Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:51
And [recall] when We made an appointment with Moses for forty nights. Then you took [for worship] the calf after him, while you were wrongdoers.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The discourse on the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: وَإِذْ وَاعَدْنَا ("And when We made an appointment")
The reciters (al-qaraʾa) differed concerning the reading of this. Some read it as *wāʿadnā* ("We made a mutual appointment"), with the meaning that Allah, the Exalted, made an appointment with Mūsā to come to Mount Ṭūr for His confidential discourse with him (munājāh). Thus the appointment proceeded from Allah toward Mūsā, and from Mūsā toward his Lord. Among their arguments in favor of their preference for the reading *wāʿadnā* over *waʿadnā* was that they said: every mutual appointment that takes place between two persons with a view to meeting and assembling makes each of the two one who makes an appointment with his companion concerning that matter. Therefore — so they claimed — it is necessary to give preference to the reading of him who read *wāʿadnā* over the reading of him who read *waʿadnā*.
Others read it as *waʿadnā* ("We promised"), with the meaning that Allah is the One who makes the promise and stands alone in it, without another. Among their arguments in their preference for that was that they said: a mutual appointment (muwāʿadah) occurs only between people among themselves, but Allah, exalted is His praise, He stands alone in promising and threatening (al-waʿd wa-l-waʿīd) regarding every good and every evil. They said: and thus the revelation has come throughout the entire Qurʾān, for He, exalted is His praise, said: إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَعَدَكُمْ وَعْدَ الْحَقِّ (Ibrāhīm: 22) ("Indeed, Allah has made you the true promise"). And He said: وَإِذْ يَعِدُكُمُ اللَّهُ إِحْدَى الطَّائِفَتَيْنِ أَنَّهَا لَكُمْ (Al-Anfāl: 7) ("And when Allah promised you one of the two groups, that it would be yours"). They said: thus likewise it is necessary that He be the One who stands alone in the promise in His statement: "And when We promised Mūsā."
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The correct judgment according to us concerning this is: that they are two readings which the community (al-umma) has transmitted and which the reciters have recited, and that reciting according to one of them does not nullify the meaning of the other, even though one of them contains an addition in meaning over the other with respect to the outward form and the recitation. But as for the meaning understood from both, they are in agreement. For whoever reports about a person that he promised another to meet one another at a particular place, it is known that the one to whom that was promised likewise made an appointment with his companion concerning their meeting at that place, equal to what his companion promised him concerning that, when that promise to him arose from an agreement between the two of them concerning it. And it is known that Mūsā, the blessings of Allah be upon him, was not promised the Ṭūr by his Lord except with Mūsā's consent to it, since there is no doubt concerning Mūsā that he was pleased with everything Allah commanded him, and hastened to it out of love for it. And it is understood that Allah, the Exalted, promised Mūsā that only while Mūsā was obeying Him. And since that is so, it is known that Allah, mighty is His remembrance, promised Mūsā the Ṭūr, and that Mūsā promised Him the meeting. Thus Allah, mighty is His remembrance, was toward Mūsā the promiser and the appointment-maker of the confidential discourse on the Ṭūr, and Mūsā was toward his Lord the promiser and the appointment-maker of the meeting. With whichever of the two readings — *waʿada* or *wāʿada* — the reciter recites, he thereby attains the truth, both with respect to the interpretation (taʾwīl) and with respect to the language, because of the grounds which we have described earlier.
And there is no validity in the statement of him who says: the mutual appointment occurs only between people, and Allah stands alone in promising and threatening regarding every good and every evil. For Allah's standing alone in promising and threatening with respect to reward and punishment, good and evil, benefit and harm — which lies in His hand and belongs to Him, unlike the rest of His creatures — this does not change the speech that is current among people in their usage of it from its meanings, nor does it alter it in its intentions. And what is current among people of comprehensible speech is what we have described: that every mutual appointment that takes place between two persons is a promise of each of the two to his companion and a mutual appointment between the two of them, and that each of the two makes an appointment with his companion; and that the promise in which the promiser stands alone without the recipient is only that which has the meaning of "the promise" (al-waʿd) that is the opposite of "the threat" (al-waʿīd).
