Why does the Holy Quran mention some animals insistently?










What does the event of baqarah (Cow, heifer) tell us? You know cows. They are blessed animals from whose breasts we get healing milk and get protein from their meat. It is also acceptable to cut them, as a sacrifice, the one who cuts it, and the one who has it cut are likely to gain divine pleasure.


So why is to cut cows important? Does the Quran mention it only as an event that a group of people who took their places in history experienced? What does this matter signify for us?

First, let us recall the historical event. In Egypt, through the fertility that the River Nile carried, the scorching desert was replaced by fertile lands. The soil was irrigated, cultivated, and people got abundant harvest. Since the agriculture then was dependent on plough, and plough on cows and oxen, these animals gained so much value in the eyes of people.


These people, in whose lives cows took such a central place, concluded in the course of time that if it had not been for cows, they would not have ploughed the soil and they would have had to go hungry and eventually would have died of starvation. They saw cows as sacred. They did not let anybody harm them even touch them. Cows that gained their immunities were now sacred.


Yet when people directed their attention to cows instead of loving and thanking Allah (SWT) who created themselves, the River Nile, soil, animals; the Allah Almighty sent Moses (PBUH) to them. And Moses (PBUH) cut a cow as a sacrifice. That Moses cutting the cow is quite symbolic. With this act of cutting, the idea of worshipping cows, the belief through cow-worshipping is ended and obliterated.


People who embrace causes instead of acknowledging them to come from Allah (SWT) in one respect deify them with this kind of inclination. In this respect, everybody has a cow to cut. Cows, namely causes change in accordance with the ages and people; but the meaning that cows and cutting cows bear does not change.