when a corpse was found lying among a tribe of The Israelites and Musa had compelled their fifty chief leading men to come up and swear by Allah who is the God of The Israelites and who has given grace to Muhammad and his progeny and solemnly say that they did not kill that man nor do they know the killer. If they swear and pay the blood money it is good, otherwise they should expose the killer so that, that man may be killed in retaliation. If they do not kill him then they may imprison him in a narrow cell. They should do either of these things.
They said, “O Messenger of Allah! We may swear and also pay blood money. But it is not Allah’s command. The fact behind is that there was, in The Israelites, a very beautiful, learned, knowledgeable, respected and modest (veiling) woman. Many men desired to marry her. Her uncle had three sons. One of them was most learned and pious. She agreed and desired to marry him. Her other two cousins were jealous. They called him one night for a feast and killed him. Then they threw out his body.” Next morning the two brothers who were the killers came to Musa tore their collars, threw dust on their heads and complained to Musa for justice. Musa called all the people of that tribe and inquired about the murdered man and they replied, “We did not kill him nor do we know who killed him.” Musa said, fifty men from among you should, as desired by Allah, swear solemnly, pay the blood money or give information about the killer.
They said, “Why do we have to pay blood money even after swearing? Musa said, “All the benefits are in obeying Divine orders. Whatever He commands must be carried out.” They said, “O Prophet of Allah! This is fine and this charge of sin is very grave as no one has any right on our heads. So pray to Allah that He may let us know the real killer so that you may give him a deserving punishment, and we may get rid of the fine and the punishment.” Musa said, “Almighty Allah has given me commands in this cause and hence I have no courage to ask for anything else. It is binding upon us to bow before His command, obey Him, and not raise any objection. Do you not see that He has prohibited us from working on Saturday and from eating camel meat? So we cannot disobey His command or make any changes in it. Rather we must obey Him.”
Musa desired to enforce the command upon them. Almighty Allah revealed to him that He might accept their word. “so that I may expose the killer and others may get rid of the allegations because, in connection with the answering to their request, I will widen the provision of the one who is one of the most righteous people among you and who believes in sending Salawaat on Muhammad and his Progeny and after him, giving respect to ‘Ali, I wish that, in this respect, I may make him needless (rich) in this world so that he may get a part of his reward for sending blessings on Muhammad and his progeny and thereby for giving them respect.”
Musa said, “My Lord! Tell me who the killer is.” Came the revelation, “Allah will intimate to you the killer if you slaughter a cow and hit the corpse of the killed man with a part of slaughtered cow. Then I will make him alive. This will happen if you obey the Divine orders. Otherwise accept my earlier order.” They said, “O Musa! Do you play a joke with us by asking us that if we hit a part of a corpse with a part of another earlier will come to life?”
Musa said, “I seek Allah’s protection from becoming ignorant or senseless, that is, I may attribute a word to Allah even if He did not say it, or I may reject the Divine word by imagining it to be nonsense according to my imperfect intelligence, just as you are denying. Is the seed of the man and the woman not lifeless? But when the two meet in the female womb, Allah creates from the two (lifeless elements) a living man. Is it not a fact that you are sowing a lifeless seed in the dead land and, therefrom, Allah brings out living grass and various trees?” When Musa’s arguments concluded for them, they said, “O Musa! Pray to your Lord so that He may describe the quality of that cow.”
Musa prayed to Allah and subsequently told those people that Allah commands that, that cow should be neither aged nor very young but of middle age. So do what you have been asked to do.” They said, “O Musa! Ask for the color of that cow and that from your Lord.” After asking, Musa said that the Lord says that it should be a yellow and its yellowness should be clear that is, neither so faint as to appear white nor so dark that it may appear blackish. Rather its attractive colors must make the viewers happy.”
They said, “O Musa! Pray to your Lord to describe more attributes of the cow because we have become confused due to the fact that there are many such cows. Now, Inshallah, we will recognize the one which He wants to be slaughtered.” Musa said, “The Lord commands that the cow should not be so much trained that it may plough land or water the fields but it ought to have been kept away from such tasks and that it should not have any defects no should it contain any other color shade except its original one.” Now the attributes of the cow have been described as they ought to have been described. It was not easy for them to carry out the command due to its being very costly. But then it was incumbent on them because they had made allegation against Musa that he was not able to do what they demanded. So they were obliged to slaughter the described cow. Imam said, “After hearing all the attributes of the cow they asked Musa, “O Musa! Has our Lord ordered us to slaughter such a cow having all these attributes?”
He said, “Yes.” But had they, in the beginning, complied with the Divine order without hesitation, any cow would have sufficed. After their questioning it was not binding for Musa to inquire further from Allah. Rather, in response, he ought to have told them any cow would do. Anyway, when the matter reached a particular type of cow they went in search of it but could not find it anywhere. But there was a youth in The Israelites.
Allah has shown him, in dream, the holy Prophet and ‘Ali and the holy Imams from his progeny and they had informed him that since he loved them and gave them preference over others, they wished to give a part of his reward in this world. “So, when they come to you to purchase your cow, do not sell it without consulting your mother. If you will do so, Allah will reveal some matters to your mother, which will cause you and your children to be rich. The youth became very happy. Next morning The Israelites people came to him for purchasing his cow and asked about the price. He said, “Two Dinars. But my mother may alter the amount.” They said, “We will pay one Dinar.” The youth consulted his mother who told him to sell it for four Dinars. He came back to The Israelites and said, that my mother says it would cost four Dinars. They agreed to give two Dinars. The youth returned to his mother and asked for her opinion. Now she said a hundred Dinars. Then The Israelites said they were prepared to pay fifty. In this way, the price went on increasing with the rise in offer and demand until it reached to the demand that they should pay for it by filling its skin with gold. Finally, they agreed to do so, purchased the cow, and slaughtered it. Then they picked up its tail (wherefrom people are created in the beginning and with which their bodies will be rebuilt in the hereafter) and hit it on the corpse of the murdered man. While doing so they said, “O Lord! By the grace of Muhammad and the family of Muhammad make this man alive and speak out as to who has killed him.” The man stood up by the command of Allah and said, “O Prophet of Allah these two cousins of mine envied me on account of my cousin sister, killed me and threw me in this area so as to collect my blood money from the residents of this area.” Musa executed both of them.