In the previous verse, the first command became more limited: a cow neither old and worn out, nor young and immature, but middle-aged between the two. If the people had acted on the command there, the path had still not become very narrow. But again they did not act. This time they ask about color: “What is its color?” (ma lawnuha).

The same expression comes again onto their tongues: “Call upon your Lord and Nurturing Master for us” (ud'u lana rabbaka); ask your Lord and Nurturing Master for us. They do not say: our Lord and Nurturing Master. They say: your Lord and Nurturing Master. From one expression we cannot build a definitive judgment about the inward state of every individual, but the language of the Qur'an shows this distance. Lord and Nurturing Master (Rabb) is still, in their speech, more the Lord and Nurturing Master of Musa; and when Lord and Nurturing Master (Rabb) in a person's language is “your Lord and Nurturing Master” (Rabb), the command too is more easily placed on someone else's shoulders: you ask, you supplicate, you make it clear for us.

This is the same distance that shows itself repeatedly in the story of the cow. Musa is a prophet, and the delivery of the command of The God comes through him; this position is true. But instead of taking the command and doing it, they make Musa the mediator of fresh questions. A prophet should open the path of obedience, not become an excuse for postponing obedience.

This time the question is about color. On the surface, it may seem like a simple and harmless question. But within the movement of the story, this very question adds a new qualification to the command. At the beginning, only this had been said: slaughter a cow. Then it was said: it should be neither old nor young. Now it is said: it should be yellow, and not merely yellow, but a clear and striking yellow.

The answer comes like this: “Indeed, it is a cow, yellow, bright and vivid in its color, gladdening those who look”; a cow (baqaratun), yellow (safra'u), bright and vivid (faqi'un), its color (lawnuha), gladdening (tasurru), those who look (an-nazhirin). This answer narrowed the circle of choice even more. Now a middle-aged cow alone is no longer enough; it must be a cow that is good-looking, clear, lively in color, and so striking that seeing it makes the viewers glad-hearted.

Here a bitter irony can be seen. They were stepping back from slaughtering an ordinary cow, but through their own questions they arrived at a cow that was harder to find and more difficult to let go of. An old and worn cow might have been easier to find, and slaughtering it would not have been heavy on the heart of a person; but now the speech is about a sound, middle-aged cow, bright yellow, and pleasing to people's sight. A question that may have wanted to make the path easier made the path more difficult.

Yet the answer of The God is still in human and understandable language. The God does not describe the color by a number, formula, or dry standard. He does not say exactly what degree and measure of yellow it should have. He says its color is such that it gladdens those who look. This means that part of the discernment is still returned to human seeing. They must look, weigh, and discern with their natural understanding.

This point is very subtle. They want, through repeated questions, to move responsibility away from themselves; but the divine answer does not free them from the responsibility of discernment. Even when more explanation comes, they still have to look, understand, choose, and act. Religion does not empty the human being of responsibility; it awakens him more deeply before responsibility.

In the wider context of the surah, this bright color can also be seen beside the story of the calf. This same people had already been tested with calf-worship, and the Qur'an says elsewhere that love of the calf was made to drink into their hearts. The verse does not explicitly state that the bright yellowness of this cow was meant to recall that calf, so this should not be made definite. But at the level of reflection, the connection is worth thinking about: sometimes the human being must sacrifice before the command of The God the very thing that attracts his eye and heart.

From this angle, slaughtering the cow is not only the performance of an outward act. It can be a training in cutting away from something that has become beautiful, dear, useful, or heart-stealing within the human being. Obedience is not always the slaughter of something outside oneself; sometimes it is the slaughter of an attachment that has settled inside and prevents the person from taking the command of The God lightly and simply.

This verse shows that asking for details does not always bring the human being to peace. Sometimes a person thinks that if he asks more, he will be freed from the burden of choice. But in the story of the cow, each question brings a new qualification. They step back from action, but the answers make the escape path smaller.

So verse 69 continues the same educational law of verse 68: when the human being narrows an open path upon himself without reason, that same narrowness returns to him. The command has still not become impossible, but it is no longer as simple as it was at the beginning. Through their own questions, they make the easy command more difficult stage by stage.

The lesson of the verse is this: if the command of The God is clear, it should not be made heavy with escape-questions. And if more clarification is requested, one should not imagine that responsibility has been lifted from the human being. Even within the divine answer, the human being must see, discern, let go, and act.

• Al-Baqarah 2:67— The first command concerning slaughtering the cow, which began simple and open.
• Al-Baqarah 2:68— The first question and the first narrowing of the range of choice: neither old nor young, but middle-aged.
• Al-Baqarah 2:70— Their next question, showing that after the clarification of age and color they still have not reached action.
• Al-Baqarah 2:71— The end of the details and the movement toward carrying out the command after the matter has gradually become difficult.
• Al-Baqarah 2:63— The command to take what was given with strength; in the cow story, the people delay the command through repeated questions instead of taking it with strength.
• Al-Ma'idah 5:101— The prohibition of questions that, if disclosed, would cause hardship; an important witness for understanding the movement of the cow story.
• Al-Ma'idah 5:102— The reminder of a people who asked such questions before and then rejected them; a warning about escape-questions.
• As-Saffat 37:102— “Do what you are commanded”; an example of surrender before the divine command, in contrast with delay and repeated questioning in the story of the cow.
• Al-Baqarah 2:93— The love of the calf being made to drink into the hearts; useful for understanding the possible connection between slaughtering the cow and cutting away from 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 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.