Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:68
They said, "Call upon your Lord to make clear to us what it is." [Moses] said, "[Allah] says, 'It is a cow which is neither old nor virgin, but median between that,' so do what you are commanded."
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: قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا هِيَ قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ لا فَارِضٌ (83) (They said: "Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us what she is." He said: "Indeed, He says: it is a cow, neither too old…") (2:68)
Abū Jaʿfar said: Those to whom it was said: إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَنْ تَذْبَحُوا بَقَرَةً (Indeed, Allah commands you to slaughter a cow) — after they had recognized and it had been established with them that what Mūsā commanded them therein, namely the slaughtering of a cow, was by the command of Allah, in earnest and in truth (84) — said: (Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us what she is). Thus they asked Mūsā to ask of his Lord, on their behalf, that very thing from which Allah had already spared them by His saying to them: "Slaughter a cow." For He, exalted be His praise, had only commanded them to slaughter a cow from among the cows — whichever cow they wished to slaughter, without His restricting that for them to one kind and not another, or to one category and not another. But out of the hardness of their character, the coarseness of their nature, the wickedness of their understanding, and their imposing upon themselves that whose burden Allah had lifted from them, they said this as a form of caviling against the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, as in:
1183 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father related to me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: When Mūsā said to them: أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ (I seek refuge with Allah that I should be among the ignorant), they said to him, caviling at him: (Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us what she is).
So when they imposed upon themselves out of ignorance that which they imposed upon themselves in inquiring about that from which they had already been spared, namely the description of the cow which they were commanded to slaughter — out of caviling against their prophet Mūsā, the blessings of Allah be upon him, after the evil suspicion they had displayed toward him concerning what he had reported to them from Allah, exalted be His praise, with their saying: أَتَتَّخِذُنَا هُزُوًا (Do you take us in mockery?) (85) — He, mighty and exalted, punished them by restricting the slaughter of what He had commanded them to slaughter from among the cows to one kind and not another. (86) So He, exalted be His praise, said to them, when they asked Him and said: "What is she? What is her mark? What is her form? Describe her for us, that we may recognize her!" (87) — He said: (it is a cow, neither too old nor young).
* * *
By His saying, exalted be His praise, (neither too old — lā fāriḍ) He means: not aged and decrepit. One says of this: "faraḍat al-baqaratu tafriḍu furūḍan," by which is meant: she became old. To this belongs the saying of the poet:
O Lord, many a bearer of rancor against me, old in hatred (fāriḍ), he has tidings like the tidings of the menstruating woman (88)
By his word "fāriḍ" he means: old. He describes an old rancor. To this also belongs the saying of another:
She has teeth and a great, broad uvula (fāriḍ), hanging to one side like a milk-skin which the churner has turned (89)
And in accordance with what we have said concerning the explanation of "fāriḍ," the commentators have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
1184 — ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Kindī related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥarb related to us, on the authority of Khaṣīf, on the authority of Mujāhid: (neither too old — lā fāriḍ), he said: not aged. (90)
1185 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, he said: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Khaṣīf, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, or on the authority of ʿIkrima — Sharīk doubted —: (neither too old — lā fāriḍ), he said: the aged.
1185 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father informed me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his word: (neither too old — lā fāriḍ); the fāriḍ is: the decrepit.
1186 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Minjāb, he said: Bishr related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (neither too old — lā fāriḍ), he says: she is not aged and decrepit.
1187 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, he said: Ibn Jurayj said, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (neither too old — lā fāriḍ); the decrepit.
1188 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "the fāriḍ" is the aged.
1189 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Ahwāzī related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, he said: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Khaṣīf, on the authority of Mujāhid, his word: (neither too old — lā fāriḍ), he said: the aged.
1190 — Al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Ādam related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: (neither too old — lā fāriḍ), that means: not decrepit.
1191 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, the like of it.
1192 — Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "the fāriḍ" is the decrepit.
1193 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar said, Qatāda said: "the fāriḍ" is the decrepit. He says: she is not the decrepit and not the young, but between those two (ʿawān).
1194 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, he said: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "the fāriḍ" is the decrepit one which no longer bears young.
1195 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said: "the fāriḍ" is the aged.
* * *
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَلا بِكْرٌ (nor young — bikr)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The "bikr" among the females of livestock and of the children of Ādam is that which the male has not yet deflowered; the word is pronounced with a kasra on the bāʾ (bikr), and no verbal form "faʿala" nor "yafʿalu" has been heard of it. As for "bakr" with a fatḥa on the bāʾ, that is the young male of the camels.
