The Holy Quran 5:31 — Surah Al-Ma'idah

Arabic text

فَبَعَثَ ٱللَّهُ غُرَابًا يَبْحَثُ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ لِيُرِيَهُۥ كَيْفَ يُوَٰرِى سَوْءَةَ أَخِيهِ ۚ قَالَ يَـٰوَيْلَتَىٰٓ أَعَجَزْتُ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِثْلَ هَـٰذَا ٱلْغُرَابِ فَأُوَٰرِىَ سَوْءَةَ أَخِى ۖ فَأَصْبَحَ مِنَ ٱلنَّـٰدِمِينَ

Translation

(After killing his brother, Qaabeel did not know what to do with the corpse because no human had died previously.) Then Allaah sent a crow to dig (a hole in) the earth to show him how to conceal the corpse of his brother. (Seeing the crow dig a hole to bury a dead crow in it) He (Qaabeel) cried out, "Woe unto me that I could not be like this crow and conceal the body of my brother!" So he became one of the remorseful ones (because he did not know something that a crow knew and because he did not know how to face his father).

Tafsir (excerpt) — Tafsir Usmani

The burial of Habil’s body: since no human being had died before this, after the killing he could not understand what to do with the body. At last he saw a crow scratching the ground, or removing earth and hiding another, dead crow in the ground. Seeing this, some sense came to him: I too should bury my brother’s body.

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