
Story of the Bani Israel and the Cow
The Pious Man and His
Son
It was said that
among the children of Israel there lived a pious man. He was poor but very
careful about how he earned his living; it had to be honestly earned.
Everything that he did was done for the sake of Allah, never for selfish gain.
On his deathbed his last words were: "O Allah, I place my wife, my little
son, and my only possession, a calf, in Your care." Strangely, he asked
his wife to lead the calf to the forest and leave it there. He did this because
he did not trust the children of Israel, for they were a selfish and greedy
folk.
After a few years
when the boy had grown up, his mother told him: 'Your father has left you a
calf in the trust of Allah. It must have grown into a cow by now." The son
was surprised. He did not know of any calf all these years and asked his mother
where it was. She replied: "Be like your father and say: 'I trust in
Allah,' then go look for it."
With a rope in his
hand, he went to the forest and prostrated himself before Allah: "O Allah,
Lord of Abraham and Jacob and Job, return to me my father's trust." As he
raised his head, he saw a cow coming towards him. It stopped submissively
beside him. He tied the rope around its neck and led it to his house. The cow
would not allow anyone else come near it except the young man.
The youth was as
pious as his father. He earned his living by cutting wood. Whatever he earned
he divided into three equal portions: one he gave to his mother, one he used
for his needs, and the last he gave as charity. His nights, too, were divided
into three parts: during the early part of the night he helped his mother, the
middle part he devoted to the worship of Allah, and during the last part he
rested.
A rich man dies and Bani
Israel Ask Questions About a Cow
About this time a
wealthy man died, leaving behind an only son, who inherited his father's
wealth. His cousins envied his good fortune and secretly killed him so that
they could inherit it. The dead boy's other relatives came to the Prophet Moses
and asked his help in tracing the boy's murderer. Moses instructed them to
slaughter a cow, remove part of it and place it on the corpse. This would reveal
the murderer, he told them. They accused Moses of joking. He replied:
"Allah forbid that I be foolish!" They questioned him about the type
of cow they should slaughter, and he said: "This cow is neither young nor
mature, but in between the two conditions, so do as you have been
commanded." Instead of following his direction, they asked him more
questions. "What colour must it be?" He replied: "Verily, it is
yellow in colour." They still were not satisfied with his answer and asked
for more details. Moses replied: "It is an unyoked cow; it does not plough
the soil nor water the tilth, and is entirely without marks."
Moses's People Find
the Right Cow
They went out in
search of such a cow. The only one that matched the description was the one
owned by the orphaned youth. They met him on the way and asked the price for
which he would sell his cow. He told them he would have to consult his mother
first, so they accompanied him to his house and offered her three gold coins.
She refused their offer, saying that the cow was worth much more.
They went on
increasing their offer and the mother kept on refusing. Finally they urged the
son to speak to his mother to be reasonable. He told them: "I will not
sell the cow without my mother's approval, even if you offered me its skin
filled with gold!" On hearing this, his mother smiled and said: "Let
that be the price: its skin filled with gold." They realized that no other
cow would do; they had to have it at any price. They agreed to buy the cow and
paid with its skin filled with gold.
Lesson
In total disregard
for the easy and clear nature of the religion, Bani Israel mindlessly rendered
it complicated and difficult to practice. Their tendency of some people among
the Bani Israel to needlessly complicate the religion is best explained in a
story related in the Surat al-Baqara. As related in the above account, some
people constantly raised objections against the commands of Allah. Only when
the command became almost non-practicable, due to the petty details they begged
for, they relented. In fact, the command was quite plain: sacrifice a cow.
Hence, when we hear commands in Islam we should obey to the best of our ability
and not look for easy ways out or search loopholes.
The People are Asked
to Slaughter a Cow - Qur'anic Verses
Allah the Almighty
narrated: And (remember) when Moses said to his people: "Verily, Allah
commands you that you slaughter a cow.
They said: "Do
you make fun of us?"
He said: "I take
Allah's Refuge from being among AlJahileen (the ignorants or the
foolish)."