* * *
He, exalted be His praise, meant by His word (nor young — wa-lā bikr): nor small that has not yet borne young, as in:
1196 — ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Kindī related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥarb related to us, on the authority of Khaṣīf, on the authority of Mujāhid: (nor young — wa-lā bikr); small.
1197 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "the bikr" is the small.
1198 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, he said: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Khaṣīf, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — or ʿIkrima, doubt —: (nor young — wa-lā bikr), he said: the small.
1199 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥasan related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, he said: Ibn Jurayj said, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (nor young — wa-lā bikr); the small.
1200 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Abū Sufyān related to me, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: (nor young — wa-lā bikr) and not small.
1201 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Minjāb, he said: Bishr related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (nor young — wa-lā bikr); and not small and weak.
1202 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Ādam related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: (nor young — wa-lā bikr), that means: and not small.
1203 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, the like of it.
1204 — And Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, he said: ʿAmr related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: concerning "the bikr": she who has borne only one young.
* * *
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: عَوَانٌ (of middle age — ʿawān)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The "ʿawān" is the middling one, which has borne one young after another, and she is no longer characterized as the bikr. One says of this: "qad ʿawwanat" when she has become so.
The meaning of the words is only that He says: it is a cow, neither too old nor young, but of middle age between those two. And it is not permissible that "ʿawān" be anything other than a subject (mubtadaʾ). For His word بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ (between those two) is a reference to the fāriḍ and the bikr, and therefore it is not permissible that it precede them. To this belongs the saying of al-Akhṭal:
And in Mecca there is no gray, diligent woman, and in Yathrib no women of middle age (ʿūn) and no virgins (90)
Its plural is "ʿūn." One says: "a woman of middle age (ʿawān) from among women of middle age (ʿūn)." To this belongs the saying of Tamīm ibn Muqbil:
And a company of women like the statues, dark-eyed, their tears [flowing], they have not known the hardship of life, neither as virgins nor as women of middle age (92)
And a "cow of middle age (ʿawān)," and "cows of middle age (ʿūn)." He said: And sometimes the Arabs say "baqar ʿuwun," like "rusul," intending thereby to distinguish between the plural of "ʿawān" of the cows and the plural of "ʿāna" of the wild asses. And one says: "this is a war of middling kind (ʿawān)," when it is a war in which battle has been waged time after time. That is compared to the woman who has borne one young after another. And likewise one says: "a need of middling kind (ʿawān)," when it has been fulfilled time after time.
1205 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us that Ibn Zayd recited to him:
Crouching at the doors, asking for a need, of middling kind among needs, or a new need (93)
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the verse is by al-Farazdaq.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning it, the commentators have explained it.
* Mention of who said that:
1206 — ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Kindī related to us, ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥarb related to us, on the authority of Khaṣīf, on the authority of Mujāhid: (of middle age between those two — ʿawān bayna dhālik); the middling one, which has borne one or two young. (94)
1207 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (of middle age — ʿawān), he said: "the ʿawān" is the aged, the middling.
1208 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "the ʿawān" is the middling.
1209 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, he said: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Khaṣīf, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — or ʿIkrima, Sharīk doubted —: (of middle age — ʿawān), he said: between those two.
1210 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Minjāb, he said: Bishr related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (of middle age — ʿawān), he said: between the small and the large, and she is the strongest there is among the cows and the beasts of burden, and the most beautiful there is.
1211 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥasan related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, he said: Ibn Jurayj said, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (of middle age — ʿawān), he said: the middling.
1212 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Ādam related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: (of middle age — ʿawān); the middling.
1213 — And it was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, on the authority of Ibn Abī Jaʿfar, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, the like of it.
1214 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda: "the ʿawān" is the middling between those two.
1214 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, he said: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Khaṣīf, on the authority of Mujāhid: (of middle age — ʿawān); she who brings forth [young], on condition that she be the one who has brought forth one or two young.
1215 — Mūsā related to us, he said: ʿAmr related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "the ʿawān" is the middling one which is between those two, which has borne young and whose young has [in turn] borne young.
1216 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb related to us, he said: Ibn Zayd said: "the ʿawān" is between those two, she is neither young nor aged.
* * *
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ (between those two — bayna dhālik)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His word (between those two — bayna dhālik) He means: between the young and the decrepit, as in:
1217 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Ādam related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: (between those two — bayna dhālik), that is to say: between the young and the decrepit.
* * *
Now if someone were to say: "You know that 'bayna' (between) is only fitting with two things or more; how then is it said 'bayna dhālik' (between that), while 'dhālik' (that) is in wording singular?"
Then it is answered: it is fitting despite its being singular, because "dhālik" carries the meaning of two. The Arabs gather in "dhālik" and "dhāk" two things and two meanings of actions, as the speaker says: "I suppose your brother to be standing, and ʿAmr was your father," (95) and then says: "That (dhāk) was indeed, and I suppose that (dhālik)." Thus he gathers with "dhālik" and "dhāk" the subject and the predicate, both of which "ẓann" (supposing) and "kāna" (being) inevitably required. (96)
* * *
The meaning of the words, then, is: He said: Indeed, He says: it is only a cow, not aged and decrepit, and not small that has not yet borne young, but she is a middling cow which has borne one young after another, between old age and youth. Thus "dhālik" gathered the meaning of old age and youth, for what we have described. And had there been, in place of the fāriḍ and the bikr, the name of two persons, that would not have been gathered with "bayna." That is because "dhālik" cannot stand in place of the name of two persons, and it is not permissible for one who says: "I was between Zayd and ʿAmr," that he say: "I was between that (bayna dhālik)." That is only possible with names of actions, not with names of persons. (97)
* * *
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: فَافْعَلُوا مَا تُؤْمَرُونَ (68) (so do what you are commanded) (2:68)
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, exalted be His praise, says to them: Do what I command you, then you will attain your needs and your requests with Me; and slaughter the cow which I have commanded you to slaughter, then you will — by submitting yourselves to obedience to Me with her slaughter — come to the knowledge of the slayer of your slain one.
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Footnotes:
(83) The entire verse is missing in the manuscripts; I have set it in its place.
(84) His word "earnest and truth" (jadd wa-ḥaqq) is the predicate of his word "that what Mūsā commanded them…".
(85) The flow of the expression is: "When they imposed upon themselves out of ignorance that which they imposed upon themselves… He punished them…", and what stands between is a parenthetical clause.
(86) In the printed edition it reads "by His restricting to the slaughtering of what He had commanded them"; the expression of Ṭabarī, to my best estimate, is what I have established, for he has just said (189): "without His restricting that for them to one kind and not another," and he will later say (197): "so they restricted it to one kind and not the remaining kinds."
(87) The ḥilya (with kasra then sukūn) is the mark and form: "ḥallā al-rajula yuḥallīhi taḥliyatan": he described his form and figure. And "taḥallaytu al-rajula": I knew his mark.
(88) [Source references: Majālis Thaʿlab 364, al-Maʿānī al-kabīr 850, 1143, al-Ḥayawān 6:66–67, al-Aḍdād 22, Kitāb al-Qurṭayn 1:44, 77, al-Lisān (faraḍa) and others.] The correct recitation of it is:
O Lord, many a patron, envious and full of hatred, against me, bearer of rancor and old grudge (fāriḍ)
The "ḍibb" is the anger and hatred you conceal in the heart. "Qurūʾ" and "aqrāʾ" are the plural of "qarʾ" (with ḍamma then sukūn): that is the time of menstruation. Ibn Qutayba said: "that is to say, he has times in which his enmity flares up." Al-Jāḥiẓ said: "as if he meant by it the fact that his hatred subsides and then flares up, then subsides and flares up again."
(89) The first verse is in al-Lisān (zajaja), and the second in al-Mukhaṣṣaṣ 1:162. In the original there stood [a variant], and that is a corruption. The "zijāj" is the plural of "zujj": that is the iron point fixed at the bottom of the lance to thrust it into the ground; he uses it as a metaphor for the teeth (molars). The "lahāt" is a red lump of flesh in the palate, which hangs above the root of the tongue, protruding above the throat. The "fāriḍ" in this verse is: the wide, great, thick; one says: "a beard fāriḍ," and "a froth-bladder fāriḍ" (that is the lahāt of the camel), and "a bucket fāriḍ." Abū Muḥammad al-Faqʿasī said, describing a wide bucket (that is the gharb):
And the bucket, a roomy, cowhide bucket fāriḍ
"Ḥadlāʾ" and "aḥdal": that is the one who walks crookedly, with in his shoulders and neck an inclination toward his chest and a curvature. The "waṭb" is the milk-skin, made of leather. "Naḥā-hu": he turned it and made it lean. The "mākhiḍ": from "makhaḍa al-laban" when one places it in the churn so that the butter comes out of it. Perhaps he reviles his wife, and mentions the ugliness of her teeth and the width of her uvula, on account of the severity of her gluttony. And he describes her gait, leaning crookedly to one side, and the piling up of her body, part upon part, as if she were a milk-skin which the churner makes lean to the right and left as he moves it.
