Surah 5. Al-Maida, Ayah 31
| فَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ غُرَابًا يَبْحَثُ فِي الْأَرْضِ لِيُرِيَهُ كَيْفَ يُوَارِي سَوْءَةَ أَخِيهِ ۚ قَالَ يَا وَيْلَتَا أَعَجَزْتُ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِثْلَ هَٰذَا الْغُرَابِ فَأُوَارِيَ سَوْءَةَ أَخِي ۖ فَأَصْبَحَ مِنَ النَّادِمِينَ |
| Transliteration | : | la- 'in basat.ta 'ilay -ya yad -ka li- taqtul -ne maa 'anaa bi- baasit. yad -iya 'ilay -ka li- aqtul -ka 'inni -y akhaaf 'allaah rabb al- caalamen |
| Pickthall | : | Then Allah 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? And he became repentant. |
| Asad | : | Thereupon God sent forth a raven which scratched the earth, to show him how he might conceal the nakedness of his brother's body. [And Cain] cried out: "Oh, woe is me! Am I then too weak to do what this raven did,38 and to conceal the nakedness of my, brother's body?" - and was thereupon smitten with remorse.39 |
| Malik | : | (He carried around the dead body of his brother and did not know what to do with it.) Then Allah sent a raven, which dug the ground to show him how to bury the dead body of his brother. "Alas!" He cried, "I failed even to be like this raven to find some way to dispose of the dead body of my brother!" So he became full of regrets. |
| Yusuf Ali | : | Then Allah sent a raven who scratched the ground to show him how to hide the shame of his brother. "Woe is me!" said he: "Was I not even able to be as this raven and to hide the shame of my brother?" Then he became full of regrets. 735 736 |
Note - 38Lit., "to be like this raven".
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Note - 39Lit., "became of those who feel remorse". The thought of
burying his dead brother's body, suggested to Cain by the
raven's scratching the earth, brought home to him the
enormity of his crime.
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Note - 735Sau-at may mean "corpse", with a suggestion of nakedness
and shame in two senses: (1) the sense of being exposed
without burial, and (2) the sense of being insulted by
being violently deprived by the unwarranted murder, of
the soul which inhabited it,- the soul, too, of a
brother.
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Note - 736The thought at last came home to the murderer. It was
dreadful indeed to slay any one-the more so as he was a
brother, and an innocent righteous brother! But worse
still, the murderer had not even the decency to bury the
corpse, and of this simple duty he was reminded by a
raven-a black bird usually held in contempt! His regret
was on that account. That was no true repentance.
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Sau-at may mean "corpse", with a suggestion of nakedness and shame in two senses: (1) the sense of being exposed without burial, and (2) the sense of being insulted by being violently deprived by the unwarranted murder, of the soul which inhabited it,- the soul, too, of a brother. |
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The thought at last came home to the murderer. It was dreadful indeed to slay any one-the more so as he was a brother, and an innocent righteous brother! But worse still, the murderer had not even the decency to bury the corpse, and of this simple duty he was reminded by a raven-a black bird usually held in contempt! His regret was on that account. That was no true repentance. |
