The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 164
CH. 2 R. 9. AL-BAQARAH PT. 1 وَإِذْ قَتَلْتُمْ نَفْسًا فَاذْرَتُمْ فِيهَا وَاللهُ And remember the time. 73 مُخْرِجٌ مَّا كُنْتُمْ تَكْتُمُوْنَ when you slew a person and differed among yourselves about it; and Allāh would bring to light what you concealed. 79 hearts of the Israelites, they should have been repeatedly commanded to sacrifice the COW. And this was actually the case (Num. 19:1-9; Lev. 4:1-21; 16:3, 11; etc. ) A nation which freely slaughters an animal can never think of deifying it. In the verses under comment, i. e. vv. 68 to 72, mention is made of Moses having ordered the Israelites to sacrifice a cow. It appears that at first they were bidden to sacrifice an ordinary cow, but it seems they had a particular cow which served as a pet among them and they had a natural misgiving that the order pertained to that cow. So they repeatedly asked Moses to specify the cow which God meant to be slaughtered, and as a result of their questionings some conditions were added to specify the animal. Finally, when the description given by Moses corresponded to the particular cow which they had in view, they had perforce to say, Now hast thou brought the truth, the words showing that from the very beginning they had in their mind some particular cow to which they thought the command pertained. Caught in their own net, they were guided aright and had to slaughter the very cow which served as a pet among them and thus a great step was taken to uproot the evil from their hearts. This incident finds mention in the Bible also (Num. 19:1-9). The Quranic version, however, differs slightly from that of the Bible. According to the Quran, the Israelites were at first ordered to slaughter an ordinary cow, and it was only on their repeated questioning that descriptions were added to specify it. On the other hand, the Biblical version makes no mention of this questioning, but tells us that at the very outset the Israelites were ordered to slaughter a cow answering a particular description. Again, the narrative of the Quran, shows that it was with great reluctance that the Israelites finally complied with the command, but the Bible throws no light on the manner in which the divine behest was carried out. It is not difficult to see on which side the truth lies. It is too much to believe that the Israelites, who were ever ready to quarrel with Moses on receipt of an injunction against their wishes, should have carried out, without question, the order relating to the slaughter of a cow. 79. Important Words: 164 قتل you slew is derived from) قتلتم which means: (1) he killed; (2) he attempted to kill; (3) he rendered a