‘they were near to not doing it.’

A verse we studied has been ringing in my head for a very long time now…

‘قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ لَّا ذَلُولٌ تُثِيرُ الْأَرْضَ وَلَا تَسْقِي الْحَرْثَ مُسَلَّمَةٌ لَّا شِيَةَ فِيهَا ۚ قَالُوا الْآنَ جِئْتَ بِالْحَقِّ ۚ فَذَبَحُوهَا وَمَا كَادُوا يَفْعَلُونَ’

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, though ‘almost they did not’. [Surah Baqarah, verse 71]

‘they were near to not doing it.’

This verse is preceded by a story wherein the people of Musa عليه السلام were ordered to slaughter a cow (they worshiped the cow, and Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ  wanted to remove the love of the calf from their hearts). They ask many questions as an excuse to do it, and when they find themselves making it harder upon themselves by asking too many questions, they surrender to slaughtering it. That is where this verse comes, saying ‘so they slaughtered her, though they almost did not do it‘ ( وَمَا كَادُوا ).

They fulfilled what they were supposed to do, but Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ knew what was in their hearts, and how they did it so unwillingly that He says ‘they almost didn’t do it!’. Meaning they barely did it.

Now here’s the thing about Allah’s commands to us, and the way we perform them.

We hurry to pray when the time for it ends, we almost miss Fajr by praying so close to sunrise, we almost speak the truth in a white lie? We only ‘almost’ wear the Hijab giving reasons as to how it is still Hijab, we ‘almost’ maintain limits in our conversations with opposite genders, we actually ‘almost’ do a lot of things… and even then, we ask too many questions to prove why ‘it’s alright to do so’.

See the resemblance here? There is nothing that Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ talks about in the Qur’an, that doesn’t relate to us, or isn’t meant for our time.

It is time we check ourselves with brutal honesty, that we aren’t ‘almost’ worshiping Him, now. Rather than when we are ‘almost’ losing Jannah.