Lesson # 614 From Holy Qur’aan
A
Crow was sent by God to Teach Cain
‘Al-Maaa-‘idah (the
Table Spread) – Chapter – 5)–Stage
- 2
Verses–30&31
of 120, Section–5 of 16 (Part - 6)
BisMIllaahir-Rahmaanir-Rahiim
In the name of Allaah,
the Beneficent, the Merciful
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30.
But (the other’s) mind imposed on him the killing of his brother, so
he slew him and became one of the losers.
31.
Then Allaah sent a raven scratching up the ground, to show him how to
hide his brother’s naked corpse. He said: Woe unto me! Am I not able to be as
this raven and so hide my brother’s naked corpse? Then he became
repentant.
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30. Fatawwa-‘at
lahuu nafsuhuu qatla
‘akhiihi faqatalahuu fa-‘asbaha
minal-khaasiriin.
31. Faba-‘asAllaahu guraabany-yab-hasu fil-‘arzi
li-yuriyahuu kayfa yuwaarii
saw-‘ata ‘akhiih. Qaala
yaa-way-lataaa ‘a-‘ajaztu ‘an
‘akuuna misla haazal-guraabi fa-‘uwaariya saw-‘ata
‘akhii. Fa- ‘asbaha minan-naadimiin.
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Lesson
Tawwa-‘at - it is from tatwii’, which means, “To show somebody any bad work in a good
form, so that he may be inclined to do it. Yab-hasu –
(scratched up), it is from bahas,
which means “to scratch, to dig”. That is to say; a raven (a kind of crow)
began to dig the ground with its beak and paws before him. Yaa-way-lataaa –
(woe unto me), this word is spoken in Arabic language at the time of “heavy
calamity, sorrow or an exclamation of grief”. ‘Ajaztu – (I am not able to), it has been derived from ‘ajaz, which means “to be helpless, not
to be able to do any particular work”. Saw-‘ata – (a bad thing, to be displeasing one’s eyes), here it means “Corpse”.
The heart of Cain, which was becoming insane due to
jealousy, desire and rage, guided him to kill his own brother. The person, who
becomes blind due to own wishes, strikes nothing to him except that to trouble
others for his own interest at every cost. Therefore, he killed his brother
Abel, but its result was not other than his own loss.
Worldly loss was that he was deprived of his
companion and helper like a sincere brother. It has come in the Sayings of the
Messenger (grace, glory, blessings and peace be upon Him) that there are two
such sins, retaliation of which are faced in the world too before the Day of
Resurrection; one is “violation of other’s right”, and the other is “to trouble
the relatives” which is called “breaking off the relationship (the kinship)”.
Cain’s loss of Afterlife due to slaying his brother
Abel was too much that the world has no value before it, i.e. he opened the
door of sin in the world. Therefore, he would not be punished only against his
own sin, but he would also be punished for the sins of others after him, as whosoever
will slay or give pain to other humankind for his/her own purpose until the Day
of Resurrection. It has been written that none had killed anyone before Cain
and nor anyone had died naturally till that time. So, Cain was confused that
what he should do with the corpse of his brother.
It has been described in this verse that Allaah Almighty sent a crow in front of
him. After landing, the crow began to scratch the ground with its beak and
paws. The commentators explain that the crow brought another dead crow, which
was hanging in its beak. It put the dead crow on the earth, dug the ground and
widened it. Then it put the dead crow into that pit and leveled the ground by
putting the dust on it.
Cain saw the crow doing this all. At that time he
suffered woe that he had not sense equal to a crow, which buried the corpse of
its brother (the dead crow) into the ground. At that time he would have
thought, “This crow had so much fellow-feeling (sympathy) with the other crow
like it that it took up the dead crow, brought here and hid it in the ground,
while that crow had died naturally. Whereas, I killed not only a man like me,
but I killed my own real brother intentionally, and then I had not even so much
sense that I could save the corpse from the disgrace of rotting openly”. It
manifests that He was not only more hard-hearten than the crow but was also
dull in comparison with it. So repentance and self-condemnation pressed him
down and he began to grieve due to his bad work.
We can understand from this lesson that human
body’s respect is till then it is living (the soul is in it). When the soul is
out from the body, then the same body becomes occasion of shame for the human
being, as it was a filthy and disgusting thing, defects of which were hidden by
the soul. Therefore, the word saw-‘ata has
been used in this verse, which means “bad and disgusting thing (corpse)”, for
which it is better that it should be removed from the sight as soon as
possible. Truly, beauty of the body is by the means of soul; otherwise, it is
nothing except a handful dust.
Blessed are those people, who
understand this fine point of their lives and do not entertain this heap of mud
so much, due to which a pure thing like soul has to suffer punishment and
disaster. Therefore, it has been told, “Leave the bodily pleasures and seek the
spiritual Delight”.
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