This verse is the first step in the command of the cow becoming difficult. In the previous verse, the command of The God was simple and open: slaughter a cow. If they had accepted that command as it was, perhaps any cow that was commonly counted as a cow would have been enough for carrying out the obligation: even an ordinary, old, or low-value cow. But they have still not acted. First they accused Musa of mockery, and now, after Musa's answer, they enter a new question.

They say: “Call upon your Lord and Nurturing Master for us” (ud'u lana rabbaka). This expression is not calm and neutral. They do not say: our Lord and Nurturing Master. They say: your Lord and Nurturing Master. We should not build from this sentence a definitive judgment that they had no faith at all; but the language of the verse shows a distance. It is as if Lord and Nurturing Master (Rabb), for them, is still more the Lord and Nurturing Master of Musa than the Lord and Nurturing Master (Rabb) before whom they themselves must stand and carry His command directly.

When the human being does not see The God as “my Lord and Nurturing Master” (Rabb), responsibility is also more easily transferred to someone else: you ask, you supplicate, you make it clear for us. Musa is a prophet, and the delivery of the command of The God comes through him; this is true. But the people turn Musa into a way of delaying action. Instead of taking the command, they ask him to ask again.

Their question also deserves reflection: “What is it?” (ma hiya). Yet the basic thing had already been stated in the previous verse: “a cow” (baqarah). Here the boundary between a truth-seeking question and a delaying question becomes clear. The first opens the way to action; the second makes a way of escape. If the question is for understanding and better action, it is light; but if it rises from unwillingness and postponing action, that same question becomes a veil.

The answer comes like this: “Indeed, it is a cow, neither old and worn nor young and immature, but middle-aged between that” (innaha baqaratun la faridun wa-la bikr, 'awanun bayna dhalik). The command that at the beginning was only “a cow” now gains a qualification. Not every cow is enough anymore. It must be a cow in the middle of life: not worn out and old, and not very young.

Here a law of training can be seen: when the human being narrows an open path upon himself without reason, that very narrowness returns to him. The God had left the command broad at the beginning. They could have acted. But when repeated questions began, each answer made the circle of choice smaller. The difficulty did not come from the original command; it came from their way of facing the command.

The end of the verse is very telling: “So do what you are commanded” (fa-if'alu ma tu'marun). This sentence is like returning the people to the main matter. After the first clarification, it calls them again to action: now do it. Do not lose the command on the road of new questions.

When this expression is placed beside the words of Isma'il in As-Saffat 37:102, it gains a deeper meaning. There, Isma'il says to his father: “Do what you are commanded” (if'al ma tu'mar). There, the tone is the tone of surrender. But here, it is said to the Children of Israel: “So do what you are commanded” (fa-if'alu ma tu'marun). Here the tone is the tone of bringing them back from the margin to the text of the command. In one place, the human being moves calmly toward the command of The God; in the other, after question and delay, they must be called back to action again.

This verse is close to us today as well. Sometimes the religious human being does not abandon the principle of the obligation, but becomes so immersed in forms and details that the life of the command fades. Prayer is established, but remembrance of The God, humility, purity, and restraining from evil are forgotten. Fasting is observed, but mindful guarding (taqwa) and the softening of the self remain at the margin. Purity and ablution, instead of preparing the human being for presence before The God, sometimes become a field of exhausting disputes about small formal details. In such a state, religion is pulled away from the path of giving life to the human being and toward the path of exhausting the human being.

This does not mean that carefulness in action has no value. A religion without order and carefulness is not a healthy path either. But when details swallow the principle of the command, danger has begun. The God brought prayer, fasting, purity, justice, giving, covenant-keeping, and avoidance of wrongdoing and usury to build the human being and society. If all energy is spent in formal disagreements and the spirit of the command is forgotten, the same disease of the cow story returns in new clothing.

In verse 67, they heard the command with suspicion. In verse 68, they limited the command with a question. In the following verses, this same path continues until the matter becomes more difficult for them. The Qur'an gradually shows that the human being sometimes, with his own hands, makes difficult a path that The God left easy.

The lesson of the verse is this: when The God has left a path open, the human being should not narrow it upon himself through excuse-making. A question for understanding opens the road; a question for escape closes the road.

• Al-Baqarah 2:67— The first command concerning slaughtering the cow, which was simple and open at the beginning.
• Al-Baqarah 2:69— The next question about the color of the cow; the continued narrowing of choice because of repeated questions.
• Al-Baqarah 2:70— Their next question, showing that even after explanations they still have not reached action.
• Al-Baqarah 2:71— The end of the details and the implicit admission that the matter has become difficult; the people come near to performing the command after much delay.
• Al-Baqarah 2:63— The command to take what was given with strength; in the cow story, the people delay the command with repeated questions instead of taking it with strength.
• Al-Ma'idah 5:101— The prohibition of questions that, if disclosed, would cause hardship; a verse very close to the logic of the cow story.
• Al-Ma'idah 5:102— The reminder that a people before you asked such questions and then rejected them; an important witness for the danger of escape-questions.
• As-Saffat 37:102— Isma'il's words: “Do what you are commanded”; a beautiful contrast between clear surrender and delay in the cow story.
• Al-Baqarah 2:93— The love of the calf being made to drink into the hearts; useful for understanding the possible background of slaughtering the cow against sanctified attachments.
• Al-A'raf 7:138— The request of the Children of Israel to have deities like the deities of another people; a sign of inward distance before Lord and Nurturing Master (Rabb) and desire for mediation and visible objects.
• Ta-Ha 20:85-97— The story of the Samiri and the calf; the wider background for understanding the sensitivity of the cow story.