Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:67
And [recall] when Moses said to his people, "Indeed, Allah commands you to slaughter a cow." They said, "Do you take us in ridicule?" He said, "I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant."
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَى لِقَوْمِهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَنْ تَذْبَحُوا بَقَرَةً قَالُوا أَتَتَّخِذُنَا هُزُوًا قَالَ أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ (67)
(And when Moses said to his people: "Allah commands you to slaughter a cow," they said: "Are you mocking us?" He said: "I seek refuge with Allah lest I should be among the ignorant.") (67)
Abū Jaʿfar said: This verse is among that with which Allah reproaches those of the Israelites who are addressed, on account of the breaking by their forefathers of the covenant that Allah had made with them concerning obedience to His prophets. So He said to them: "And remember also your breaking of My covenant," "when Moses said to his people" — and his people were the Israelites, when they disputed among themselves about the murdered man who had been killed among them, and laid the matter before him: إن الله يأمركم أن تذبحوا بقرة قالوا أتتخذنا هزوا (Allah commands you to slaughter a cow. They said: "Are you mocking us?").
And "al-huzʾ" means play and mockery, as the rajaz-poet said: (71)
"Umm Ṭaysala has mocked me, she said: I see him destitute, he has nothing." (72)
By his words "she has mocked" he means: she ridiculed and made sport.
It is not fitting that from the prophets of Allah — with respect to that about which they report on behalf of Allah, whether command or prohibition — mockery or play should issue. They supposed concerning Moses, in his command to them — on behalf of the command of Allah, whose mention is exalted, to slaughter the cow when they disputed among themselves about the murdered man and laid it before him — that he was mocking and playing. It was not permitted for them to suppose that about a prophet of Allah, while he informs them that it is Allah who commanded them to slaughter the cow.
* * *
The "fāʾ" has been omitted from His words أتتخذنا هزوا (Are you mocking us?), even though this is a response, because the preceding part of the utterance had no need of it, and pausing at His words إن الله يأمركم أن تذبحوا بقرة (Allah commands you to slaughter a cow) was good. Therefore it was permissible to omit the "fāʾ" from His words أتتخذنا هزوا (Are you mocking us?), just as it was permissible and good to omit it from the words of the Exalted قَالَ فَمَا خَطْبُكُمْ أَيُّهَا الْمُرْسَلُونَ * قَالُوا إِنَّا أُرْسِلْنَا [Al-Ḥijr: 57-58; Adh-Dhāriyāt: 31-32] (He said: "What then is your errand, O messengers?" They said: "We have been sent"), and it was not said: "fa-qālū innā ursilnā" (and they said then: we have been sent). And had it been said "fa-qālū" that too would have been good and permissible. But if that were a single expression, the "fāʾ" would not be omitted from it. That is because, when you say: "I arose fa-did this and that (and then I did)," you do not say: "I arose, I did this and that," (73) because it is a coordination, not a question at which one pauses.
So when they said to him what they said, Moses informed them that whoever reports on behalf of Allah, whose praise is exalted, with mockery and derision belongs to the ignorant. (74) And he declared himself free of what they supposed about him, and said: أعوذ بالله أن أكون من الجاهلين (I seek refuge with Allah lest I should be among the ignorant), that is to say: among the fools who transmit lies and falsehood about Allah.