(90) Report 1184 — ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd ibn Masrūq al-Kindī, the teacher of Ṭabarī: a Kūfī, trustworthy (thiqa), with a biography in al-Tahdhīb and in Ibn Abī Ḥātim 3/1/189–190, died in the year 249. ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥarb al-Mulāʾī al-Kūfī, the ḥāfiẓ: trustworthy and authoritative (thiqa ḥujja), the compilers of the six books have transmitted from him. Ibn Abī Ḥātim described him 3/1/47.
(91) [Source: his dīwān 119], and it differs from what Ṭabarī transmitted; preceding it is:
Indeed, I have sworn by the Lord of the swaying she-camels, and by what appears in Mecca of veils and curtains,
and by the sacrificial animals — when their forelegs are reddened — on a day of ritual devotion, the casting of the pebbles and the slaughter,
that in Zamzam there is no gray, shaven one, and in Yathrib no women of middle age (ʿūn) and no virgins.
He means: they have shaven their heads, after they had released themselves from their iḥrām and completed their pilgrimage. The "shumṭ" is the plural of "ashmaṭ": that is the one whose black hair is mingled with the white of grayness. Now if the transmission of Ṭabarī "shumṭ muḥaffila" is correct, then it is as if it is derived from "al-ḥafīl" and "al-iḥtifāl": that is earnestness and diligence; one says of this: "a man with ḥafīl, and with ḥafl and ḥafla": he has earnestness, diligence, and thoroughness in the matters in which he has engaged. Then it is as if he meant: diligent in worship and ritual devotion.
(92) [Source: Jamharat ashʿār al-ʿArab 162], from the best of the poetry of Tamīm ibn Abī ibn Muqbil. The "maʾtam" among the Arabs is: a group of women — or men — at good or evil. They said: and the common folk err and think that the "maʾtam" is the wailing and lamentation. The "dumā" is the plural of "dumya": the image or statue, in which one is skillful in the making and thorough in the adornment; and the Arabs frequently compare women to statues. The "ḥūr" is the plural of "ḥawrāʾ." The "ḥawar" is that the white of the eye becomes very white and its black very black, that the pupil becomes round, the eyelids thin, and what is around it white. And his word "lam tabʾas" means: the misery of life has not befallen her, or she has not complained of the misery of life; "baʾisa yabʾasu buʾsan," so he is "bāʾis" and "baʾīs": he became poor and the misery became heavy upon him. In the printed original, and in al-Lisān (atama), it reads "lam tayʾas" with the doubled yāʾ, and that is an error.
(93) [Sources: Dīwān al-Farazdaq 227, Ṭabaqāt fuḥūl al-shuʿarāʾ 256, Taʾrīkh al-Ṭabarī 138 and others.] It will come in 7:188 (Būlāq), and the poem is about Ziyād; preceding it is:
Ziyād called me for a gift, but I was not one who approaches him, so long as one of lineage and wealth approaches him,
and with Ziyād — if he wished to give them a gift — are many men, among whom poverty is seen.
One also reads "quʿūdan"; the transmission of Ibn Sallām is "ṭālib ḥāja," and the accusative "aw ḥājatan bikran" is an apposition in the place of "ḥāja ʿawān," whose place is accusative by his word "ṭullāb."
(94) Report 1206 — "ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Kindī": we have described him at 1184, and in the manuscripts there stands here "Saʿd" in place of "Saʿīd," and that is an error.
(95) The expression of al-Farrāʾ is clearer here; he said: "Thus 'kāna' inevitably requires two things, and 'aẓunnu' inevitably requires two things, and then it is permissible for you to say: 'That (dhāk) was indeed, and I suppose that (dhālik).'" Maʿānī al-Qurʾān 1:45.
(96) In the printed edition it stood: "both of which al-ẓann and kāna inevitably required," and that is gibberish.
(97) See Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1:45.
