71. He answered, He saith, it is a cow, not broken in to plough the earth or irrigate the tilth, a sound one with no blemish on her.' They said, 'Now hast thou brought the truth.' And they slaughtered her, though they came near leaving it undone.

72. When too ye slew a soul and disputed thereupon, and Allah brought forth that which ye had hidden,

73. then we said, 'Strike him with part of her.' Thus Allah brings the dead to life and shows you His signs, that haply ye may understand.

74. Yet were your hearts hardened even after that, till they were as stones or harder still, for verily of stones are some from which streams burst forth, and of them there are some that burst asunder and the water issues out, and of them there are some that fall down for fear of Allah; but Allah is never careless of what ye do.

75. Do ye crave that they should believe you when already a sect of them have heard the word of Allah and then perverted it after they had understood it, though they knew?

76. And when they meet those who believe they say, 'We believe,' but when one goes aside with another they say, 'Will ye talk to them of what Allah has opened up to you, that they may argue with you upon it before your Lord? Do ye not therefore understand?'

77. Do they not then know that Allah knoweth what they keep secret and what they make known abroad?

78. And some of them there are, illiterate folk, that know not the Book, but only idle tales; for they do but fancy.

79. But woe to those who write out the Book with their hands and say 'this is from' Allah; to buy therewith a little price! and woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they gain!

80. And then they say, 'Hell fire shall not touch us save for a number of days.' Say, 'Have ye taken a covenant with Allah?' but Allah breaks not His covenant. Or do ye say of Allah that which ye do not know?