Tafsir of Al-Baqarah 2:73

“So We said, ‘Strike him with part of it.’”

This is conjoined to His saying, “Then you disputed about it,” while the words between them form a parenthetical clause, indicating that the murderer’s concealment of his crime is of no benefit to him. It is also said to be a circumstantial clause (hal), meaning, “while you know that.”

The pronoun in idribu-hu (strike him) refers to the soul (nafs), based on the view that it is masculine—which is the most well-known—or based on the masculine gender being used due to the intention of the word shakhs (person) or qatil (slain one), or because the speech is elliptical, implying a deleted genitive (mudaf), as if to say, “strike a person [who is a soul].” Once the genitive was deleted, the noun in the genitive case (mudaf ilayh) took its place. It is said that the most apparent reason for the masculine gender is the masculinity of the meaning; when a word is masculine and its meaning is feminine, or vice versa, both are permissible. The mention of this pronoun, despite the prior feminine gender, is for the sake of variety or to distinguish this pronoun from the one that follows, for the sake of clarity.

The apparent meaning is that the word ba’d (part) refers to any part, for there is no benefit in specifying it, and no authentic transmission exists regarding its specification. There is disagreement as to what they struck him with: it is said to be its tongue, or its two small parts, or its right thigh, or its tail, or its cartilage, or the bone adjacent to it, or the piece of flesh between the shoulder blades, or the tailbone (‘ajb), or one of its bones. It has been reported that the striking took place on the neck of the slain one before he was buried. Those who say they spent forty years searching for it, or that they sought it and it was not in a loin nor a womb, maintain that the striking was upon the grave after burial; however, the most apparent view is that it was the person himself who was struck, not the grave.

Some reports state that he stood up, his jugular veins gushing blood, and he said, “My brother’s son killed me,”—in another narration: “So-and-so and so-and-so, not my cousins”—and then he fell down dead. A killer was never inherited from after that. Some accounts mention that the murderer swore by God Almighty that he did not kill him, thus lying in truth even after witnessing it. Al-Mawardi said: The striking was done with a corpse devoid of life so that it would not be confused in the mind of any doubter that the life was merely transferred to him from whatever he was struck with. Thus, to remove doubt and confirm the proof, it was as such.

“God brings the dead to life” is a parenthetical sentence intended to confirm the analogy and its certainty by likening the promised event to that which is present, and to establish similarity in the absolute sense of bringing to life. There is an ellipsis in the speech which this sentence indicates, meaning: “So they struck him, and he came to life.” The address from God Almighty is directed to those who were present at the time of the resurrection, and the letter ka (in yurikukum) is an address to everyone who can be addressed and hear this speech, because the matter of the dead is a momentous affair that requires attention to its state, thus necessitating that everyone capable of listening be addressed by it, and those [present] are included primarily. His saying, “and He shows you...” etc., proves this. Under this interpretation, it is necessary to assume an implied “saying” (qawl), as if to say, “We said,” or “We said to them likewise,” so that the speech connects to what precedes it. It is said that the address is directed to them specifically, and the apparent form would be kadhikum (like that to you) to match what follows, but He singularized it by intending each one of them, or by interpreting it as a group or the like, intending brevity. It is possible that the address is to those who were present at the time of the revelation of the verse; in this case, no assumption is needed, as it remains orderly without it, and perhaps even more orderly. Al-Mawardi took the far-fetched view that it is an address from Moses himself, peace be upon him.

“And He shows you His signs” is an inception or a conjunction to what precedes it. The apparent meaning is that the signs (ayat) are plural in both word and meaning, and what is intended by them are the proofs indicating that God Almighty is capable of all things. It is also permissible that this resurrection is what is intended by it, and it is expressed in the plural because it includes marvelous matters, such as the sequence of life resulting from striking with a dead organ, the dead informing of his killer, and the supernatural affairs associated with it. In al-Muntakhab, it is stated that the expression of a single sign as “signs” is because it indicates the existence of the Maker who is capable of all possibilities, who knows all information, who is Free in creating and originating, and it indicates the truthfulness of Moses, peace be upon him, the innocence of those who were not the killers, and the specification of the accusation upon the one who committed the killing.

“That you might use reason”—meaning, so that you may reason regarding life after death, the resurrection, and the gathering; for whoever is capable of reviving a single soul is capable of reviving all souls, due to the lack of specialization (“Your creation and your resurrection will not be but as that of a single soul”). Or it means: that your intellect might be perfected, or that you might refrain from disobeying Him and act according to the dictates of your reason.

The exegetes have mentioned legal rulings they derived and inferred from the story of this slain man, but that does not appear in the verse, and I see no benefit in mentioning it other than mere prolongation.

From the perspective of allusion: The cow is the animalistic soul when the mischief of childhood has departed from it and the weakness of old age has not yet overtaken it. It was pleasing and delightful to look upon, neither tilling the earth of preparedness with righteous deeds, nor watering the tillage of knowledge and wisdom—which it contains potentially—with the waters of turning toward the Holy Presence and traveling to the gardens of intimacy. It was left to graze in the flowers of lusts, unfettered by the constraints of etiquette and obedience, so no doctrine or belief became firmly rooted in it, and the lights of preparedness deposited within it did not manifest.

Its slaughter is the suppression of its passion and the restraint of it from its own particular actions with the blade of the knife of spiritual exercise. Whoever wishes for his heart to live a good life, to be adorned with divine knowledge and true sciences, for the states of the kingdom of heaven and earth to be unveiled to him, for the secrets of divinity and omnipotence to appear to him, and for the conflict and dispute between his reason and his imagination—resulting from attachment to the sensible—to be removed, let him slaughter it and let its effect reach his dead heart. There, the hidden is brought forth, and the oceans of knowledge overflow. This slaughter is the greater struggle and the red death, and its aftermath is the true life and eternal happiness. He who has not died in His love has not lived by Him, and one does not reap the honey of the bees without being stung by them.

The old man, the old woman, the child, and the young man mentioned in some traditions in this story have been alluded to as the spirit, the physical nature, the intellect, and the heart. Applying the rest of the story after this is for you to consider. Peace be upon you.