The Cow That Exposed a Killer

On a cold night… an old man was walking alone. He did not know… that eyes were following him in the dark. He stopped… turned around… and saw no one.

And in a moment… it was all over.

The killer ran away… and no one saw him. No one but Allah.

A crime with no witness and no proof… that Allah would expose… with a cow. “And remember when you killed a man and blamed one another for it, but Allah was going to bring out what you were hiding.” (Quran 2:72) This happened among the Children of Israel… in the time of Prophet Moses, peace be upon him. Among them was a very rich old man: wide lands… flocks of sheep… and chests full of silver.

But he had no children.

He ate alone… he slept alone… in a big, silent house. So when he died… his relatives would inherit everything.

Some of them visited him every day… and kept asking how he was.

But people cannot see into hearts… only what shows on faces. At dawn… a woman of the town went to the well with her jar… Suddenly… she saw something she could not believe.

He was lying at the door of another clan… as if the killer wanted to blame the crime on them. People gathered around him…

His relatives came, weeping… His nephew cried out in tears: “My uncle… who did this to you?” Another relative said: “You killed him! He was found at your door.” The owner of the house said: “By Allah, we did not kill him… and we don’t know who did.” The anger grew… voices were raised… and each side took up its weapons. Blood was about to bring more blood… and one crime was about to become a war.

They pushed the blame back and forth… each side throwing it on the other… while the killer stood among them… hearing and watching. Then some wise men stepped between them: “Will you kill each other… while a Messenger of Allah is among you?”

“Go to Moses.”

So they went to Prophet Moses, peace be upon him… and told him what had happened. Their elder said: “O Prophet of Allah… one of our men was killed… and we don’t know who killed him.” And the dead man’s nephew said: “O Prophet of Allah… pray to your Lord for us… to show us who killed my uncle.” So Moses prayed to his Lord… and a command came from Allah… a command no one expected. Moses told them: “Allah commands you… to slaughter a cow.” A cow? They were asking about a killer… and they were told to slaughter a cow? One of them said, mocking: “Are you making fun of us, Moses?” Moses said: “Allah forbid! Only a fool makes fun of people… about a command from Allah.” A prophet only speaks the truth about Allah. But they did not do it… One of them said: “Which cow should we slaughter? We have to ask him.”

So they went back to Moses and said: “O Moses… ask your Lord for us… what kind of cow is it?” Moses told them: “It is not old and worn out… nor so young that it has never had a calf… but in between. So go and do what you were told.” But they came back with more questions… One of them said: “O Moses… what color is it?” Moses said: “It is yellow… a deep, bright yellow… pure and shining… a joy to everyone who looks at it.” And the more they asked… the harder it became for them. Then they asked a third time: “O Moses… which cow is it? All cows look alike to us… Then they said: “We will find it… if Allah wills.” Moses told them: “It has never been used to plow the land… or to water the fields… it has no defect at all… and not a single spot of another color.” Ibn Abbas, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), said: “Any cow at all would have been enough for them… but they made it hard for themselves… so Allah made it hard for them.” So they went out searching for it… in the markets, on the farms, in faraway villages.

This one is too old… this one is too young… this one has plow marks on its neck… this one has a black spot. A herdsman told them: “You are looking for a cow that does not exist.” Until at last they found it… with a poor young man. One of the early scholars said: “If they had not said, ‘if Allah wills’… they would never have found it.” Some scholars who explain the Quran tell a story about this young man, one of the stories of the Children of Israel… that we neither confirm nor deny. They say he was very good to his father. One day a merchant came to him with a precious jewel… but the key was under his sleeping father’s head.

The young man told the merchant: “I will not wake my father.” The merchant left with his jewel… and the young man accepted the loss. So Allah gave him something better in return… this cow, whose like they had found nowhere on earth. The elder said to him: “Sell us your cow.” The young man shook his head… and every time they offered more, he refused. When he saw how badly they needed it, he raised the price. It is said they paid for it with its hide filled with gold. They led it to the town… and they almost did not do it: because of the high price, and all their arguing… and some say, out of fear the killer would be exposed. In the morning, they brought it into the town… and people came out of their houses… one after another. They slaughtered it… as Allah had commanded them. Then Allah commanded them… to strike the dead man with a part of the cow. They struck him… and everything went silent.

Then… he moved.

He opened his eyes… and the dead man rose, alive… by the will of Allah.

They asked him: “Who killed you?” He raised his trembling hand… and pointed… and said: “My killer is… my brother’s son.”

Everyone turned… to look at him.

Then he fell back… and was dead again, as before.

His own nephew… the one who wept for him more than anyone… and demanded revenge from innocent people.

He denied it… and said: “By Allah, I did not kill him!” He denied the truth after seeing it with his own eyes. He killed him to inherit his wealth… so Allah took the inheritance away from him. It is said: after the killer in the story of the cow, no killer ever inherited again. And all scholars agree: whoever kills on purpose… cannot inherit from the one he killed. This is how Allah brings the dead back to life. They saw with their own eyes a dead man rise and speak… so they would know that the One who brought him back… can bring all people back to life on the Day of Judgment. And after everything they saw… their hearts became hard. Their hearts became like stones… or even harder.

Because rivers can burst out of a rock… a rock can crack open… and water flows out of it… a rock can fall out of fear of Allah… but nothing good comes out of a hard heart. The scholar Qatada said: “Allah excused the stones… but not the wretched among mankind.” So ask yourself: how many times did a clear command from Allah reach you… and you looked for a question to put off obeying? How many times did you see a sign from Allah… and then go back to how you were? The heart grows soft by obeying… and hard by being stubborn. So when a command from Allah reaches you… say: “We hear, and we obey.” “So We said, “Strike him with part of it.” This is how Allah brings the dead to life, and He shows you His signs so that you may understand. Then your hearts became hardened after that, being like stones or even harder. For indeed, there are stones from which rivers burst forth, and there are some of them that split open and water comes out, and there are some of them that fall down for fear of Allāh. And Allāh is not unaware of what you do.” (Quran 2:73–74)