The Cow and the Murdered Man

The story is this. There was among the Banū Isrāʾīl a man of great wealth — and Sūrat al-Baqarah is filled with discussion of the Banū Isrāʾīl, for it is setting the stage.

The revealed traditions in the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), before his coming, were those of the Christians and the Jews, the Yahūd and the Naṣārā. The people of Makkah may have retained some remnant of the Abrahamic faith, but were for the most part idolaters. So far as religion with any warrant or origin in the word of Allah was concerned, it was the Yahūd and the Naṣārā who possessed it. The Persians were fire-worshippers, which is not a revealed religion; and of anything else, wa-llāhu aʿlam. In any case everything had been corrupted by that time.

Hence the extensive treatment of the Banū Isrāʾīl. There is a great deal of historical knowledge in it which Allah (swt) is supplying, so that we may draw lessons from it and avoid the errors they fell into. The first juzʾ of the Qur'an is full of such encounters with the Banū Isrāʾīl.

As to the particular story from which the sūrah takes its name: a wealthy Israelite was killed by his nephew, who wanted his inheritance. Having killed him, the nephew carried the body by night and laid it at another man's door — about the worst thing he could have done, but that is what he did. He then laid a charge against that man, falsely accusing him of the killing; being a relative of the deceased, he had the right to bring the claim.

Two tribes were now set against each other, since the accused party would not accept it, and they were on the point of war and of considerable bloodshed. The account is a long one, but the substance is that Allah (swt) instructed Mūsā (peace be upon him) to tell them to slaughter a cow, take a portion of its meat, and touch the dead man with it, whereupon the truth would be made plain. They were, in all likelihood, slaughtering cows in any case. The command was simply this:

They were to sacrifice a cow, and might have done so at once and simply. Instead they began to ask a great many questions. That story is told from verse 66 onwards, and may be read there. In the end they managed it: having made the matter so difficult for themselves, they found the cow, slaughtered it, took a portion of its meat, laid it upon the murdered man — and he spoke. He was restored to life, and named his killer.