67 Preface وَإِذ قالَ موسىٰ لِقَومِهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأمُرُكُم أَن تَذبَحوا بَقَرَةً ۖ قالوا أَتَتَّخِذُنا هُزُوًا ۖ قالَ أَعوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَن أَكونَ مِنَ الجاهِلينَYusuf AliAnd remember Moses said to his people: “God commands that ye sacrifice a heifer1.” They said: “Makest thou a laughing-stock of us?” He said: “God save me from being an ignorant (fool)!” This story or parable of the heifer in 2:67-71 should be read with the parable of the dead man brought to life in 2:72-73. The stories were accepted in Jewish traditions, which are themselves based on certain sacrificial directions in the Old Testament. The heifer story of Jewish tradition is based on Num. 19:1-10, in which Moses and Aaron ordered the Israelites to sacrifice a red heifer without spot or blemish; her body was to be burnt and the ashes were to be kept for the purification of the congregation from sin. The parable of the dead man we shall refer to later. The lesson of the heifer parable is plain, Moses announced the sacrifice to the Israelites, and they treated it as a jest. When Moses continued solemnly to ask for the sacrifice, they put him off on one pretext and another, asking a number of questions which they could have answered themselves if they had listened to Moses’s directions. Their questions were carping criticisms rather than the result of a desire for information. It was a mere thin pretence that they were genuinely seeking for guidance. When at last they were driven into a corner, they made the sacrifice, but the will was wanting, which would have made the sacrifice efficacious for purification from sin. The real reason for their prevarications was their guilty conscience, as we see in the parable of the dead man (2:72-73).