The Cow
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[2:53]
And [remember the time] when We vouchsafed unto Moses the divine writ – and [thus] a standard by which to discern the true from the false – so that you might be guided aright;

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* v.53 : Muhammad ‘Abduh amplifies the above interpretation of al-furqān (adopted by Tabarī, Zamakhsharī and other great commentators) by maintaining that it applies also to “human reason, which enables us to distinguish the true from the false” (Manār III, 160), apparently basing this wider interpretation on 8:41, where the battle of Badr is described as yawm al-furqān (“the day on which the true was distinguished from the false”). While the term furqān is often used in the Qur’ān to describe one or another of the revealed scriptures, and particularly the Qur’ān itself, it has undoubtedly also the connotation pointed out by ‘Abduh: for instance, in 8:29, where it clearly refers to the faculty of moral valuation which distinguishes every human being who is truly conscious of God.