His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿He said, 'Indeed, he says it is a cow, not one that is submissive, which plows the earth nor waters the crops, sound, with no blemish in it.' They said, 'Now you have brought the truth.' So they slaughtered it, and they were almost not going to do it.﴾

﴿And when you killed a soul, then you disagreed concerning it. And Allah will bring forth what you were concealing.﴾

﴿So We said, 'Strike him with a part of it.' Thus Allah brings the dead to life and shows you His signs so that perhaps you will understand.﴾

(p-250) 'Submissive' [dhallūl] means made submissive by work and training. You say, 'a submissive cow,' meaning one that is clearly submissive, with a broken dhāl. And a submissive man is one who is clearly humble, with a pronounced dhāl. 'Submissive' is an adjective for 'cow' or implied to be so. Abu Abdur-Rahman as-Sulami read 'not submissive' [la dhallūl] with the lam in the accusative.

And ﴿which plows the earth﴾ means by farming. And among the people, it is a phrase in the nominative position describing the cow, meaning: 'not a submissive plow-er.' Some people said, 'plows' is an independent action, meaning it is obligatory to farm, and that it was plowing but not watering. And it is not permissible for this phrase to be in the position of a state, because it is from an indefinite noun.

And 'waters the crops' means with a watering device or other tools. And 'the crops' refers to what has been tilled and sown. And 'sound' [musallamah] is a form of exaggeration from safety. Ibn Abbas, Qatadah, and Abu Aliyah said it means free from defects. Mujahid and Qatadah said it means free from markings and colors. And some people said it means free from labor. And ﴿no blemish in it﴾ means there is no difference in its color; it is entirely yellow, with no whiteness, redness, or blackness in it. This was said by Ibn Zayd and others. The mixed one has different colors, and from it is the 'mushayy' which means it is adorned with colors. And from it is the 'washī' because it adorns its lies with colors of speech. And the bull that is 'ushayy' is one that has a patch. It is said: a horse is 'ablāq,' a ram is 'ukhrāj,' a goat is 'abrāq,' a dog is 'abqā,' and a bull is 'ushayy,' all of these mean having a patch.

And these descriptions of the cow are the reason that they were strict, so Allah made it strict upon them. And the religion of Allah is ease, and being overly inquisitive in questioning the prophets, peace be upon them, is blameworthy.

And the story of the existence of this cow is as it has been narrated that a man from the Children of Israel had a son born to him, and he had a calf, so he sent it into a thicket and said, 'O Allah, I have entrusted this calf to You for this boy.' The man died, and when the boy grew up, his mother said to him, 'Your father entrusted a calf to Allah for you, so go take it.' So he went, and when the cow saw him, it came to him until he took hold of its horns, and it was skittish, so he began to lead it towards his mother. The Children of Israel met him and found his cow to be as they had been commanded.

A group narrated that there was a man from the Children of Israel who was dutiful to his father. One day, his father slept with the keys to their dwelling under his head. A seller of jewels passed by him and offered him sixty thousand. The son of the sleeper said to him: 'Wait until my father wakes up, and I will take it from you for seventy thousand.' The jewel seller said to him: 'Wake your father, and I will give it to you for fifty thousand.' They continued like this until it reached one hundred thousand, and the jewel seller lowered his price to thirty thousand. The son of the sleeper said to him: 'By Allah, I will not buy it from you for anything, being dutiful to my father.' So Allah compensated him for it by the cow being found with him.

Some said: It was found with an old woman who was caring for orphans; the cow belonged to them. There are other variations in its story. This is its meaning. When the cow was found, did they offer it to its owner? He was harsh with them, and its value, according to what was narrated from 'Ikrimah, was three dinars. They brought it to Moses, peace be upon him, and said: 'This one was harsh with us.' He said to them: 'Satisfy him in his ownership and buy it from him for its weight once.' This was said by 'Ubaidah al-Salmani, and it was said: 'For its weight twice.' Al-Suddi said: 'For its weight ten times.' Mujahid said: 'It belonged to a man who was dutiful to his mother, and it was taken from him for the weight of its skin in dinars.' Al-Makki narrated that this cow descended from the sky and was not from the cows of the earth. Al-Tabari narrated from al-Hasan that it was wild.

