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’.
