The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Moses: Worshipping The Calf

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Worshipping The Calf They say that when Moses went away from the Israelites to the appointment of his Lord to reveal the Torah and he made his brother Aaron a leader upon them and he promised them of a book from God, so he went along to what he promised and he appointed for them thirty days of absence so he went away and did not get back as he promised but he delayed that for forty complete days, and they said that Moses ran away and lied to us and they wanted to kill Aaron and did not accept any excuse from him, and then the Satan came to them in a shape of a man and said to them that Moses ran away from you and will never be back so gather your gold so that I shall make for you a god to worship, and the Samarian was one of the first people to cross the sea with Moses and he saw Gabriel (PUH) riding a creature that was like a horse and it was called Ramakah, and whenever it puts its hoof on the ground that spot would move, so the Samarian took a look at it and he was one of the best companions for Moses, so he took some of that sand that was under the hoof of Gabriel's riding creature to make it as a bless for him and he wrapped it and used to make pride of it over all the Israelites and it moving (the sand), so when the Satan came and made the calf for them out of gold he said to the Samarian: give me the sand that is with you, so he brought it to him and the Satan threw it inside the calf, and when the sand was thrown inside it turned out to be moving and had a sound and had hair on it, so when the Israelites saw him and heard its sounds they prostrated before it and they were seventy thousand of the Israelites, and then Aaron said to them: O folks it is a lie and your Lord is God so follow me and obey my command, but they said: we will keep on it until Moses is back.
Then they wanted to kill Aaron but he got out and stayed away from them until the appointment of forty days of Moses was over, and when it was the tenth day of Ðul-Hijjah, God revealed on Moses the tablets that contained what they need of regulations and laws and sermons, then God inspired to Moses (PUH): He said: Lo! We have tried thy folk in thine absence, and As-Samiri hath misled them(TaHa:85), so Moses then said: O Lord, the calf is made by the Samarian but what about the sounds? He, the Exalted, said then: from Me O Moses, when I saw them neglecting Me and worshipping a calf I decided to increase their ignorance, meaning as a test for them. Then Moses went back unto his folk, angry and sad. He said: O my people! Hath not your Lord promised you a fair promise? Did the time appointed then appear too long for you, or did ye wish that wrath from your Lord should come upon you, that ye broke tryst with me?(TaHa:86), then he threw the tablets from his hands into the ground and he took the beard of his brother Aaron and took his head pulling him towards himself and said to him: O Aaron! What held thee back when thou didst see them gone astray, That thou followedst me not? Hast thou then disobeyed my order?(TaHa:92-93), and then he (Aaron) answered: O son of my mother! Clutch not my beard nor my head! I feared lest thou shouldst say: Thou hast caused division among the Children of Israel, and hast not waited for my word(TaHa:94).
Then the Israelites said to him: We broke not tryst with thee of our own will(TaHa:87) (meaning not by our choice but the Samarian proposed so for us and if we were to be left with our own will we wouldn't do so), but we were laden with burdens of ornaments of the folk(TaHa:87), meaning their gold, and then we did put inside it the sand that the Samarian brought and he did make for them a calf with the sound of cows, so Moses then said to him: And what hast thou to say, O Samiri?(TaHa:95), he answered: I perceived what they perceive not, so I seized a handful from the footsteps of the messenger, and then threw it in. Thus my soul commended to me(TaHa:96), then Moses took the calf out and burned it with fire and threw it into the sea, and he banished the Samarian out of that land and warned him not to see him again or to make contact with any of the Israelites, and he said to him: Then go! and lo! in this life it is for thee to say: Touch me not!(TaHa:97), as long as you are alive and the same goes for those on your way and your descendants as well and it is the mark of difference between you and others, and they say that Moses wanted to kill the Samarian but God inspired to him not to kill him for he is a generous man, and they say his name was Musâ-Rakân [Musâ = Moses] and he was born out of the frame of marriage, and they say also that his descendants did not vanish and still there are some of them in Egypt and the lands of Shem and they worship the calf but they keep it as a secret among themselves and call themselves muslims, and their describtion in general is the same of that of the Samarian for at that time they did not touch anyone and no one touches them.
Then Moses spoke to him and said: Now look upon thy god of which thou hast remained a votary. Verily we will burn it and will scatter its dust over the sea, Your Lord is only Allah, than Whom there is no other lord(TaHa:97-98), and it is mentioned also that God ordered Moses to order the people not to stay with him or sit with him or eat with him to leave him alone, and it is said to him (the Samarian): do not touch us and we shall not touch you as long as you live, and they say that he went wandering in the wilderness with beasts and lions and never touch anyone and no one touched him and that was God's punishment for him in this life, and when he used to meet someone he would say: no touching! meaning do not touch me or be closer to me and that went along in his descendants as well, and it is said that their remains are still saying this upto this very day, and if someone else other than them would touch one of them then both would be sick with fever at the same time as it is said.
