Islam Guidance

verse31

(31) فَبَعَثَ اللّهُ غُرَابًا يَبْحَثُ فِي الأَرْضِ لِيُرِيَهُ كَيْفَ يُوَارِي سَوْءةَ أَخِيهِ قَالَ يَا وَيْلَتَا

أَعَجَزْتُ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِثْلَ هَذَا الْغُرَابِ فَأُوَارِيَ سَوْءةَ أَخِي فَأَصْبَحَ مِنَ النَّادِمِينَ

31. " Then Allah sent a raven digging up the ground to show him (the murderer) how he should cover the dead body of his brother. He said: ' Woe unto me! Am I unable to be like this raven and cover the corpse of my brother? ' So he became one of the remorseful."

Commentary:
It is narrated in a tradition that Imam Sadiq (a.s.) said that when Cain killed his brother, he left him in the desert, because he did not know what to do. Soon after that the sawage rushed toward the corpse of Abel. At that time, as the Qur'an says, Allah sent a raven to dig up the land and, by hiding the dead body of another raven, or by concealing a part of its own prey, (as it is the habit of a raven) showed Cain how to hide the corpse of his brother in the ground. The verse says:
" Then Allah sent a raven digging up the ground to show him (the murderer) how he should cover the dead body of his brother. ..."
Next to that statement the Qur'an adds that at that moment Cain became worried of his own negligence and cried:
"...' Woe unto me! Am I unable to be like this raven and cover the corpse of my brother? ' ..."
Yet, finally he felt sorry about what he had done, but that regret was not a reference for his repentance from the sin.
"...So he became one of the remorseful."
The Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) is narrated who have said: " No blood of a person is shed unjustly unless there is a portion of its resposibility upon (cain) the son of Adam who was the first homicide as a custom." (1)

(1) Musnad Ahmad Hanbab, recorded in Tafsir-i-fi-Zalal, vol. 2, p. 703

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