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: مُوسَى ("Mūsā")
And "Mūsā" — according to what has reached us — is in Coptic two words, by which water and tree are meant. "Mū" is the water, and "shā" is the tree. He was named with that — according to what has reached us — because his mother, when she placed him in the chest — when she feared for him on account of Firʿawn and cast him into the river, as Allah had inspired her, and it is said that the river into which she cast him was the Nile — the waves of the river kept pushing him along until they brought him among trees by the house of Firʿawn. Then the handmaidens of Āsiya, the wife of Firʿawn, came out to bathe, and they found the chest and took it. Thus he was named after the place where he was found, since it was a place in which there were water and trees, and therefore it was said: Mūsā, water and tree. Thus:
912 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, on the authority of Asbāṭ ibn Naṣr, on the authority of al-Suddī.
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And Abū Jaʿfar said: and he is Mūsā ibn ʿImrān ibn Yaṣhur ibn Qāhith ibn Lāwī ibn Yaʿqūb, Isrāʾīl of Allah, ibn Isḥāq, the sacrifice of Allah (dhabīḥ Allāh), ibn Ibrāhīm, the intimate friend of Allah (khalīl Allāh) — according to what Ibn Isḥāq claimed.
913 – Ibn Ḥumayd related that to me, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, on his authority.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: أَرْبَعِينَ لَيْلَةً ("forty nights")
And its meaning is: and when We appointed for Mūsā forty nights in their entirety. The forty nights are all included in the appointment.
And some grammarians of Basra claimed that its meaning is: and when We appointed for Mūsā the passing of forty nights, that is, the end of the forty. They likened that to His statement: وَاسْأَلِ الْقَرْيَةَ (Yūsuf: 82) ("And ask the town"), and to their saying: "Today is forty [days] since so-and-so departed," and "Today is two days," that is: today is the completion of two days, and the completion of forty.
Abū Jaʿfar said: and that is contrary to what the transmission of the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) has brought, and contrary to the outward form of the recitation. For as for the outward form of the recitation: Allah, exalted is His praise, has reported that He appointed for Mūsā forty nights, and no one may convert the outward meaning of His report into a hidden meaning, without a proof that demonstrates its correctness.
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And as for the people of interpretation, they said concerning this what I shall now mention, and that is what:
914 – al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ādam related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, concerning his statement: (And when We appointed for Mūsā forty nights), he said: by it is meant Dhū al-Qaʿda and ten [days] of Dhū al-Ḥijja. And that was when Mūsā left his companions and appointed Hārūn as deputy over them, and he remained forty nights on the Ṭūr, and the Tawrāh was sent down upon him in the tablets — and the tablets were of hailstone — and the Lord brought him near in confidential discourse, and spoke to him, and he heard the scratching of the pen. And it has reached us that he did not relieve himself during the forty nights until he descended from the Ṭūr.
915 – And it was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan: ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, in a similar manner.
916 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, saying: Allah promised Mūsā — when He had destroyed Firʿawn and his people, and had saved him and his people — thirty nights, then He completed them with ten, so that the appointed time of his Lord amounted to forty nights, during which his Lord met with him what He willed. And Mūsā appointed Hārūn as deputy over the Children of Israel, and said: "I hasten to my Lord, so take my place among my people and do not follow the way of those who work corruption." Thus Mūsā went out to his Lord, hastening to His meeting out of longing for Him, and Hārūn remained among the Children of Israel, and with him was al-Sāmirī who was leading them along the track of Mūsā in order to make them join him.
917 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, saying: Mūsā departed and appointed Hārūn as deputy over the Children of Israel, and he appointed with them thirty nights, and Allah completed them with ten.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: ثُمَّ اتَّخَذْتُمُ الْعِجْلَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ وَأَنْتُمْ ظَالِمُونَ (51) ("Then you took the calf after him, while you were wrongdoers")
And the interpretation of His statement: (Then you took the calf after him) is: then you took, in the days of Mūsā's appointment, the calf as a god, after Mūsā had left you and betaken himself to the appointed place. And the "hā" in His statement "after him" refers back to the mention of Mūsā.
Thus He, exalted is His praise, reported to those who opposed our Prophet ﷺ from among the Jews of the Children of Israel, who denied him and who are addressed with this verse — about the deed of their fathers and their forefathers, and their denial of their messengers, and their opposition to their prophets, despite His successive favors upon them and the widespread extent of His benefactions among them, making known to them thereby that they — through their opposition to Muḥammad ﷺ and their denial of him and their rejection of his message, despite their knowledge of his truthfulness — are upon the same way as their fathers and their forefathers; and warning them of the descent of His power upon them — on account of their persistence therein through their denial — like what descended upon their predecessors who denied the messengers: of transformation (maskh), cursing, and all kinds of vengeance.
