His saying: Indeed, Allah commands you to slaughter a cow.
690 - The al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Sabbah narrated to us, Yazid ibn Harun narrated to us, Hisham ibn Hassan reported from Muhammad ibn Sirin from 'Ubaydah al-Salmani, who said: There was a man among the Children of Israel who was sterile and had no offspring, yet he possessed great wealth. His nephew was his heir, so he killed him, carried him at night, and placed him at the door of a man among them. Then, in the morning, he claimed the blood money from them until they took up arms and some mounted against others. The men of reason and prohibition said: "Why would you kill one another while the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, is among you?" They went to Moses and mentioned that to him. He said: "Indeed, Allah commands you to slaughter a cow." They said: "Do you take us in mockery?" He said: "I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant."
He said: Had they not haggled over the cow, any cow would have sufficed them. But they made it difficult, so it was made difficult for them, until they arrived at the cow they were commanded to slaughter, and they found it with a man who had no other cow but it. He said: "By Allah, I will not sell it for less than its skin's fill of gold." They took it for its skin's fill of gold, slaughtered it, and struck him with a part of it, and he rose. They asked: "Who killed you?" He said: "This one," referring to his nephew, then he slumped down dead. Nothing of his wealth was given to him, and no murderer was allowed to inherit thereafter.
His saying: Do you take us in mockery? He said: I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant.
691 - Abu Zur'ah narrated to us, 'Amr ibn Hammad narrated to us, Asbat narrated to us from al-Suddi, who said: So Moses said to them: "Indeed, Allah commands you to slaughter a cow." They said: "Do you take us in mockery? We ask you about the slain man and who killed him, and you say: 'Slaughter a cow'? Do you mock us?" So Moses said: "I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant."
His saying: I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant.
692 - With the same chain from al-Suddi: They said: "Do you take us in mockery?" Moses said: "I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant."
(1). Addition from Ibn Kathir. (2). Ibn Kathir 1/146, and al-Durr 1/76. (3). Ibn Kathir said: The apparent meaning is that these narrations are taken from the books of the Children of Israel, and they are among those which it is permissible to relate, but one should neither affirm them nor deny them; therefore, one should not rely upon them except for what aligns with the truth according to us. 1/157.
