Moo!
- philhoraia
- Dec 17, 2021
- 3 min read
S 7:148 And Musa’s people took a calf from their ornaments after him--a body having lowing. Did they not see that it does not speak to them or guide them to a way? They took it and were wrongdoers.
S 20:87-89 They said: We have not reneged on your appointment by our volition but we have been made to carry burdens of the people’s ornaments and they threw them and thus the Samaritan threw. Then he brought out for them a calf, a body with lowing. And they said: This is your god and Musa’s god but he forgot. So did they not see not returning speech to them or possessing harm or benefit for them?
From an Answering Islam article: One could ask where this notion of the "lowing of the calf" comes from and find that it might have been taken from a legend from the Jews as in Pirqey Rabbi Eliezer, § 45 we read: "And this calf came out lowing, and the Israelites saw it. Rabbi Yehudah says that Sammael was hidden in its interior, and wa lowing in order that he might deceive Israel."
The strange idea that this golden calf was lowing is not in the Torah, but is only found in this Jewish legend. And Muhammad seemingly didn't understand who Sammael [angel of death] was, and so it got changed it into a word he knew, Samiri, the Samaritan as he knew the Samaritans are enemies of the Jews, so it made sense that they would want to deceive the Jews and lead them astray. [More details: Tisdall, "The Original Sources of the Qur'an", p. 112-114] Did the Golden Calf say 'Moo'?
From Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer:
Aaron argued with himself, saying: If I say to Israel, Give ye to me gold and silver, they will bring it immediately; but behold I will say to them, Give ye to me the earrings of your wives, and of your sons, and forthwith the matter will fail, as it is said, "And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden rings" (Ex. 32:2). The women heard (this), but they were unwilling to give their earrings to their husbands; but they said to them: Ye desire to make a graven image and a molten image without any power in it to deliver. The Holy One, blessed be He, gave the women their reward in this world and in the world to come. What reward did He give them in this world? That they should observe the New Moons more stringently than the men, and what reward will He give them in the world to come? They are destined to be renewed like the New Moons, as it is said, "Who satisfieth thy years with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle" (Ps. 103:5).
The men saw that the women would not consent to give their earrings to their husbands. What did they do? Until that hour the earrings were (also) in their own ears, after the fashion of the Egyptians, and after the fashion of the Arabs. They broke off their earrings which were in their own ears, and they gave (them) to Aaron, as it is said, "And all the people brake off || the golden rings which were in their ears" (Ex. 32:3). "Which were in the ears of their wives" is not written here, but "which were in their ears." Aaron found among the earrings one plate of gold upon which the Holy Name was written, and engraven thereon was the figure of a calf, and that (plate) alone did he cast into the fiery furnace, as it is said, "So they gave it me: and I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf" (Ex. 32:24). It is not written here, "And I cast them in," but "And I cast it in the fire, and there came out this calf." The calf came out lowing, and the Israelites saw it, and they went astray after it.
Rabbi Jehudah said: Sammael entered into it, and he was lowing to mislead Israel, as it is said, "The ox knoweth his owner" (Isa. 1:3). Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 45
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