Why did Qabil murder his brother Habil?

Answer 1

Hadrat Hawwa (Eve) used to give birth to a boy and a girl at every delivery. The girl [Aklima] who was born with Qâbil was very beautiful. Qâbil wanted to marry this sister of his, but Hadrat Âdam objected, saying, "This is Allah's command. You cannot marry your sister Aklima. If you do not believe me, offer sheep for sacrifice with your brother! The one whose offering is accepted will marry Aklima." Hâbil, owner of livestock, put forth a ram; and Qâbil, a farmer, a bunch of wheat ears. A fire used to descend from the sky and burn the offering accepted. The fire that descended from the sky burnt Hâbil's offering. Nothing happened to the bunch of wheat ears. Qâbil became furious at it and murdered Hâbil.

This incident is mentioned in the Qur'ân al-karîm as follows:

(Relate to them the true news of the two sons of Âdam: They each offered a sacrifice, but it was accepted from one of them and was not accepted from the other. "I will surely kill you," he[Qâbil, whose sacrifice was not accepted, said to his bother Hâbil out of jealousy] said. The other said, "Allah only accepts from the pious. Verily, even if you extend your hand towards me to kill me, I will not extend my hand towards you to kill you; I fear Allah, the Lord of the worlds. You will bear both my sin and your sin [that you will commit by killing me and by disobeying Allahu ta'âlâ and our father] and will be one of those who will be thrown into the Fire. Such is the requital for zâlims." Thereupon, [Qâbil did not know how to kill a human. Murdering a human was a first. He saw Iblis kill a bird by hitting it over the head with a stone, so] following his nafs, he killed his brother [by hitting him over the head with a stone]. He thus became [one of the inmates of Hell and thus suffered a great loss] one of the losers. [Qâbil did not know that the dead body had to be buried] Then Allah sent him a crow digging the ground [to bury a dead crow] to show him how to bury the corpse of his brother. He [Qâbil] said, "Woe to me! I failed to be like this crow to bury the corpse of my brother.")[Sûrat-ul-Mâ'ida 27-31]