Sunday, 18th June 2023 – Last week Reflections from the Quran session was led by brother Abdul Ghaffar, coordinator for Brunei and the Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Dawah Alliance. He shared with us a meaningful insight from the 2nd chapter of the Quran, Surah Al-Baqarah verses 67 to 71.
He explained that the overview of the verses is the story of the prophet Moses ‘alaihi salam gave a command to the Israelites to slaughter a cow. The backstory was, there was a murder incident happened in town and in order to discover the identity of the murderer, they must slaughter a cow (no specific cow at first) which can bring the murdered man back to life by Allah’s will.
However, when Moses ‘alaihi salam told them to slaughter a cow, they responded in a rudely-mannered towards Moses which ironically, the Israelites have made pledge to hear and obey their prophet but still acted so. They said, “Are you taking us for a joke?” and continually hesitant to find a cow. Disappointed with his people’s attitude, Moses ‘alaihi salam immediately sought refuge to Allah knowing that he might lose his patience and worsen the situation.
Hesitantly, the Israelites still have to search for a cow but they kept asking Moses ‘alaihi salam to pray to Allah that He make it clear and be specific to them what sort of cow they should be looking for. They deliberately ask a lot of impractical questions and make fun of the command to stall themselves from doing it. In the end, they found and slaughtered the cow but only after they caused themselves troubles and difficulties. Even so, they almost did not manage to do it.
Allah describes in the Quran that this kind of group will always exist in the religion which they purposely ask stupid questions to make you upset. Allah has made this religion easy for us but this group of people tend to complicate things.
In conclusion, brother Abdul Ghaffar reminded us to continue spreading the truth and have patience despite all the challenges that we face on our mission especially from our mad’u (targeted audience).
