Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:69
They said, "Call upon your Lord to show us what is her color." He said, "He says, 'It is a yellow cow, bright in color - pleasing to the observers.' "
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 لَوْنُهَا قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ صَفْرَاءُ
(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.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The meaning of this is: the people of Mūsā said to Mūsā: call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us what her color is — that is to say: the color of the cow which you have commanded us to slaughter. This too is a new form of obstinacy (taʿannut) on their part after the first, and a roundabout request for something from which they had already been spared at the second time and the last question. That is because at the second time they had not been restricted — when, after they had asked about the nature of the cow which they were commanded to slaughter, [an answer was given] — but they refused anything other than to burden themselves with asking about her quality, which had been spared them. Thereupon they were restricted to one kind to the exclusion of all other kinds, as a punishment from Allah upon them for the question which they put to their prophet ﷺ, out of obstinacy toward him. Then He did not restrict them to one color thereof to the exclusion of another color, but they refused anything other than to burden themselves with that from which they had been relieved. Thus they said — out of obstinacy toward their prophet ﷺ, as Ibn ʿAbbās has reported —: (Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us what her color is). Thereupon it was said to them, as a punishment for them: (It is a yellow cow, bright of color, that delights the beholders). Thus they were restricted to one color thereof to the exclusion of another color. And the meaning of this is: the cow which I have commanded you to slaughter is yellow, bright of color.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The meaning of His word (that He may make clear to us what her color is) is: what thing is her color? For this reason the word "color" (lawn) stands in the nominative (marfūʿ), because it is connected to "mā" ("what"). And "mā" was not put in the accusative by His word "He makes clear to us," because the base form of "ayy" ("which") and "mā" is a summation of the unfolded mode of questioning. The speaker says: make clear to us: is this cow black or yellow? And since it is not the case that his word "make clear to us" can fall upon the unfolded question, it likewise cannot fall upon "ayy," because that is a summation of that unfolded [question]. And so it holds for everything analogous to it: the grammatical operation in it is one and the same, with "mā" and with "ayy."
The exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning the meaning of His word (yellow, ṣafrāʾ). Some of them said: the meaning of this is "black, deep black."
* Mention of who among them said that:
1218 — Abū Masʿūd Ismāʿīl ibn Masʿūd al-Jaḥdarī related to me, saying: Nūḥ ibn Qays related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Sayf, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning (yellow, bright of color): he said: black, deep black.
1219 — Abū Zāʾida Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾida and al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related to me; the two of them said: Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, saying: Nūḥ ibn Qays related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Sayf, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, the same.
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And others said: the meaning of this is: yellow of horn and hoof.
* Mention of who said that:
1220 — Hishām ibn Yūnus al-Nahshalī related to me, saying: Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth related to us, on the authority of Ashʿath, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word (yellow, bright of color): he said: yellow of horn and hoof.
1221 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to me, saying: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of Kathīr ibn Ziyād, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word (yellow, bright of color): he said: she was a wild [cow].
1222 — Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Marwān ibn Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of Abū Ḥafṣ, on the authority of Maghrāʾ — or on the authority of a man —, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning (a yellow cow, bright of color): he said: yellow of horn and hoof.
1223 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: she is yellow.
1224 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Makhlad related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning (It is a yellow cow, bright of color): he said: had they taken a yellow cow, it would have sufficed them.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: I surmise that the one who said concerning His word (yellow) that "black" is meant thereby was guiding himself by the saying, in describing black camels: "These are yellow camels," and "This is a yellow she-camel," by which one means "black." That is said only of camels, because their blackness inclines toward the yellow. To this also belongs the word of the poet:
These are my horses, descended from him, and these are my mounts, yellow are they, their young like raisins.
He means by his word "yellow are they": they are black. And even if the camels are described thereby, it does not belong to that by which cows are described. Moreover, the Arabs do not describe blackness with "fuqūʿ" (brightness); they describe blackness — when they describe it — with intensity, with "ḥulūka" (deepness) and the like. They say: "it is jet-black (aswad ḥālik), and ḥānik, and ḥulkūk, and pitch-black (aswad ghirbīb) and dajūjī" — but they do not say: "it is bright (fāqiʿ) black." Rather they say: "it is bright yellow (aṣfar fāqiʿ)." His describing it with "fuqūʿ" is therefore one of the clear proofs against the interpretation of the one who interpreted His word (It is a yellow cow, bright) with the meaning "black, deep black."
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: فَاقِعٌ لَوْنُهَا
(bright of color)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He means: pure of color. And "al-fuqūʿ" with the yellow is the counterpart of "al-nuṣūʿ" with the white, and that is its intensity and its purity, as:—
1225 — al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, saying: Qatāda said: concerning (bright of color): she is the pure of color.
1226 — al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ādam related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, concerning (bright of color): that is to say, pure of color.
1227 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, the same.
1228 — Mūsā related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning (bright): he said: clean of color.
1229 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning (bright of color): intense in yellowness, almost white from her yellowness. And Abū Jaʿfar said: I think it is white!
1230 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word (bright of color): he said: intense in her yellowness.
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One says of this: "faqaʿa lawnuhu yafqaʿu wa-yafquʿu fuqʿan wa-fuqūʿan, fa-huwa fāqiʿ" (its color became bright, it becomes bright, in brightness, so that it is bright), as the poet said:
I drove the red one against him, until I left him abased, sniffing up the dust, while the color was bright.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: تَسُرُّ النَّاظِرِينَ (69)
(that delights the beholders)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He means by His word (that delights the beholders): this cow gladdens — in the beauty of her form, her appearance, and her aspect — the one who looks at her, as:—
1231 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning (that delights the beholders): that is to say: she gladdens the beholders.
1232 — al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil related to me that he heard Wahb [say] concerning (that delights the beholders): when you looked at her, it seemed to you that the rays of the sun came forth from her hide.
1233 — Mūsā related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning (that delights the beholders): he said: she gladdens the beholders.
