Al-A'raf (The Heights): (148) And the people of Moses took...

Verse Analysis

Know that what is intended by this verse is the story of the Samiri taking the calf as an idol. In this story, there are several issues:

• Hamzah and Al-Kisā'ī recited it as {حِلْيِهِم} (with a kasra on the ḥā' and lām, and a shadda on the yā'), following the pattern of dili.
• The rest recited it as {حُلِيِّهِم} (with a ḍammah on the ḥā' and a kasra on the lām, and a shadda on the yā'), as the plural of ḥily (ornament), similar to thady and thudiyy.
• Some recited it in the singular form: {مِنْ حِلْيِهِم}.
• Al-Ḥily refers to what is used for beautification, made of gold or silver.

It is said that the Children of Israel had a festival where they would adorn themselves, borrowing ornaments from the Copts for that day. When God drowned the Copts, those ornaments remained in the hands of the Israelites. The Samiri, who was a respected and influential man among them, gathered these ornaments.

The people had asked Moses (peace be upon him) to make them a god to worship. The Samiri then cast a calf.

There are differing opinions on how the calf produced sound:

1. Some said that he took a handful of dust from the footprint of the horse of Gabriel (peace be upon him), threw it into the belly of the calf, and it turned into flesh and blood, emitting a lowing sound (khuwār) once. The Samiri then declared: "This is your god and the god of Moses."
2. Most Mu'tazilite exegetes held that he made the calf hollow and placed inside it specially shaped tubes. He positioned the statue where the wind blew, so the wind entered the tubes, producing a specific sound resembling the calf's lowing.
3. Others said he made the statue hollow and placed someone underneath it (in a place unseen by the people) to blow into it, causing the sound to emanate from its belly like a lowing. The proponent of this view noted that people currently create effects similar to this in statues where water is run through them to create fountains. Through this method or others, the sound was produced from the statue, after which he proclaimed to the people that this calf was their god and the god of Moses.

Question 1: Why is it said, "And the people of Moses took from their ornaments a body [of a] calf," when the one who took it was solely the Samiri?

Answer: There are two views:

1. God attributed the action to them because one man among them performed it. This is like saying, "The Banu Tamim said such-and-such," even if only one person spoke.
2. They desired its adoption and were pleased with it, so it is as if they collectively agreed upon it.

Question 2: Why did He say, "from their ornaments," when the ornaments were not originally theirs, but were obtained as a loan?

Answer: When God destroyed Pharaoh's people, those possessions remained in their hands and became their property like all their other possessions. This is evidenced by His saying: {How many gardens and springs they left behind} (Ad-Dukhan: 25), {And treasures and a noble station} (Ash-Shu'arā': 58), {And a bounty in which they were delighting. Thus. And We caused to inherit it another people} (Ad-Dukhan: 27-28).

Question 3: Were those who worshipped the calf the entirety of Moses's people or only some of them?

Answer: The statement {And the people of Moses took from their ornaments a calf} implies generality. Al-Hasan said that all of them worshipped the calf except Aaron. He supported this with two arguments:

1. The generality of this verse.
2. Moses's prayer in this story: {My Lord, forgive me and my brother} (Al-A'rāf: 151). He restricted the prayer to himself and his brother, indicating that whoever was different from them was not worthy of the prayer. If they had remained faithful, the situation would not have been like this.

Others said that there remained among the Children of Israel those who remained firm in their faith, as this disbelief only occurred among specific people. The evidence for this is His saying: {And among the people of Moses is a community that guides by the truth and thereby establishes justice} (Al-A'rāf: 181).

Question 4: Did that statue turn into flesh and blood, as some claimed, or did it remain gold as it was before?

Answer: Those who hold the first view supported their claim with two arguments:

1. His saying: {a body [of a] calf, having a lowing sound}. Jasad (body) is the name for a physical form composed of flesh and blood. Some disputed this, saying jasad is the name for any dense body, whether it is flesh and blood or not.
2. God affirmed that it had a khuwār (lowing sound), which is only possible in an animal.

It was answered that since the sound resembled a lowing, it was not inappropriate to apply the term khuwār to it. 'Ali (may God be pleased with him) recited it as (جُؤَار) (ju'ār) with a jīm and a hamza, derived from ja'ara, meaning "to cry out." This is what has been said on this topic.

God, having recounted this belief and statement from them, refuted the falsehood of the calf being a god by saying: {Do they not see that it neither speaks to them nor guides them to any way? They took it [as an idol], and they were wrongdoers}.

The structure of this proof is that this calf could neither speak to them nor guide them to correctness and righteousness. Anyone who is like this is either an inanimate object or an incapable animal. In either case, it is not fit for divinity.

Our scholars used this verse as proof that whoever cannot speak or guide to the right path is not a god, because the Godhead is that which possesses command and prohibition, which can only occur if one is capable of speech. Whoever cannot speak cannot issue commands and prohibitions. The calf was incapable of commanding and prohibiting, so it was not a god.

The Mu'tazila said that this verse indicates that a condition for being a god is guiding to truth and correctness. Therefore, whoever misleads must not be a god.

If it is asked: This implies that if it were possible for it to speak and guide, it could be taken as a god. Otherwise, if establishing that possibility is equivalent to denying it (i.e., it cannot be taken as a god), then what you mentioned is useless.

The answer is twofold:

1. It is plausible that this is a necessary condition for divinity. Thus, the absence of this quality necessitates the absence of divinity, even if its presence does not necessitate the presence of divinity.
2. Anyone capable of speaking to them and guiding them to good and evil is a god. Creatures are only capable of describing guidance; they are not capable of establishing the proofs and signs themselves—only God, the Glorified and Exalted, is capable of that.

Know that God concluded the verse with {and they were wrongdoers}, meaning they were unjust to themselves by turning away from the worship of God Almighty and engaging in the worship of the calf. And God knows best.

Al-A'raf (The Heights): (149) And when regret overcame them...