Verse. 1102

٧ - ٱلْأَعْرَاف

7 - Al-A'raf

وَاتَّخَذَ قَوْمُ مُوْسٰي مِنْۢ بَعْدِہٖ مِنْ حُلِـيِّہِمْ عِجْلًا جَسَدًا لَّہٗ خُوَارٌ۝۰ۭ اَلَمْ يَرَوْا اَنَّہٗ لَا يُكَلِّمُہُمْ وَلَا يَہْدِيْہِمْ سَبِيْلًا۝۰ۘ اِتَّخَذُوْہُ وَكَانُوْا ظٰلِـمِيْنَ۝۱۴۸
Waittakhatha qawmu moosa min baAAdihi min huliyyihim AAijlan jasadan lahu khuwarun alam yaraw annahu la yukallimuhum wala yahdeehim sabeelan ittakhathoohu wakanoo thalimeena

English

Ahmed Ali

In the absence of Moses his people prepared the image of a calf from their ornaments, which gave out the mooing of a cow. Yet they did not see it could neither speak to them nor guide them to the right path. Even then they took it (for a deity) and did wrong.

148

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (and the folk of moses, after (he had left them)) to go in retreat in the mountain, (chose) made (a calf (for worship), (made) out of their ornaments, of saffron hue) of their gold, (which gave a lowing sound) a sound that the samiri made for them. (saw they not) did the people of moses not know (that it spake not unto them) i.e. the calf (nor guided them to any way? they chose it) they worshipped the calf out of ignorance, (and became wrong-doers) and they harmed themselves by worshipping it.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : and the people of moses, after him, that is, after he had departed for the communion [with god], made of their ornaments, which they had borrowed from pharaoh’s folk on the pretext of a wedding celebration, and which remained in their possession, a calf, which the samaritan had fashioned for them therefrom; a [mere] living body (jasadan is a substitution [for ‘ijlan, ‘a calf’]), of flesh and blood, which lowed, that is, [which] made audible sounds [like a cow]: it [the calf] was transformed in this way when the dust, which he [the samaritan] had collected from [where] the hoof of gabriel’s steed [had trodden], was placed in its mouth, for it has the effect of [giving] life to that in which it is placed (the second direct object of the verb ittakhadha, ‘[they] made’, has been omitted, but it would be ilāhan, ‘[as] a god’). did they not see that it spoke not to them, nor guided them to any way?, so how can it be taken as a god? yet they took it as such, a god, and were evildoers, for taking it so.

Sahl al-Tustari

تفسير : in his absence, moses’ people made of their ornament a calf; a body, which lowed…he [sahl] said:the calf of each person is anything to which he devotes himself which diverts him away from god, be it a spouse or children. furthermore, he will not rid himself of that until he has annihilated all the interests (ḥuẓūẓ) he has, that are its [his calf’s] means [of existence], just as the worshippers of the calf are not freed from its adoration except after slaying themselves. his words, mighty and majestic is he: