The point is that they were ordered to slaughter a cow that was ʿawān—mid-aged, standing between the fāriḍ, the very old animal, and the bikr, the young heifer. This was the view of Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, Abū al-ʿĀliyah, ʿIkrimah, al-Ḥasan, Qatādah, and many others.

They then tightened the matter upon themselves and asked about its colour. They were told it had to be “a yellow cow, of rich hue, pleasing to the onlookers,” that is, a yellow tinged with red that delights whoever beholds it—a colour that is rare. Yet they pressed still further: “Call upon your Lord for us, that He make clear to us what it is, for to us all cows look alike; and, if Allah wills, we shall be rightly guided.”

In the marfūʿ ḥadīth transmitted by Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn Mardawayh it is said:

“Had the Children of Israel not added the proviso ‘if Allah wills,’ they would not have been granted it,”

though its authenticity is open to question (1). Allah knows best.

[Moses] said, “He says it is a cow unbroken, that neither tills the earth nor waters the fields, sound, without blemish.” They said, “Now you have brought the truth,” and they slaughtered her—though they had almost failed to do so.

These conditions were even narrower than what had preceded: they were to slaughter a cow that was lā dhulūl—one never broken to the plough—or to the sāniyah that draws water (2), and musallamah, sound, bearing no defect, as explained by Abū al-ʿĀliyah and Qatādah.

The Almighty’s words “without any mark upon her” mean that no colour diverges from her own; she is free of defects and of any hue other than her uniform colour. When He confined the cow with all these descriptions, they said, “Now you have brought the truth.”

It is said that they found no cow meeting these traits save one owned by a man who had been dutiful to his father. They asked him to sell it, but he refused. They kept increasing the price until—according to al-Suddi—they offered its weight in gold; he still refused, until they offered ten times its weight, whereupon he sold it.

The Prophet of Allah, Moses, then ordered them to slaughter it, and they did so, though only after much vacillation.

After that he conveyed Allah’s command that they strike the murdered man with part of the cow. Some say it was with the flesh of her thigh; others say with the bone adjoining the cartilage; still others say with the piece between the shoulders. When they struck him with it, Allah revived him, and he rose while his jugular veins were gushing (3). Moses asked him, “Who killed you?” He replied, “My nephew killed me,” after which he returned to death as before.

Allah, exalted is He, says: “Thus does Allah bring the dead to life, and He shows you His signs so that you may reason.” Just as you witnessed the reviving of this slain man by Allah’s command, so too is His command concerning all the dead: whenever He wills to restore them to life, He resurrects them in a single instant, as He has said: “Your creation and your resurrection are only like that of a single soul” (31:28).