ﲪ ﲫ ﲬ ﲭ ﲮ ﲯ ﲰ ﲱ ﲲ ﲳ ﲴ ﲵ ﲶ ﲷ ﲸ ﲹ ﲺ ﲻ ﲼ ﲽ ﲾ ﲿ ﳀ ﳁ ﳂ ﳃ ﳄ ﳅ
So Moses returned to his people, angry and grieved. He said, "O my people, did your Lord not make you a good promise? Then, was the time [of its fulfillment] too long for you, or did you wish that wrath from your Lord descend upon you, so you broke your promise [of obedience] to me?"
Tafsir
Verse range: 20:86
"Then Moses returned to his people, angry and sorrowful."
"Asaf" (Sorrow/Anger): Intense anger. From this is the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him) regarding sudden death: "A mercy for the believer and a seizure of asaf (anger/wrath) for the disbeliever." It is also said to mean: the sorrowful.
If you ask: When did he return to his people? I say: After he had completed the forty [days]: the month of Dhu al-Qa'dah and ten days of Dhu al-Hijjah. Allah, glory be to Him, promised to give them the Torah, which contains guidance and light—and there is no promise better or more beautiful than that. It has been narrated to us that it consisted of a thousand chapters, each chapter containing a thousand verses, and its scrolls were carried by seventy camels.
"The covenant" (al-'ahd): The time. He means: the duration of his separation from them. It is said: "My 'ahd (time) has been long with you," meaning: my time has been long due to your separation. They had promised him that they would remain steadfast upon his command and the faith he left them upon, but they broke their appointment by worshipping the calf.
"By our own volition" (bi-mulkina): It is read with the three vowel marks (mulkina, malkina, milkina). It means: We did not break your appointment by our own authority. That is: If we had been in control of our own affairs and left to ourselves, we would not have broken it, but we were overcome by the Samiri and his deception.
"We were made to carry" (hummilna): We were made to carry loads of the ornaments of the Copts which we had borrowed from them. Or, they meant by "burdens" (awzar): sins and consequences, because they were with them under the status of those granted protection in the Abode of War (Dar al-Harb). A protected person (musta'min) is not permitted to take the wealth of a belligerent (harbi), especially since spoils were not yet lawful at that time.
"So we threw them" (faqadhafnaha): Into the fire of the Samiri, which he had kindled in a pit, and he ordered us to cast the ornaments into it. It is also read: "We carried" (hamalna).
"So the Samiri cast" (fakathalika alqa al-Samiri): He showed them that he was casting ornaments from his hand just as they had cast theirs. In reality, he cast the soil he had taken from the hoof-print of the horse of Gabriel. His ally, the Devil, had inspired him that if it were mixed with inanimate matter, it would become a living creature.
"Then he brought forth for them" (fa-akhraja lahum): The Samiri brought forth from the pit a calf that Allah created from the ornaments which the fire had smelted; it lowed just as calves low.
If you ask: How did that soil affect the animation of inanimate matter? I say: Is it not possible for Allah, glory be to Him, to favor the Holy Spirit with this specific miracle, just as He favored him with other miracles? This is that his horse would strike the soil with its hoof, and if that soil met inanimate matter, Allah would create from it—if He willed—a living creature at the moment of contact. Do you not see how He created the Messiah without a father when He breathed into the garment?
If you ask: Why then did He create the calf for him from the ornaments until it became a trial and a straying for the Children of Israel? I say: It is not the first trial with which Allah has tested His servants, so that Allah may establish those who believe with the firm word in the life of this world and in the Hereafter, and Allah leads the wrongdoers astray. If one wonders at the creation of the calf, let them wonder even more at the creation of Iblis.
The meaning of His saying: "We have tested your people" is the creation of the calf for the purpose of examination. That is: We tested them by creating the calf and the Samiri leading them to stray, and he caused them to fall into it when he said to them: "This is your god and the god of Moses, but he forgot." Meaning: Moses forgot to seek him here, and went to seek him at the Mount. Or, "he forgot" refers to the Samiri: meaning he abandoned the faith he was outwardly upon.
"Do they not see that it does not return to them a word, and does not possess for them any harm or benefit? And Aaron had already said to them before: 'O my people, you are only being tested by it, and indeed, your Lord is the Most Merciful, so follow me and obey my order.' They said: 'We will not cease to be devoted to it until Moses returns to us.'"
