One Event, Many Purposes

What is striking is that in many of these events — as in the event through which we are living now — Allah (swt) is exceedingly comprehensive. A single event accomplishes a great many things at once, and affects many matters in ways we cannot see. Of some we have reports: how it will affect the economy, how it will affect people's mental health, their physical health, the deaths already suffered. But there are many others of which we know nothing, and part of the wisdom of Allah in it will only be understood in years to come, for this will leave its mark.

So it was with that incident. It was particular enough in itself; but in those days a question had arisen among the Banū Isrāʾīl concerning the Hereafter, and this served as a kind of miracle answering it. While the matter was specific to one case, the fact that a dead man returned to life and could identify his killer carried that further benefit with it.

Some of the mufassirīn mention another consideration. The Israelites, having lived long among the Egyptians, had acquired a particular attachment to cows, amounting almost to reverence, so that they may have regarded them as in some sense sanctified. To be commanded to sacrifice a cow put an end to any such notion. The cow is a beneficial animal; it is not a sacred one, even though it is mentioned in the Qur'an and the longest sūrah is named after it. Hindus today could not cite this as a precedent.