The Calf
- philhoraia
- May 11, 2023
- 2 min read
In this post we shall be looking at the (golden) calf.
S 2:51 And when we promised Musa 40 nights. Then you took the calf after him while you are wrongdoers.
S 2:54 And when Musa said to his people: People, you have wronged yourselves in your taking the calf. So repent to your bari’ and kill yourselves. That is better for you with your bari’. Then he repented for you. He is the repenter, the merciful.
Kill yourselves?
S 2:92 And Musa came to you with the proofs then you took the calf after him while you are wrongdoers.
S 2:93 And when we took your covenant and raised the tur over you. Take what we have given you with power and hear. They said: We have heard and obeyed. And they were caused to drink the calf in their hearts for their kufr. Say: Miserable was what your faith commands you with, if you are believers.
What does "drink the calf in their hearts" mean?
S 4:153 The People of the Book ask you to bring down upon them a book from the sky. And they had asked Musa greater than that and said: Show us Allah overtly. So the thunderbolt took them for their wrongdoing. Then they took the calf after what the proofs had come to them then we pardoned for that. And we gave Musa clear authority.
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 7:152 Those who took the calf, anger from their lord will get them and humiliation in the dunya life. And thus do we recompense the fabricators.
S 20:88 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.
This calf, made from ornaments, lowed. How might it have done so? 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'?
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