Koran 2:67-73

2:67 And [recall] when Moses said to his people, “Indeed, Allah commands you to slaughter a cow.”

They said, “Do you take us in ridicule?”

He said, “I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant.”

68 They said, “Call upon your Lord to make clear to us what it is.”

[Moses] said, “[Allah] says, ‘It is a cow which is neither old nor virgin, but median between that,’ so do what you are commanded.”

69 They said, “Call upon your Lord to show us what is her color.”

He said, “He says, ‘It is a yellow cow, bright in color – pleasing to the observers.'”

70 They said, “Call upon your Lord to make clear to us what it is. Indeed, [all] cows look alike to us. And indeed we, if Allah wills, will be guided.”

71 He said, “He says, ‘It is a cow neither trained to plow the earth nor to irrigate the field, one free from fault with no spot upon her.'”

They said, “Now you have come with the truth.”

So they slaughtered her, but they could hardly do it.

72 And [recall] when you slew a man and disputed over it, but Allah was to bring out that which you were concealing.

73 So, We said, “Strike the slain man with part of it.”

Thus does Allah bring the dead to life, and He shows you His signs that you might reason.

Koran 2:67-73

Notice the curious addition by the translators of: “[recall]”. I can’t recall this, except the earlier reading of the Bible. What about a Jew, Christian, or Hindu reading this? Or a young Muslim? The translators put this in because the “[recall]” is directed, not to the reader or listener, but the Muslims of Muhammad’s time, who overheard the reciting of the Jews about Numbers 19 in their Torah, and overheard their translation by the helpful Jews. This shows that this passage is locked to Muhammad’s time and place, to his Muslims in his context. Thus Allah, Islam, and Koran are local to Muhammad and so false.

This passage is about the cow, the yellow cow, that this Surah is named for. It’s again a summary, an extremely bad summary of Numbers 19 from the Torah and Bible. As a summary, this requires that Numbers 19 is readily available to all, including to unbelievers and polytheists, and it means that Numbers 19 is correct and not corrupted by the Jews or Christians. Thus this summary by Muhammad contradicts the Islamic doctrine that the Torah and Bible were corrupted.

Why is it an extremely bad summary? In the Torah and Bible, the cow is red. The cow is red because it’s a BLOOD sacrifice. Blood is RED. Muhammad gets it wrong, not being able to understand that Numbers 19 is about the blood sacrifice of a cow, a ritual that was later abolished by the rabbis and by Jesus in the New Testament. Not even the Muslims do this ritual in Islamic doctrine.

But what about the dead being brought back life? Surely this is about people coming to life again through the power of Allah? This is the ritual for unclean (or “dead”) Israelites, who are being purified, made clean, and so being brought back to “life”, able to participate in life with the Israelites. It’s simply a way to forgive sin, to reduce the burden of guilt, to atone with a sacrifice, to feel better.

As this ritual was only for the Israelites of Israel, this is incoherent with Islam. So the better replacement for this passage is Numbers 19, or all of Numbers or all of the Torah or Old Testament. But as this shows that Muhammad is lazy, ignorant, and stupid, so the best replacement is: “”, the empty sentence.