In Surah Al-Maidah (5:31), the Quran relates the story of Cain and Abel: "Then Allah sent a crow searching in the ground to show him how to hide the disgrace of his brother."
"فَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ غُرَابًا يَبْحَثُ فِي الْأَرْضِ لِيُرِيَهُ كَيْفَ يُوَارِي سَوْءَةَ أَخِيهِ" — "Then Allah sent a crow searching in the ground to show him how to hide the disgrace of his brother." (5:31)
This verse describes a precise animal behavior: a crow scratching the ground to dig and cover. Modern ethology has confirmed that corvids (crows, ravens, magpies) are capable of complex behaviors involving the concealment of food and objects.
Research on corvid intelligence, conducted notably by professors John Marzluff and Bernd Heinrich, has demonstrated that these birds possess remarkable cognitive abilities: problem-solving, tool use, episodic memory, and even a form of understanding of others' mental states.
The crow is one of the few animals, along with great apes and dolphins, to demonstrate planning abilities and sophisticated social behaviors. Studies have shown that crows hide their food while ensuring they are out of sight of conspecifics, which implies a rudimentary "theory of mind."
The behavior described in the Quran — a crow scratching the ground — is a natural behavior observed in these birds, which use their feet and beak to dig in the soil in search of food or to conceal objects.
The choice of the crow in this narrative is significant: it is a bird known for its intelligence and ability to manipulate its environment. The Quran, revealed more than 1400 years ago, describes with precision an animal behavior that science only began to seriously study in the 20th century.