﴿ قَالَ إِنَّهُۥ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌۭ لَّا ذَلُولٌۭ تُثِيرُ ٱلْأَرْضَ وَلَا تَسْقِى ٱلْحَرْثَ مُسَلَّمَةٌۭ لَّا شِيَةَ فِيهَا ۚ قَالُوا۟ ٱلْـَٰٔنَ جِئْتَ بِٱلْحَقِّ ۚ فَذَبَحُوهَا وَمَا كَادُوا۟ يَفْعَلُونَ ﴾

“[Moses] answered: "Behold, He says it is to be a cow not broken-in to plough the earth or to water the crops, free of fault, without markings of any other colour."Said they: "At last thou hast brought out the truth!"-and thereupon they sacrificed her, although they had almost left it undone.”

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’.