And 'now' is built on the opening, and it does not recognize this alif and lam. Do you not see that it does not part from it in usage? It was built because it contained the meaning of the definite article, and because it occurs in the position of the indefinite, as its meaning is 'this time.' It is an expression of what is between the past and the future. It was read: 'They said: now' with the lam being silent and a hamzah after it, and 'They said: now' with a prolongation on the waw and the lam being opened without a hamzah, and 'They said: now' with the waw being omitted from the pronunciation without a hamzah, and 'They said: now' with the first alif being cut off even though it is an alif of connection, as you say: O Allah.

And 'You have come with the truth' means for those who made them disobedient: 'You have clarified for us the ultimate clarification,' and 'You have come with the truth' that we requested, not that he used to come before that without truth. Its meaning according to Ibn Zayd, who took their dialogue to be about disbelief, is: 'Now you have spoken the truth,' and they submitted in this state when it was clarified to them that it was sound. It was said that they specified it with these descriptions, saying: 'This is the cow of so-and-so.' This verse indicates that slaughtering is an original act for cows, and if it is slaughtered, it is sufficient.

And His saying, exalted is He: "And they were not about to do it," is an expression of their hesitance in slaughtering it and their lack of initiative in the command of Allah. Muhammad ibn Ka'b al-Qurazi said: This was due to the high price of the cow and the abundance of its cost. Others said: This was due to the fear of disgrace regarding the matter of the killer. It was said: This was due to their known lack of compliance and their obstinacy towards the prophets. The story of the murdered man, which is intended by His saying, exalted is He: "And when you killed a soul," has already been mentioned. The meaning is that we said to them: Remember when you "killed" and "debated"; its origin is: tadāra'tum. Then the ت was assimilated into the د, so it became difficult to begin with an assimilated letter, and the alif of connection was brought in. Its meaning is that you pushed each other regarding the killing of the killed one. The poet said:

The deterrent of the flood met a deterrent that repels it...

And another said:

A deterrent that repels the opponents with a saying, Like the edge of the Indian sword.

And the pronoun in His saying: "in it" refers back to the soul, and it was said to the killers. Abu Haywah and Abu al-Suwar al-Ghanawi read: "And when you killed a soul, then you debated." A group read: "Then you debated" according to the original. The position of "what" was made accusative by a reason, and the hidden matter is the matter of the killed one. And His saying: "Strike him with some of it," is a sign from Allah, exalted is He, through the hand of Musa, peace be upon him, that He commanded them to strike the killed one with some of the cow, so he would come to life and inform them of his killer. It was said: They struck him; and it was said: They struck his grave because Ibn Abbas mentioned that the matter of the killed one occurred before crossing the sea, and that they remained in search of the cow for forty years. Al-Qurazi said: They commanded to seek it while it was neither in a lineage nor in a womb after that. Al-Suddi said: He struck with the flesh between the shoulders. Mujahid, Qatadah, and Ubaydah al-Salmani said: He struck with the thigh, and it was said he struck with the tongue, and it was said: with the tail, and Abu al-Aliyah said: with a bone from its bones. And His saying, exalted is He: "Thus Allah brings the dead to life," the reference of "that" is to the revival that is included in the story of the verse, as there is an omission in the speech, the estimation of which is: They struck him, so he came to life. In this verse, there is an encouragement for reflection and a sign of resurrection in the Hereafter. Its apparent meaning is that it is addressed to the Children of Israel at that time, and it has been narrated to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, for him to take heed until the Day of Resurrection. Al-Tabari went to the view that it is addressed to the contemporaries of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and that it is disconnected from His saying: "Strike him with some of it," and Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, used this incident to permit the words of the killed one and for the oath of division to occur with him.