Slaughter a Cow

An incident happened in which an old man from Banū Isrāʾīl was killed. This man was wealthy. They could not find out who had killed him. They did not know; they tried; they searched. Nobody admitted to the crime, and they looked around, and they did not know who killed him. So they went to Mūsā and said: O Mūsā, we want you to solve this crime. Somebody has been killed; we do not know who killed him; solve it for us. So Mūsā asked Allah (swt) for a solution to this problem.

Mūsā went to his people and said: Allah is commanding you to sacrifice a cow. They said: what — are you making fun of us? Are you joking with us? We are asking you to solve the crime of somebody who was killed, and you are telling us to kill a cow? What are you talking about? They said: do you make fun of us?

What did Mūsā say? Inna Allāha yaʾmurukum — Allah is commanding you. And Banū Isrāʾīl said: you are making fun of us; are you joking? Look at the rudeness of Banū Isrāʾīl. What do you mean — Mūsā is joking with the name of Allah? Mūsā tells you, go and sacrifice a cow; Allah is telling you to sacrifice a cow; and you go and tell him: you are joking; are you making fun of us? This is not appropriate for a righteous man to do — let alone a nabī of Allah (swt), a prophet — to use the name of Allah (swt) in jokes. But this shows you the manners, the adab, of Banū Isrāʾīl.

He said: aʿūdhu billāhi an akūna min al-jāhilīn — I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant, the foolish. I am not making fun of you; this is serious — jidd.