The killing of Habil

According to the report of al-Thaʿlabi, Qabil killed his brother Habil after a dispute over the offering and over marriage. The book presents this event as the first killing among the children of Adam ^{1 2}.

Qabil was the one who worked the land, and Habil was the one who kept livestock. Each of them brought an offering, and in the report only Habil's offering was accepted ¹.

The reports say that a crow killed another crow and then dug a hole to bury it, and that Qabil saw this and began to bury his brother. One report says the earth shook for seven days and then drank Habil's blood, and that God asked Qabil about his brother, and he answered that he did not know where he was. God replied that his brother's blood was calling out from the earth ^{2 3}.

The book offers an explanation of Qabil's regret, holding that it was his inability to bury his brother as the crow had done, rather than the killing itself ².

The verses attributed to Adam and Eve in lament for Habil are noted by the editor in a footnote as spurious, and that is the editor's comment. The book also transmits a report from Ibn ʿAbbas that denies that Adam composed any poetry at all ³.