Surah 5. Al-Ma'ida, Ayah 31

Lit., "to be like this raven".

Lit., "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.

 In Islam, regret for doing something wrong is essential for repentance. But in the case of Cain, his regret was not for killing his brother, but for failing to bury his corpse to hide the evidence of his crime. Therefore, his regret was not intended as a step towards repentance.

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.

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.