“They said, ‘Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us exactly what it should be, for all cows look alike to us. But, if Allah wills, we will surely be guided.’ * He said, ‘He says that it should be a cow neither broken to labor, plowing the earth, nor watering the fields; sound and without markings.’ They said, ‘Now you have brought the truth.’ So they slaughtered it, though they nearly failed to do so. * And when you killed a man and disputed over him, Allah brought to light what you had been concealing. * So We said, ‘Strike him with part of it.’ Thus does Allah bring the dead to life and show you His signs, so that you may understand. * Then your hearts hardened thereafter, becoming like stones or even harder. Indeed, there are stones from which rivers gush forth; there are others that split open and water flows from them; and there are others that fall down in awe of Allah. And Allah is not unaware of what you do.”
“They said, ‘Call upon your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us exactly what it should be, for all cows look alike to us’”—and so we cannot discern what you mean—“but, if Allah wills, we will surely be guided.”
“He said, ‘He says that it should be a cow neither broken to labor,’” meaning one that has not been subjected to work, “‘plowing the earth’” through cultivation, “‘nor watering the fields,’” meaning that it has not been used to draw water; “‘sound,’” free of defects or of having been put to work, “‘and without markings,’” meaning that it has no color other than the one previously described.
“They said, ‘Now you have brought the truth,’” meaning a clear explanation. This was due to their ignorance, for he had brought them the truth from the outset. Had they taken any cow, the objective would have been achieved. But they made matters difficult through their excessive questioning, so Allah made matters difficult for them. Had they not said, “if Allah wills,” they would not have been guided to it at all. “So they slaughtered it,” meaning the cow bearing those characteristics, “though they nearly failed to do so,” because of the obstinacy they had displayed.
After they had slaughtered it, We said to them: Strike the slain man with part of it—that is, with one of its limbs. It may have been a particular limb or any limb at all, for specifying it serves no purpose. They struck him with part of it, whereupon Allah restored him to life and brought to light what they had been concealing. He then identified his killer. His restoration to life before their very eyes demonstrated that Allah brings the dead to life: “so that you may understand,” and therefore refrain from what harms you.
“Then your hearts hardened,” meaning that they became severe and coarse, so admonition had no effect upon them, “thereafter”—that is, after Allah had bestowed immense blessings upon you and shown you His signs. Your hearts should not have hardened, for what you witnessed should have softened them and made them submissive. He then described their hardness as being “like stones,” which are harder than iron, for iron and lead can be melted in fire, unlike stones.
His words “or even harder” mean that they are no less hard than stones; here, “or” does not mean “rather.” He then mentioned how stones were superior to their hearts, saying: “Indeed, there are stones from which rivers gush forth; there are others that split open and water flows from them; and there are others that fall down in awe of Allah.” In these respects, stones surpassed your hearts. Allah Most High then issued them the sternest warning, saying: “And Allah is not unaware of what you do.” Rather, He knows all their deeds and keeps account of both the least and the greatest of them, and He will recompense you for them fully and completely.
Know that many commentators—may Allah have mercy on them—have gone to great lengths in filling their commentaries with stories of the Children of Israel. They applied the Quranic verses to those stories and treated them as exegesis of the Book of Allah, citing the Prophet’s words—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—“Narrate from the Children of Israel; there is no harm.”
In my view, although it is permissible to transmit their reports in isolation, without linking them to or applying them to the Book of Allah, it is categorically impermissible to make them an exegesis of the Book of Allah when they are not authentically established from the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Their status is as he stated: “Neither affirm what the People of the Book say ⦗56⦘ nor reject it as false.” Since their reports must therefore be regarded with uncertainty, and since it is necessarily known from the religion of Islam that the Quran must be believed in and its wording and meanings held with certainty, it is impermissible to treat those stories—transmitted through reports of unknown provenance and probably false, or mostly false—as definitive meanings of the Book of Allah. No one should have any doubt about this. Yet because this matter has been overlooked, what has occurred has occurred. Allah alone grants success.