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 [Children of Israel], We made a covenant with you and raised the mountain high above you, saying, "Hold fast to what We have given you and bear its contents in mind, so that you may guard yourselves [against evil]." 63 And you turned away after that! And had it not been for God's favour upon you and His grace, you would surely have found yourselves among the lost; 64 And you had already known about those who transgressed among you concerning the sabbath, and We said to them, "Be apes, despised." 65 So We made this incident (of that town) a warning to the surrounding towns (others of their time) and to succeeding generations, and a lesson for the pious. 66 And [recall] when Moses said to his people, "Indeed, Allah commands you to slaughter a cow." They said, "Do you take us in ridicule?" He said, "I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant." 67 They said: Call on your Lord for our sake to make it plain to us what she is. Musa said: He says, Surely she is a cow neither advanced in age nor too young, of middle age between that (and this); do therefore what you are commanded. 68 "Call on your Lord," they said, "to tell us the colour of the cow." "God says," answered Moses, "a fawn coloured cow, rich yellow, well pleasing to the eye." 69 They said supplicate for us unto thy Lord that He make manifest unto us whatever she should be, for verily the cow hath become dubious unto us and verily we, if God will, shall be guided. 70 He said, 'He says she shall be a cow not broken to plough the earth or to water the tillage, one kept secure, with no blemish on her.' They said, 'Now thou hast brought the truth'; and therefore they sacrificed her, a thing they had scarcely done. 71