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 But even after that you forsook the Covenant: nevertheless Allah did not withhold His grace and mercy from you; otherwise you would have been utterly ruined long before this. 64 And well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: "Be ye apes, despised and rejected." 65 So We made this punishment an example to their own and to succeeding generations and a lesson to those who are Al-Muttaqun (the pious - see V. 2:2). 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 'Call on your Lord' they said, 'to make known to us what she shall be.' He said: 'He says: "she is a cow neither old, nor virgin, middling between both." Therefore, do as you have been ordered' 68 They said, “Pray to your Lord that He may reveal its colour to us”; answered Moosa, “Indeed He says it is a yellow cow, of bright colour, pleasing to 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 He said: verily He saith, verify she should be a cow unyoked, not broken to till the ground or to water the field, whole, and without blemish in her. They said: now hast thou brought the truth. Then they slaughtered her, and they were wellnigh not doing it. 71