Blurb:

By far the longest sūra, Q2 defies easy summary. It includes accounts of Adam’s fall, Moses and Pharaoh, Israel’s disobedience, and the religion of Abraham and his building of God’s ‘House,’ toward which prayer is now directed. Instruction on a wide variety of topics occupies most of the second half of the sūra (on food, retaliation, wills, fasting, fighting, pilgrimage, marriage, divorce, usury, almsgiving, and prayer). Its title comes from the story of ‘the cow’ which the Israelites were commanded to sacrifice (Q2.67–71).