This is the longest Surah of the Quran. The name of the Surah is from the Parable of the Heifer in Ayah 67-71, which illustrates the insufficiency of carping obedience. When faith is lost, people put off obedience with various excuses; even when at last they obey in the letter, they fail in the spirit, which means that they get fossilized, and their self-sufficiency prevents them from seeing that spiritually they are not alive but dead. For life is...