* * *
And the occasion for Moses' saying to them إن الله يأمركم أن تذبحوا بقرة (Allah commands you to slaughter a cow) was what follows:
1172 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard Ayyūb, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, on the authority of ʿAbīda, who said: Among the Israelites there was a man who was barren — or childless. He said: his nearest kinsman killed him, then carried him off and threw him down among a tribe other than his own tribe. He said: then evil arose among them over that, until they took up arms. He said: the sensible ones among them said: "Will you fight one another while the messenger of Allah is among you?" He said: so they came to the prophet of Allah, and he said: "Slaughter a cow!" They said: "Are you mocking us?" He said: أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ * قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا هِيَ قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ (I seek refuge with Allah lest I should be among the ignorant. They said: "Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us which one she is." He said: "He says: it is a cow…"), up to His words: فَذَبَحُوهَا وَمَا كَادُوا يَفْعَلُونَ (And they slaughtered her, though they almost did not do it). He said: then [the dead man] was struck with it, and he informed them about his murderer. He said: and the cow was taken only for its weight in gold. He said: and had they taken the least of cows, it would have sufficed them. And after that incident a murderer no longer inherited. (75)
1173 — And al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ādam related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar related to me, on the authority of ar-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, concerning the saying of Allah إن الله يأمركم أن تذبحوا بقرة (Allah commands you to slaughter a cow). He said: There was a man of the Israelites, he was rich and had no child, and he had a kinsman who was his heir. This man killed him in order to inherit from him, then threw him down at a crossroads of the way, (76) and came to Moses and said to him: "My kinsman has been killed, and a terrible thing has befallen me, and I find no one who can make clear to me who killed him except you, O prophet of Allah." He said: then Moses called out among the people: "I adjure by Allah everyone who has knowledge of this, that he make it clear to us." But they had no knowledge of it. Then the murderer turned to Moses and said: "You are the prophet of Allah, so ask your Lord for us that He make it clear to us." And he asked his Lord, and Allah revealed to him: إن الله يأمركم أن تذبحوا بقرة (Allah commands you to slaughter a cow). Then they were astonished and said: أَتَتَّخِذُنَا هُزُوًا قَالَ أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ * قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا هِيَ قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ لا فَارِضٌ (Are you mocking us? He said: I seek refuge with Allah lest I should be among the ignorant. They said: Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us which one she is. He said: He says: it is a cow, not old) — that is to say: not decrepit — وَلا بِكْرٌ (and not young) — that is to say: and not too small — عَوَانٌ بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ (of middle age, between that) — that is to say: in the middle, between the young and the decrepit — قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا لَوْنُهَا قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ صَفْرَاءُ فَاقِعٌ لَوْنُهَا (They said: Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us what her color is. He said: He says: it is a yellow cow, bright in color) — that is to say: pure in color — تَسُرُّ النَّاظِرِينَ (delighting those who look at her) — that is to say: enrapturing those who look at her — قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا هِيَ إِنَّ الْبَقَرَ تَشَابَهَ عَلَيْنَا وَإِنَّا إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَمُهْتَدُونَ * قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ لا ذَلُولٌ (They said: Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us which one she is, for cows look alike to us, and we shall, if Allah wills, surely be rightly guided. He said: He says: it is a cow not subjugated) — that is to say: which labor has not tamed — تُثِيرُ الأَرْضَ (that plows the earth) — that is to say: she is not subjugated to plow the earth — وَلا تَسْقِي الْحَرْثَ (and does not water the tillage) — He says: and she does not work upon the tillage — مُسَلَّمَةٌ (sound), that is to say: free of defects, لا شِيَةَ فِيهَا (without a blemish upon her) — He says: there is no white upon her — قَالُوا الآنَ جِئْتَ بِالْحَقِّ فَذَبَحُوهَا وَمَا كَادُوا يَفْعَلُونَ (They said: Now you have come with the truth. And they slaughtered her, though they almost did not do it). He said: and if the people, when they were commanded to slaughter a cow, had taken any random cow of the cows and slaughtered it, (77) then that would have been the one; but they made it difficult for themselves, and so Allah made it difficult for them. And had the people not made the exception by saying: وَإِنَّا إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَمُهْتَدُونَ (and we shall, if Allah wills, surely be rightly guided), they would never have been guided to it. And it has reached us that they found the cow that had been described to them only with an old woman who had orphans under her care, and she was their guardian. When she knew that no cow other than hers would be of use to them, (78) she doubled the price for them. So they came to Moses and informed him that they had found this description only with such-and-such a woman, and that she demanded from them many times its price. Moses said to them: "Allah had made it light for you, but you have made it difficult for yourselves; so give her what satisfies her and what she demands." They did that, bought her, and slaughtered her. And Moses commanded them to take a bone of hers and strike the murdered man with it. They did that, and his soul returned to him, and he named to them his murderer, and then returned to being dead as he had been. And they seized his murderer — and it was the one who had come to Moses and complained to him — and Allah killed him on account of his most wicked deed.