And the cause of their taking the calf was, what:
918 – ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn al-Haytham related to me, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn Bashshār al-Ramādī related to us, saying: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us, saying: Abū Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, saying: When Firʿawn entered the sea, he and his companions, and Firʿawn was upon a jet-black horse with an abundant tail, a stallion — when he entered the sea, the stallion balked at plunging into the sea. Then Jibrīl appeared to him in the form of a mare in heat, and when the stallion saw her, he plunged after her. He said: And al-Sāmirī recognized Jibrīl, because his mother, when she feared that he would be slaughtered, left him in a cave and closed it over him. And Jibrīl came to him and fed him with his fingers: in some of his fingers he found milk, in another honey, and in yet another butter, and he kept feeding him until he grew up. And when he saw him in the sea, he recognized him, and he took a handful from the track of his horse. He said: he took from beneath the hoof a handful. Sufyān said: and Ibn Masʿūd recited it as: "Then I took a handful from the track of the messenger's horse" (Ṭā-Hā: 96).
Abū Saʿīd said: ʿIkrima said, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: And into the heart of al-Sāmirī it was cast: indeed, you cast it upon nothing or you say "be such and such," and it comes to be. And the handful remained with him in his hand until he crossed the sea. And when Mūsā and the Children of Israel crossed the sea, and Allah drowned the people of Firʿawn, Mūsā said to his brother Hārūn: "Take my place among my people and set things in order." And Mūsā went forth to the appointment of his Lord. He said: And with the Children of Israel were ornaments from the ornaments of the people of Firʿawn, which they had taken on loan. And it was as though they felt guilty concerning them, so they brought them out so that the Fire might descend and consume them. And when they had gathered them, al-Sāmirī did with the handful that was in his hand thus — and he cast it in — (and Ibn Isḥāq gestured with his hand thus) — and he said: "Be a calf, a body that lows." And it became a calf, a body that lowed; the wind entered its hindquarters and came out of its mouth, so that a sound was heard from it. And he said: "This is your god and the god of Mūsā." And they devoted themselves to the calf and worshipped it. And Hārūn said: "O my people, you have only been tried by it, and indeed your Lord is the Most Merciful, so follow me and obey my command!" They said: "We will not cease to devote ourselves to it until Mūsā returns to us."
919 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ ibn Naṣr related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: When Allah commanded Mūsā to go out with the Children of Israel — that is, from the land of Egypt — Mūsā commanded the Children of Israel to go out, and he commanded them to borrow the ornaments of the Copts. And when Allah had saved Mūsā and those with him of the Children of Israel from the sea, and the people of Firʿawn had drowned, Jibrīl came to Mūsā to bring him to Allah. And he arrived upon a horse, and al-Sāmirī saw him and did not recognize him [as ordinary] and said: "This is indeed the horse of life!" And he said when he saw it: "Here indeed is something extraordinary going on." And he took from the earth of the hoof — the hoof of the horse. Then Mūsā departed and appointed Hārūn as deputy over the Children of Israel, and he appointed with them thirty nights, and Allah completed them with ten. Thereupon Hārūn said to them: "O Children of Israel, indeed the spoils (ghanīma) are not permitted to you, and the ornaments of the Copts are only spoils, so gather them all and dig a pit for them and bury them. If Mūsā comes and permits them, then you take them; and if not, then it was something you did not consume." So they gathered those ornaments in that pit, and al-Sāmirī came with that handful and cast it in, and Allah brought forth from the ornaments a calf, a body that lowed. And the Children of Israel had counted the appointment of Mūsā, and they counted the night as a day and the day as a day, and when the twenty were completed, the calf came forth to them. And when they saw it, al-Sāmirī said to them: "This is your god and the god of Mūsā, but he has forgotten [it]" — he meant: Mūsā has left his god here and gone off to seek him. So they devoted themselves to it and worshipped it, and it lowed and walked. And Hārūn said to them: "O Children of Israel, you have only been tried by it" — he means: you have been tried by it, that is, by the calf — "and indeed your Lord is the Most Merciful." And Hārūn and those with him of the Children of Israel remained, and they did not fight them, and Mūsā departed to his god to speak with Him. And when He spoke to him, He said to him: "What has made you hasten away from your people, O Mūsā?" He said: "They are there, upon my track, and I have hastened to You, my Lord, that You might be pleased." He said: "Indeed, We have tried your people after you, and al-Sāmirī has led them astray." And He informed him of their report. Mūsā said: "O Lord, this al-Sāmirī has commanded them to take the calf — tell me of the spirit, who blew it in?" The Lord said: "I did." He said: "Lord, then You led them astray."
