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fa-baʿatha llāhu ghurāban yabḥathu fī l-ʾarḍi li-yuriyahū kayfa yuwārī sawʾata ʾakhīhi qāla yā-waylatā ʾa-ʿajaztu ʾan ʾakūna mithla hādhā l-ghurābi fa-ʾuwāriya sawʾata ʾakhī fa-ʾaṣbaḥa mina n-nādimīna
Then Allah sent a crow, exploring in the ground, to show him how to bury the corpse of his brother. He said, ‘Woe to me! Am I unable to be [even] like this crow and bury my brother’s corpse?’ Thus he became regretful.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-Ma'idah, Verse 31
It is narrated in a tradition that Imam Sadiq (as) said that when Cain killed his brother, he left him in the desert, because he did not know what to do. Soon after that the sawage rushed toward the corpse of Abel. At that time, as the Qur'an says, Allah sent a raven to dig up the land and, by hiding the dead body of another raven, or by concealing a part of its own prey, (as it is the habit of a raven) showed Cain how to hide the corpse of his brother in the ground.
The verse says:
Next to that statement, the Qur'an adds that at that moment Cain became worried of his own negligence and cried:
Yet, finally he felt sorry about what he had done, but that regret was not a reference for his repentance from the sin.
The Prophet of Islam (S) is narrated that he has said:
"No blood of a person is shed unjustly unless there is a portion of its responsibility upon (Cain) the son of Adam who was the first homicide as a custom." 3
Footnotes