1174 — Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of as-Suddī: وإذ قال موسى لقومه إن الله يأمركم أن تذبحوا بقرة (And when Moses said to his people: Allah commands you to slaughter a cow). He said: There was a man of the Israelites who was rich in property, and he had a daughter, and he had a needy brother's son. His brother's son asked him for his daughter's hand, but he refused to marry her to him. Then the young man became angry and said: "By Allah, I will surely kill my uncle, and surely take his property, and surely marry his daughter, and surely consume his blood-money!" The young man then came to him — and merchants had arrived among the tribes of the Israelites — and said: "O uncle, go with me and buy for me some of these people's merchandise; perhaps I may obtain something of it, (79) for if they see you with me, they will sell to me." The uncle set out by night with the young man, and when the old man reached that tribe, the young man killed him, and then returned to his family. When morning came, he came as if searching for his uncle, as if he did not know where he was, but he did not find him. He then went to where he was, and behold, there was that tribe gathered around him. He seized them and said: "You have killed my uncle, so pay me his blood-money." And he began to weep and throw dust upon his head and cry out: "O my uncle!" He brought them before Moses, and he ruled that they should pay the blood-money. Then they said to him: "O messenger of Allah, call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear who the perpetrator is, so that the one guilty of the crime may be seized, (80) for by Allah, his blood-money is a small matter to us, but we are ashamed to be reviled over it." That is what Allah, whose praise is exalted, says about: وَإِذْ قَتَلْتُمْ نَفْسًا فَادَّارَأْتُمْ فِيهَا وَاللَّهُ مُخْرِجٌ مَا كُنْتُمْ تَكْتُمُونَ (And when you killed a soul and disputed among yourselves about it, and Allah brings forth what you were concealing). Moses then said to them: إن الله يأمركم أن تذبحوا بقرة (Allah commands you to slaughter a cow). They said: "We ask you about the murdered man and about who killed him, and you say: slaughter a cow! Are you mocking us?" Moses said: أعوذ بالله أن أكون من الجاهلين (I seek refuge with Allah lest I should be among the ignorant). He said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: Had they taken any random cow and slaughtered it, it would have sufficed them, but they made it difficult and burdensome for Moses, and so Allah made it difficult for them. (81) Then they said: ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا هِيَ قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ لا فَارِضٌ وَلا بِكْرٌ عَوَانٌ بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ (Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us which one she is. He said: He says: it is a cow, not old and not young, of middle age between that) — al-fāriḍ is the decrepit one that no longer bears, al-bikr is the one that has borne only a single calf, and al-ʿawān is the middling one between that, which has borne and whose calf has also borne — فَافْعَلُوا مَا تُؤْمَرُونَ * قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا لَوْنُهَا قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ صَفْرَاءُ فَاقِعٌ لَوْنُهَا تَسُرُّ النَّاظِرِينَ (Do then what you are commanded. They said: Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us what her color is. He said: He says: it is a yellow cow, bright in color, delighting those who look at her) — he said: enrapturing those who look at her — قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا هِيَ إِنَّ الْبَقَرَ تَشَابَهَ عَلَيْنَا وَإِنَّا إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَمُهْتَدُونَ * قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ لا ذَلُولٌ تُثِيرُ الأَرْضَ وَلا تَسْقِي الْحَرْثَ مُسَلَّمَةٌ لا شِيَةَ فِيهَا (They said: Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us which one she is, for cows look alike to us, and we shall, if Allah wills, surely be rightly guided. He said: He says: it is a cow not subjugated, that plows the earth and does not water the tillage, sound, without a blemish upon her) — neither white nor black nor red — قَالُوا الآنَ جِئْتَ بِالْحَقِّ (They said: Now you have come with the truth). Then they sought her, but they could not find her.
