two stones. (1) It was said that he was killed while submitting without resistance. It was also said that Cain attacked him while he was asleep, crushed his head, and killed him. This is the meaning of His saying, Exalted is He: “So he killed him and became one of the losers.” Abel was twenty years old when he was killed.

They differed regarding the place where he was killed. It was said: At Basra, on the site of the Grand Mosque. The killer’s body then turned black. Adam, peace be upon him, asked him about his brother, and he replied, “I was not responsible for him.” Adam said, “Rather, you killed him, and that is why your body has turned black.” Adam remained for one hundred years after his killing without ever smiling. (2)

Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: On Mount Thawr. (3) It was also said: near the pass of Hira. After killing him, Cain left him out in the open and did not know what to do with him, for he was the first of the children of Adam to die upon the face of the earth. Wild beasts came toward him, so Cain carried him in a sack upon his back for forty days. Ibn Abbas said: for a year, until he began to decay. Birds and wild beasts gathered around him, waiting for him to cast the body aside so that they could eat it.

Then Allah sent two crows, which fought one another. One killed the other, then dug for it with its beak and its foot until it had made a hole for it. It then cast it into the pit and covered it over, while Cain watched. This is the meaning of His saying, Exalted is He: 105/b “Then Allah sent a crow searching in the ground to show him how to conceal the disgrace of his brother.”

“Then Allah sent a crow searching in the ground to show him how to conceal the disgrace of his brother. He said, ‘O woe to me! Have I failed to be like this crow and conceal the disgrace of my brother?’ And he became one of the regretful.” (31)

“Then Allah sent a crow searching in the ground to show him how to conceal the disgrace of his brother.” When Cain saw this, he said, “O woe to me!”—an expression of grief. It was said that, when he saw the crow burying its companion, he realized that the crow possessed more knowledge than he did, that what he had done was ignorance, and so he regretted and grieved. “He said, ‘O woe to me! Have I failed to be like this crow and conceal the disgrace of my brother?’” That is, his corpse. It was also said: his private parts, because Cain had stripped him of his clothing. “And he became one of the regretful”: regretful for having carried him upon his shoulder, not for having killed him. It was also said: regretful at being separated from his brother. Another view is that he regretted the little benefit he gained by killing him, for he had incurred the anger of his parents and gained nothing at all from killing him; his regret was not for the killing itself or for committing the sin.

Abd al-Muttalib ibn Abd Allah ibn Hantab said: “When the son of Adam killed his brother, the earth and everything upon it dried up for seven days. Then the earth absorbed his blood as water is drunk. Adam called out to him, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ He replied, ‘I was not his’