Chapter 2: Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow), verse 74

Translation:

Yet after that your hearts became as hard as rocks or even harder; for, from some rocks rivers spring forth: some break asunder and water gushes forth from them: and others tumble down through fear of God. God is not unaware of what you do.

Tafsir (Commentary):

To believe in God is to believe in the most supreme of beings. The moving force of this faith should be enough to stir the soul of the lowly mortal; but the man of faith displays his belief in God by stunned silence rather than by pretentious words. Only one who is insensitive to the impact of the word of God will seek to distort it with his own words; only one who lacks awareness of His exalted nature will seek to manipulate His commandments, as if they had emanated from some human source. Those who seek to make loopholes in God’s commandments become more and more insensitive, their concocted theological arguments leading to hardness of heart. A heart, which is harder even than stone will not melt before the might of the Lord. The thought of God will not excite one who has become insensitive to the Lord’s words. Such a soul will not bow before the will of God; it will remain as rigid as the most impervious rocks.

Three aspects of the symbolic meaning of rocks have been mentioned in this verse:

1. One sees on mountains how streams flow from rocks, finally to join together in the form of a river. This is symbolic of a certain type of human being: one in whose heart fear of God is lodged, like water in the bosom of a mountain; this fear of the Lord flows from his eyes in the form of tears, as streams flow down the crags of the hillside.

2. Some rocks seem to be nothing more than dry boulders; but when cracked, reveal huge pools of water beneath them—wells from which people quench their thirst. This is on a parallel with one who, at first sight, appears to be far from the Lord. But then he is struck by some calamity, which tears his soul apart and reveals the devotion to God that was latent within him.

3. Sometimes one sees landslides on mountains, with great slabs of rock crashing down the hillside. This is comparable to a human being who had adopted an unjust attitude towards another. But, the moment he was reminded of the command of God, he immediately bowed down in humility before His word. Where he had found it difficult to bow before a man like himself, he was more than willing to bow before God.