And there was a man of the Israelites who was among the most dutiful toward his father. And a man with pearls that he was selling passed by him, while his father was asleep with the key beneath his head. The man said to him: "Will you buy from me this pearl for seventy thousand?" The young man said to him: "Stay as you are until my father awakes, then I will take it for eighty thousand." The other said to him: "Wake your father, and it is yours for sixty thousand." The merchant kept lowering the price for him until he reached thirty thousand, and the other kept raising his offer, on condition that he wait until his father awoke, until he reached one hundred thousand. When he pressed him, he said: "No, by Allah, I will never buy it from you for any price," and he refused to wake his father. Then Allah recompensed him for that pearl by destining that cow for him. The Israelites passed by him while they were seeking the cow, and they saw the cow with him and asked him whether he would sell it to them, a cow for a cow, but he refused. Then they offered him two, but he refused. They increased it until they reached ten, but he refused. They said: "By Allah, we will not let you go until we take her from you." So they brought him to Moses and said: "O prophet of Allah, we have found the cow with this man, but he refuses to give her to us, though we have offered him a price." Moses said to him: "Give them your cow." He said: "O messenger of Allah, I have more right to my own property." He said: "You are right." And he said to the people: "Satisfy your man." Then they gave him her weight in gold, but he refused. Then they doubled for him the like of what they had given him, until they had given him her weight ten times over, and he sold her to them and took the price for her. Then he said: "Slaughter her." They slaughtered her, and he said: "Strike him with a part of her." They struck him with the piece of flesh that is between the shoulder blades, and he came to life. They asked him: "Who killed you?" He said to them: "My brother's son," he said: "I will kill him, and take his property, and marry his daughter." Then they seized the young man and killed him.
1175 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda —
1176 — And Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, on the authority of Ibn Zayd, on the authority of Mujāhid —
1177 — And al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, saying: Khālid ibn Yazīd related to me, on the authority of Mujāhid —
1178 — And al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us, saying: ʿAbd aṣ-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil related to me that he heard Wahb mention —
1179 — And al-Qāsim related to me, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid — and Ḥajjāj, on the authority of Abū Maʿshar, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī and Muḥammad ibn Qays —
1180 — And Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father informed me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās —
— and they all mentioned that the occasion for which Moses said to them إن الله يأمركم أن تذبحوا بقرة (Allah commands you to slaughter a cow) was the same as the occasion that ʿAbīda, Abū al-ʿĀliya, and as-Suddī mentioned, except that some of them mentioned that the one who had killed the murdered man — about whose case they disputed before Moses — was the brother of the slain man, while some of them mentioned that he was his brother's son, and some said: no, it was a group of heirs who found his life had lasted too long. Except that they all agree that Moses commanded them to slaughter the cow only on account of the murdered man, when they laid their case before him — in accordance with the command that Allah gave him to that effect — (82) and they said to him: "And what is the slaughtering of the cow? Does that make clear our dispute about which we disputed before you concerning the killing of who has been killed, while it is alleged against some of us that he is the murderer! Are you mocking us?" As in:
1181 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: A man of the Israelites was killed, and he was thrown down among one of the tribes. The family of that murdered man came to that tribe and said: "By Allah, you have killed our man." They said: "No, by Allah." Then they came to Moses and said: "This is our murdered man, in their very midst, and they, by Allah, have killed him!" They said: "No, by Allah, O prophet of Allah, he has been thrown down among us!" Moses then said to them: "Allah commands you to slaughter a cow." They said: "Are you mocking us?" And he recited the saying of Allah, whose praise is exalted: أتتخذنا هزوا (Are you mocking us?). They said: "We come to you and mention our murdered man and that in which we find ourselves, and you mock us?" Moses said: أعوذ بالله أن أكون من الجاهلين (I seek refuge with Allah lest I should be among the ignorant).
