Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabeans [before Prophet Muhammad] - those [among them] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness - will have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve. 62 And [recall] when We took your covenant, [O Children of Israel, to abide by the Torah] and We raised over you the mount, [saying], "Take what We have given you with determination and remember what is in it that perhaps you may become righteous." 63 Then, even after that, ye turned away, and if it had not been for the grace of Allah and His mercy ye had been among the losers. 64 You are aware of those who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath, whereupon We said to them, "Be as apes, despised!" 65 in order to set up an example for their contemporaries and coming generations and to make it a reminder for the pious. 66 And when Moses said to his people, 'God commands you to sacrifice a cow.' They said, 'Dost thou take us in mockery?' He said, 'I take refuge with God, lest I should be one of the ignorant.' 67 They said: supplicate for us unto thy Lord that He make manifest unto us whatever she should be. He said: verily He saith, she should be a cow neither old nor young, but middle-aged betwixt that; do then as ye are commanded. 68 They said, 'Pray to thy Lord for us, that He make clear to us what her colour may be.' He said, 'He says she shall be a golden cow, bright her colour, gladdening the beholders.' 69 They said: Call on your Lord for our sake to make it plain to us what she is, for surely to us the cows are all alike, and if Allah please we shall surely be guided aright. 70 Musa said: He says, Surely she is a cow not made submissive that she should plough the land, nor does she irrigate the tilth; sound, without a blemish in her. They said: Now you have brought the truth; so they sacrificed her, though they had not the mind to do (it). 71