Verse. 78

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : ((moses) answered: lo! he saith: surely she is a cow unyoked) unfettered; (she plougheth not the soil) she is not subjugated for the ploughing of the soil (nor watereth the tilth) nor for carrying water to irrigate it; (whole) free from any blemish (and without mark) spots or flecks of white. (they said: now thou bringest the truth) now we know the cow's right description. they looked for it and bought her in exchange for her weight in gold. (so they sacrificed her, though almost they did not) i.e. initially; as it is said because the cow was hugely expensive.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : he said, ‘he says she shall be a cow not broken, not subdued for labour, that is, to plough the earth, churning its soil for sowing (tuthīr al-ard: the clause describes the word dhalūl, and constitutes part of the negation); or to water the tillage, that is, the land prepared for sowing; one safe, from faults and the effects of toil; with no blemish, of a colour other than her own, on her’. they said, ‘now you have brought the truth’, that is, [now] you have explained it clearly; they thus sought it out and found it with a boy very dutiful towards his mother, and they eventually purchased it for the equivalent of its weight in gold; and so they sacrificed her, even though they very nearly did not, on account of its excessive cost. in a hadīth [it is stated that], ‘had they sacrificed any cow, it would have sufficed them, but they made it difficult for themselves and so god made it difficult for them’.

Sahl al-Tustari

تفسير : …and without blemish… when asked about this verse sahl said:this means that there should be no mark on it which blemishes it, nor a patch of colour which differs from the colour of the rest of its body. in this there is wisdom from its maker and a lesson for the one who takes heed by it, and grows in certainty because of his faith and his profession of god’s oneness.