There was a very wealthy man amongst the Israelites. He was old and had nephews who wanted him to die to be able to inherit his wealth. One night, one of them killed him.

The next morning, they all started arguing about who killed the old man. One suggested speaking with Moses for advice. Moses first asked everyone to speak out if they know of any truth about what happened. No one answered. Moses asked Allah to show them a sign. Allah commanded the people to slaughter a cow. Yet, the people responded haughtily not believing that would be the response of Allah.

Scholars say that if they had just sacrificed any cow, that would have been sufficient. Yet, they began to arrogantly ask a series of questions about the exact characteristics of the cow. Questioning the colour and age and every time they got an answer they continued to ask more and more questions; making it harder to them to find a cow that fit the criteria.

They were told to sacrifice a cow of medium age who was deep yellow in colour. Furthermore, Moses answered, "It's a cow that hasn't been used for farming or watering the fields, and it doesn't have any distinctive markings."

When they set out to find a cow of this description, they found one cow that was owned by a man. They began to offer him different amounts of money to buy the cow from him. They bought the cow and slaughtered it as Moses asked. Then, as a miracle from Allah, Moses told them to tap part of the cow onto the wealthy old man's body. When they did this, the man came back to life and they asked him who killed him. He responded saying it was his nephew. Through this, Allah showed His power of bringing the dead back to life, as a sign for those who understand.