al-Baqara 2:93 — The calf made to be drunk into the heart

"…and the calf was made to be drunk into their hearts because of their unbelief."

One of the most striking expressions in the Qurʾān.

وَأُشْرِبُوا۟ — root sh-r-b: to drink. The verb is passive: "they were made to drink". Love of the calf was given to the heart as a drink.

The force of the comparison lies in what drinking is: what is eaten goes to the stomach, what is drunk mixes with the blood. What is drunk cannot be taken out — it spreads through the body and becomes part of the tissue. With this verb the verse tells how deeply an attachment can work into a person's constitution.

And there is one further detail: it says the calf itself was made to be drunk in, not "love of the calf". Such abbreviations are a known style in Arabic; but here the effect looks deliberate — the distance between the object and the attachment felt for it has been removed.

The cause is again stated: "because of their unbelief". The being made to drink, that is, is no arbitrary intervention; it is the consequence of choice. The seal (2/7), the wrapping (2/88) and this verse tell the same principle in three different pictures.