1182 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid; and Ḥajjāj, on the authority of Abū Maʿshar, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī and Muḥammad ibn Qays: When the relatives of the murdered man and those whom they accused of killing their man came to Moses and told him their story, Allah revealed to him that they should slaughter a cow. Moses then said to them: إن الله يأمركم أن تذبحوا بقرة، قالوا أتتخذنا هزوا قال أعوذ بالله أن أكون من الجاهلين (Allah commands you to slaughter a cow. They said: Are you mocking us? He said: I seek refuge with Allah lest I should be among the ignorant). They said: "And what does the cow have to do with the murdered man?" He said: "I say to you: 'Allah commands you to slaughter a cow,' and you say: 'Are you mocking us?'"
------------------
Footnotes:
(71) It is Ṣukhayr ibn ʿUmayr at-Tamīmī, and it is said that the poem is by al-Aṣmaʿī himself.
(72) Al-Aṣmaʿiyyāt: 58, and Amālī al-Qālī 2:284. See the verification of what has been said about it in the annotation of Simṭ al-laʾālī by ar-Rājkūtī: 930. Their transmission all reads:
"The sister of the family of Ṭaysala mocks me…"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And it is also transmitted as "mumliqan lā shayʾa lah" and "muballiṭan," which all have the same meaning: poor, he has nothing.
(73) In the printed edition: "qumtu wa-faʿaltu" (I arose and did), and in the printed edition: "wa-lam taqul: qumtu…" with the addition of the wāw, and that is erroneous. See Maʿānī al-Qurʾān by al-Farrāʾ 1:44.
(74) The gist of the meaning: Moses informed them that whoever reports on behalf of Allah with mockery and derision belongs to the ignorant.
(75) Transmission 1172 — ʿAbīda, with fatḥa on the ʿayn and after the single bāʾ an undotted yāʾ: it is ʿAbīda as-Salmānī. This transmission has been recorded by Ibn Kathīr 1:197-198, from the transmission of Ibn Abī Ḥātim, via the route of Hishām ibn Ḥassān "on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, on the authority of ʿAbīda as-Salmānī." He then referred to this transmission of Ṭabarī. And another transmission has already passed: 245, from the transmission of Ayyūb and Ibn ʿAwn, on the authority of Ibn Sīrīn, on the authority of "ʿAbīda." And there we deemed it correct that it is "ʿAbīda." This isnād here supports what we deemed correct.
(76) Majmaʿ aṭ-ṭarīq: that is where people meet and come together, or where the roads cross one another.
(77) Istaʿraḍū: they took from the multitude of cows (ʿarḍ, with ḍamma on the ʿayn and sukūn on the rāʾ) without concerning themselves which they took. And al-ʿarḍ: the front and the side, that is to say: what presents itself to you of a thing.
(78) One says: "this matter does not go together with such-and-such," that is to say: it does not suit him and is not good for him. So his words "no other than she is of use to them" mean: no other than she is good for them and benefits them in that which Allah has commanded them.
(79) In the printed edition: "uṣību fīhā," and that is wrong; the correct reading comes from the tafsīr of Ibn Kathīr 1:200. Aṣāba al-insān of property and otherwise: he obtained and took. And he means: so that I may obtain profit from it.
(80) In the printed edition: "ادع لنا حتى يتبين" (call upon for us so that it becomes clear). The text of Ibn Kathīr in his tafsīr 1:200 reads: "Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us who the perpetrator is, so that the one guilty of the matter may be seized."
(81) Aʿnatahu and taʿannatahu: he asked him about something with the intention of making it difficult and burdensome for him.
(82) The best would be that it reads: "in accordance with the command that Allah gave him to that effect."
