[2:71] He said, 'He says she shall be a cow not broken to plough the earth, or to water the tillage, with no blemish on her'. They said, 'Now you have brought the truth'; and so they sacrificed her, even though they very nearly did not.
Just as this cow was not to have been broken in for work, nor worn out for the purposes of profits, there was to be no color in her inconsistent with the overall grandeur of her color. The allusion in it is to the people of divine friendship (walāya) who have not exerted themselves with others in order to obtain what they seek through causes, and who have not relied in their hearts on external appearances and simulacra. They have not trusted in their own choosing and contrivance. They are not prey to the claims of desire, nor game in the claws of the present world. Carnal desires do not rule them and no human authority controls them. They have not striven at all to obtain what they desire and are not concerned with attaining what they wish for. There is no mark of others upon them, nor any sign of causes, for they are supported by God, annihilated from all else, nay, effaced as God turns them this way and that. God has conquered their hearts. Just as their object of worship is God, so their only aim is God. Just as their aim is God, so what they bear witness to is God and what they have found is God. Nay, they are effaced in God and [only] God remains after them. The one who spoke for them recited:
If you want me to be pleased
and you to be pleased
and to take the reins
of our life together,
then look at the world
through my eyes
and listen with my ears
and speak with my tongue.
[2:71 cont'd] They said, 'Now you have brought the truth'; and so they sacrificed her, even though they very nearly did not.
They sought a stratagem for themselves, but when their stratagems failed, they submitted to the decree and were rid of the difficulties of the demands. If they had done what they were commanded to do [straight away], the misery would not have been doubled for them.