They said: "Call
upon your Lord for us that He may make plain to us what it is!"
He said: "He
says, 'Verily, it is a cow neither too old nor too young, but (it is) between
the two conditions; so do what you are commanded."
They said: "Call
upon your Lord for us to make plain to us its color."
He said: "He
says, 'It is a yellow cow bright in its color, pleasing to the beholders.
They said: "Call
upon your Lord for us to make plain to us what it is. Verily to us all cows are
alike, and surely, if Allah wills, we will be guided."
He (Moses) said:
"He says, 'It is a cow neither trained to till the soil nor water the
fields, sound, having no other color except bright yellow.
They said: "Now
you have brought the truth." So they slaughtered it though they were near
to not doing it.
And (remember) when
you killed a man and fell into dispute among yourselves as to the crime. But
Allah brought forth that which you were hiding. So We said: "Strike him
(the dead man) with apiece of it (the cow)." Thus Allah brings the dead to
life and shows you His Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations,
etc.) so that you may understand.
Then after that your
hearts were hardened and became as stones or even worse in hardness. And
indeed, there are stones out of which rivers gush forth, and indeed, there are
of them (stones) which fall down for fear of Allah. And Allah is not unaware of
what you do. (TMQ 2: 67-74)
Main Topic: Death and
the AfterLife
Reasons for Evil
Ending: Asbab su-al khaatimah
- Al-Fasaad fil al-’Itiqaad - corruption and defect in the belief (Aqeeda).
- Al-Istiqaamah - Diversion from the straight path.
- Alisraaru ’ala al ma’aasiyy (insistence on sinning)
- Daiful Imaan (weak faith)
The Prophet* said:
“Oh Allah, make the best of my deeds, the last deeds.”
The Prophet* said:
“One of you would do the deeds of the people of Paradise until only one foot [a
short distance] is between you and paradise, and then in the end he would do
the deeds of the people of hell fire and he would die and he would enter into
hell fire.” And the opposite can happen to – you do the deeds of the people of
hell all of your life and then you do the deeds of the people of jannah in the
end and enter jannah.
Don’t be complacent
about your Islam and that you will enter Jannah automatically, and we always
need to be vigilant about protecting our Islam (lessons from the Story of
Barsissa last week).
We ask Allah for a
blessed ending - Ameen
Al-Fasaad fil
al-’Itiqaad - corruption and defect in the belief (Aqeeda).
5 Pillars of Action:
Testament of Faith, Prayer, Fasting, Zakat, Hajj
6 Core Beliefs of Aqeeda:
Belief in Allah (Tawhid), The Angels, The Books of Allah, The Messengers of
Allah (Muhammed* is the final one), Day of Judgement, and Divine Fate &
Destiny
In times of real
difficulty and stress that Allah may put people through (despite knowing that
Allah doesn’t burden a soul more than it can bear) in situations outside our
direct control, we may start to question Allah, or blame Allah or slip into
disbelief (rather than patience) if we are not fully convinced of our core
beliefs.
Just like these TV
programmes that take cars or gadgets to the limits to see if they still
function. Likewise, we may be tested to see if we still believe and have
patience in Allah. This is where cracks in belief can appear unless we are
certain and have a hard intellectual conviction in Allah.
Allah says: “Say (O
Muhammad SAW): Shall We tell you the greatest losers in respect of (their)
deeds? Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life while they thought
that they were acquiring good by their deeds.” (18:103-104)
Al-Istiqaamah - Diversion
from the straight path.
(Linked to story of
Barsissa)
Do not take a wrong
turn that will lead to our eventual destruction!
We should follow Islam
and the path of Islam without deviation. We should adapt our life for Islam and
not change or modify Islam to suit us and our whims.
Allah says: “And
recite to them the story of him to whom we gave our ayaat, but he threw them
away so shaytaan followed him up and he became of those who became astray. And
had We willed, We would surely have elevated him therewith, but he clung to the
earth and followed his own vein desires.”
