Islam
The Qur'an mentions the story of the Cow in the chapter Al-Baqara (The Cow), in verses 2.67–2.73. The story provides the name of this sura, the longest of the Qur'an. The Cow required at first was just a "cow". During the story, more restrictions were given, and the color of the cow is required to be yellow after Moses was needlessly asked by people to give details on how old it was, then on its colour, and then what it was used for, showing much reluctance to obey the command to sacrifice an animal as valuable as "a cow".
According to ibn Abbas and other scholars said: An old man from among the children of Israel was very rich, and he had some nephews and he was killed by one of them. His corpse was placed in by his brothers door. Then disputes ensued and they asked prophet Musa for help. When they found the yellow cow per Musa's command, he instructed them to slaughter the cow and struck part of it on the deceased. The dead old man came back to life. The prophet Musa asked who killed him and he said his nephew and he died again.
Read more about this topic: Red Heifer
Famous quotes containing the word islam:
“Sooner or later we must absorb Islam if our own culture is not to die of anemia.”
—Basil Bunting (1900–1985)
“Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a “fixed” heaven.”
—Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)