Chapter 2: Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow), verses 67-73

Translation:

When Moses said to his people: ‘God commands you to sacrifice a cow,’ they replied: ‘Are you making game of us?’ ‘God forbid that I should be so foolish!’ he rejoined. ‘Call on your Lord,’ they said, ‘to make known to us what kind of cow she shall be.’ Moses replied. ‘Your Lord says: “Let her neither be an old cow nor a young heifer, but in between.” Do, therefore, as you are bidden.’ ‘Call on your Lord,’ they said, ‘to make known to us what her colour shall be.’ Moses replied: ‘Your Lord says: “Let her be yellow, a rich yellow pleasing to the eye.”’ ‘Call on your Lord,’ they said, ‘to make known to us the exact type of cow she shall be; for to us cows look all alike. If God wills, we shall be rightly guided.’ Moses replied: ‘Your Lord says: “Let her be a healthy cow, not worn out with ploughing the earth or watering the field; a cow free from any blemish.”’ ‘Now you have told us the truth,’ they answered. And they slaughtered a cow, after they had nearly failed to do so. And when you slew a man and then fell out with one another concerning him, God made known what you concealed. We said: ‘Strike the corpse with a piece of the slaughtered cow.’ Thus God restores the dead to life and shows you His signs, that you may grow in understanding.

Tafsir (Commentary):

A murder was committed among the Israelites in Moses’ time. The method that God revealed to His prophet for identifying the killer was that a cow should be sacrificed, and the dead man’s corpse struck with a piece of it. The dead man would name the murderer. This novel method was chosen for several reasons.

1. The Children of Israel had spent a long time in Egypt, and had been influenced by Egyptian customs and culture. The practice of cow-worship, for instance, had also been adopted by the Israelites, who had also come to regard the cow as ‘sacred.’ The purpose of Almighty God was to remove this misplaced veneration from their minds, and this murder was chosen as the means: only by sacrificing a cow would the culprit come to light.

2. Another mistake that the Israelites had made was to destroy the simplicity of divine religion by involving themselves in complicated theological wrangling. They had to learn to interpret God’s commandments simply and implement them immediately in a straightforward manner. This was another lesson that was taught under the pretext of this murder case: if one engages in hair-splitting efforts to define the exact scope of divine commandments, one will only make things difficult for oneself; added conditions will serve only to complicate the implementation of what had originally been a simple commandment.

3. The third lesson of this case was that life after death is no less a reality than life before death. Just as the dead corpse was revived, so every soul will be raised up in the Hereafter and given new life.