This man received the
ayaat (Signs) of Allah, but he detached himself from the ayaat of Allah and
followed his own desires. This person had the knowledge, but he was misguided
because of his attachment to dunya because he followed his own desires. This is
contrary to Islam. Islam is submission to Allah. You submit to Allah, even if
it’s against your own will and desires. You give up your desires for Allah. We
do not custom make Islam to serve us. We change ourselves to fit into Islam. We
change our own characters to fit Islam. Islam is COMPLETE submission.
Submission to Allah. This man had the knowledge, but it didn’t do him any good
because he followed his own desires.
Alisraaru ’ala al
ma’aasiyy (insistence on sinning)
A person may be
commiting a small sin, but the ulema (scholars) say that insisting on a small
sin makes it a big sin. When you keep on doing it again and again, it becomes a
major sin.
Some examples given
by scholars from centuries ago are:
- There was a man who was obsessed with chess. They kept on telling him to say ‘la ilaaha illallah’, but he couldn’t. At the end, he kept on repeating, “Checkmate, checkmate” until he died.
- Another man who kept saying, “Give me the bottle.” Because he was obsessed with drinking and he kept asking for that.
- There was another man who was an accountant and he just kept saying, “ten, eleven, twelve” and he kept saying numbers.
- A man who they told to say ‘la ilaaha illallah’, but he said, “I can’t.” He didn’t have a problem with his tongue; he could speak fluently. He couldn’t say ‘la ilaaha illallah’, because Allah didn’t give him the permission.
- Recent examples of visiting a man who was dying and everyone in the house was listening to loud Umm Kulthum music (a singer). The tape recorder was high. The shaykh told them to switch it off and put on the Qur’an instead. When the old man heard the Qur’an, he said, “Turn that off and turn Umm Kulthum back on because she soothes my heart!” And he died.
The analogy is that when
you go to bed you’ll dream at night about the things you obsessed with during
the day. Death is similar to sleep. Sleep is called “the minor death.” That is
why the thoughts that are on one’s minds are most likely going to show up in
the last moments of life.
We always think that
we can live how we want and sin as much as want. Then, five minutes before we
day, we will take the shahaadah and be guaranteed Jannah. It’s not that easy.
You are making a plot against Allah. Because you are making the intention to
not worship Allah until the last moments of your life. Allah is telling us to
worship Him day and night. We are saying that we want to outsmart Allah and
make tawbah in the end. “They are plotting and Allah is planning and Allah is
the best of planners.”
When you grow up on
something, you are going to die on that thing. If you are constantly in Prayer
and cleanliness Allah will likely protect that in your last moments. We pray
Allah makes us of those protected – Ameen.
Daiful Imaan (weak
faith)
When Mu’aadh ibn
Jabal was passing away. He said, “Welcome to death. I have been waiting for you
for a long time. I have been waiting for the Promise of Allah to me. Welcome to
death.” He said, “O death, don’t think that I ever wanted to live in this dunya
because the love of this world. The reason I wanted to live in this world was
to fast in the hot summer days and pray in the long, cold winter nights. So as
long as it is time for me to leave, I welcome you. Take my soul.” He wants to
meet Allah, so Allah will want to meet him.
Scholars have said,
if somebody has the love of the world at heart, then just before their death –
when the person realizes they are leaving dunya for akhirah – they will become
attached to the thing he loves (to dunya). And then that person will start
hating Allah because Allah is the One who wants to take him away.
Finally
The Prophet* said,
“Every Prophet, before he dies, is shown his place in Paradise and then he is
given the choice to stay in this world or die.”
Ayesha narrates: When
the Prophet* was dying, he had his head on my lap, she said. Then he fell
unconscious, then he woke up. He started staring at the sky and he said, “O
Allah, with the highest companion. (Allah).” Ayesha said that she knew at that
moment that the Prophet was being given the choice, and he was not choosing us.
The Prophet* was given the choice by the Angel of Death, and the Prophet* was
saying that he wanted to be with Allah. And that was the last thing he said.
[Bukhari]
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