And As-Samiri (the Samarian) is named after Sâmir or Shâmir and it is the guradian as it was used at their time in both languages Hebrew and Arabic as it had been said and investigated about it, and Abdul-Wahâb Al-Najjâr said: if someone said that the man tricked the Israelites and took their gold and bought a calf as one of those worshipped in Egypt and brought it to them and then said to them whatever he had said and they did accept that from him and they thought that the calf is their god and the god of Moses and kept on worshipping it, all of that would not be far away from the meaning of Quran, then he said which is something I do believe in, the Samarian might had tricked them by taking their gold and throwing it into the fire to make them think that their gold was made into a calf and then he took all the gold for himself as any impostor would do, and he said also that I see that the story of the Samarian with Gabriel is not true and there were no Gabriel came down riding a horse-like creature nor the Samarian took some of the sands from under the hoof of that creature..etc, and all of that as you can see are just some imaginations and the truth is what was brought by the narrations of the Household of the path of truth, and it is testified by the Quran and its symbols with its interpretations that was brought by the Household (PUT): and the people of the house knows better what is inside, read with me may the mercy of God be upon you and complete whatever I left for you, God did say telling the story: so I seized a handful from the footsteps of the messenger, and then threw it in. Thus my soul commended to me(TaHa:96), and it is mentioned before what was the meaning of this phrase, and they say that the punishment of the Samarian in this life was a physical punishment and that is he feels the pain whenever someone touches him and whenever he meets someone and he was afraid that he would be touches he would say: no touch! And in the after-life God will take care of him, and as for the ones who worshipped the calf from the Israelites their punishment was that God would not accept their repentance unless they kill each other.
As mentioned by `Ilm Al-Hudâ Al-Sayid Al-Murtadhâ about God's saying: and he seized his brother by the head, dragging him toward him..etc(Al-A`râf:50), he said: Aaron did not do something that deserves to do such a thing with him like seizing his head or his beard, and the apology of Moses then after is not a deed of silly people and not a deed of wisemen full of wisdom, and in general what brought such a conflict into the being is that in what God did say of Moses' deeds with his brother anything that points out to a sin done any of them, for Moses came with anger to his people for what they did after him and horrified by their deed although he did not stay away from them except of some days not a year nor some months but they did do the worst of things and the most silliest deed and the most shameful work, and they changed worshipping the Exalted One, with the worshipping of a created animal, so he took the head of his brother and pulled it towards him as when someone does when he is amazed for something horrible and might bite on his lips or on his finger or even pulls his own beard, and because Aaron is his partner in this matter and every good or bad would strike one of them would strike the other as well, for this he did with him what a man would do with himself and he (Aaron) is himself (Moses) and that is not an insult for Aaron and does not point out to a sin of Aaron and does not put down his dignity and does not affect the place of prophercy, and also traditions do change by time and by nations, and we might see something as a bad thing but for some people it is a pretty thing, so then Aaron said: Thou hast caused division among the Children of Israel..etc(TaHa:94) and in another location: Son of my mother! Lo! the folk did judge me weak and almost killed me(Al-A`râf:150), and that was an answer from him to deny this deed, meaning do not be angry or mad or sorry, and maybe all of that was said and done by an agreement between the two of them as to show the nation how great is their deed and make them scared.
Anyhow, it must be taken as it is although it sounds that it is not an approperiate thing to do as for what mentioned before and assured before that prophets are infallible, and it is said that when Moses got back to his people and they had worshipped the calf he said to them: O folks, you did a wrong deed to yourselves by worshipping the calf so repent towards your Lord and kill yourselves, so they said to him: how shall we kill ourselves? Then Moses said to them: go to Jerusalem and everyone of you holding a knife or an iron bar or a sword and when I come upon the rostrum of the Israelites then you shall be cautious and no one of you shall know the other and kill each other, and then they gathered and they were seventy thousand men of those who worshipped the calf and they went to Jerusalem and when Moses prayed with them and he went upon the rostrum, they started to kill each other until ten thousand men of them were killed and more were injured, and then Gabriel came down by God's commandment and said: O Moses stop the killing for God did forgive them, and so did Moses order them and told them that God did forgive them and God did say then: That will be best for you with your Creator and He will relent toward you. Lo! He is the Relenting, the Merciful(Al-Baqarah:54) [this previous story might not be accurate since it should have happened in Sinai during the Exodus after that God avoided the Israelites to get into the holy lands for forty years, this is what I, the translator, believe].
we've pointed out before that God lifted up the mountain beside them and made it like upon their heads and they thought that it will fall down on them and that was when Moses brought them the Torah and most of them denied accepting it for they had harsh hearts and so far away from being bounded by religious regulations, and because as it was said before that the Israelites had quite small souls for they got used to the humiliation under the Egyptians' rule, so they do not accept a law except by force, and for this their hearts were melted down into their chests and fear filled their souls when they were ordered to fight the giants and they are not good for wars or to be used, and when they were ordered to go to the holy lands they said to Moses: So go thou and thy Lord and fight! We will sit here(Al-Mâ'idah:24), and then Moses said complaining to God about the Israelites: My Lord! I have control of none but myself and my brother, so distinguish between us and the wrong-doing folk(Al-Mâ'idah:25)...so the mountain was raised upon the Israelites as we pointed out so that they thought it is falling on them, and Moses then ordered them to take the regulations that he brought to them with strength and stop complaining about it and to keep it with all their strength and to bear what they are given and to remember whatever was in these regulations of sayings and workings. If they did what is required of them then they will face the goodness and avoid the evil and the bad deeds, but they went away from the covenant after they had made it and so God did say in the chapter of Al-A`râf: And when We shook the Mount above them as it were a covering, and they supposed that it was going to fall upon them (and We said): Hold fast that which We have given you, and remember that which is therein, that ye may ward off (evil)(Al-A`râf:171) and then He said: Then, even after that, ye turned away, and if it had not been for the grace of Allah and His mercy ye had been among the losers(Al-Baqarah:64). [then comes some phrases explaining the meaning of the Arabic word mentioned about the action of the mount, but contributes nothing to the story]. Everyone knew that when they accepted what Moses brought and believed in it the mount was raised away from them, because looking at miracles makes the faith much stronger and moves the feelings inside oneself and for this he (Moses) talked to them when they saw such miracles and said: Hold fast that which We have given you..etc(Al-A`râf:171).

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