Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 93 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:93

وَإِذْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَـٰقَكُمْ وَرَفَعْنَا فَوْقَكُمُ ٱلطُّورَ خُذُوا۟ مَآ ءَاتَيْنَـٰكُم بِقُوَّةٍ وَٱسْمَعُوا۟ ۖ قَالُوا۟ سَمِعْنَا وَعَصَيْنَا وَأُشْرِبُوا۟ فِى قُلُوبِهِمُ ٱلْعِجْلَ بِكُفْرِهِمْ ۚ قُلْ بِئْسَمَا يَأْمُرُكُم بِهِۦٓ إِيمَـٰنُكُمْ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ

“And [recall] when We took your covenant and raised over you the mount, [saying], "Take what We have given you with determination and listen." They said [instead], "We hear and disobey." And their hearts absorbed [the worship of] the calf because of their disbelief. Say, "How wretched is that which your faith enjoins upon you, if you should be believers."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Told to take the covenant firmly and listen, they said 'we hear and we disobey', and love of the calf soaked into their hearts.

A reflection

We hear, and then: obey or disobey?

A father asks his two teenage sons to visit their grandmother on Saturday. Both look up from their phones and say, 'Yes, heard you.' On Saturday afternoon, one of them is drinking tea in her kitchen. The other is still in bed.

The covenant said: 'Take what We have given you with strength, and listen'. A classical commentator explains that 'listen' here does not mean merely letting the sound reach your ears. It means act on what you hear and hold to it. He points to a phrase every Muslim says in prayer: samiʿa llāhu li-man ḥamidah, Allah hears the one who praises Him. That 'hearing' means accepting and answering.

Their reply split the two. 'We hear, and we disobey.' Commentators differ on whether they literally said it, or whether their conduct said it for them. Either way, the meaning is the same: we have understood perfectly well, and we will not do it.

Muslims are taught a different reply. Near the end of this same surah, the believers say: samiʿnā wa aṭaʿnā, 'We hear and we obey' (2:285). Elsewhere the Quran says this is the only response of believers when called to Allah and His Messenger (24:51). The first word is identical. Everything depends on the second.

Allah needs neither reply. 'Whoever strives only strives for himself; indeed Allah is free of need of the worlds' (29:6). The obedience is for us: a life that does what it knows, rather than a life split between hearing and doing.

Many people today feel that split acutely. We know more than any generation before us, and act on less. The ayah offers a test small enough for any day. After you hear something true, what is your second word?

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.