920 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, saying: It was — according to what I was told — that Mūsā said to the Children of Israel, according to what Allah, mighty and exalted, had commanded him: "Borrow from them — that is, from the people of Firʿawn — the utensils, the ornaments, and the clothing, for indeed I will apportion their possessions to you as spoils together with their destruction." And when Firʿawn called the people, among that with which he incited against the Children of Israel was that he said: "When they departed, they were not content that they themselves had gone out, until they had also taken your possessions with them!"
921 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to me, on the authority of Ḥakīm ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, saying: Al-Sāmirī was a man from the people of Bājarmā, and he belonged to a people who worshipped cattle, and the love of worshipping cattle was in his soul, and he had outwardly displayed Islam, feigning, among the Children of Israel. And when Hārūn remained as deputy among the Children of Israel, and Mūsā departed to his Lord, Hārūn said to them: "You are burdened with loads of the adornment of the people — the people of Firʿawn — of utensils and ornaments, so purify yourselves of them, for it is unclean." And he kindled a fire for them and said: "Cast in what you have of that." They said: "Yes."
So they began to come with what they had of those utensils and those ornaments, and cast it in. Until, when the ornaments had melted in it, al-Sāmirī saw the track of the horse of Jibrīl, and he took earth from the track of its hoof. Then he came to the fire and said to Hārūn: "O prophet of Allah, shall I cast in what is in my hand?" He said: "Yes." And Hārūn supposed nothing other than that it was like some of those ornaments and utensils which another had brought to it, so he cast it in and said: "Be a calf, a body that lows." And it became so, as a trial and a temptation. And he said: "This is your god and the god of Mūsā." So they devoted themselves to it, and they loved it with a love with which they had never loved anything like it. Allah, mighty and exalted, says: فَنَسِيَ (Ṭā-Hā: 88) ("but he forgot") — that is: he abandoned that which he had been upon of Islam — meaning: al-Sāmirī — أَفَلَا يَرَوْنَ أَلَّا يَرْجِعُ إِلَيْهِمْ قَوْلًا وَلَا يَمْلِكُ لَهُمْ ضَرًّا وَلَا نَفْعًا (Ṭā-Hā: 89) ("Do they not then see that it could not return to them a word and had no power over their harm or benefit?"). And the name of al-Sāmirī was Mūsā ibn Ẓafar; he had come into the land of Egypt and joined the Children of Israel. And when Hārūn saw what they had fallen into, he said: يَا قَوْمِ إِنَّمَا فُتِنْتُمْ بِهِ وَإِنَّ رَبَّكُمُ الرَّحْمَنُ فَاتَّبِعُونِي وَأَطِيعُوا أَمْرِي * قَالُوا لَنْ نَبْرَحَ عَلَيْهِ عَاكِفِينَ حَتَّى يَرْجِعَ إِلَيْنَا مُوسَى (Ṭā-Hā: 90-91) ("O my people, you have only been tried by it, and indeed your Lord is the Most Merciful, so follow me and obey my command. They said: We will not cease to devote ourselves to it until Mūsā returns to us"). So Hārūn remained among those with him of the Muslims who had not been put to trial, and whoever worshipped the calf remained at the worship of the calf. And Hārūn feared that, if he were to depart with those with him of the Muslims, Mūsā would say to him: "You have caused division among the Children of Israel and did not heed my word." And he held him in awe and was obedient to him.
922 – Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: When Allah, mighty and exalted, saved the Children of Israel from Firʿawn, and drowned Firʿawn and those with him, Mūsā said to his brother Hārūn: "Take my place among my people and set things in order, and do not follow the way of those who work corruption." He said: When Mūsā departed and commanded Hārūn what he commanded him, and Mūsā betook himself hastily and joyfully to Allah — for Mūsā knew that a man, when he succeeds in the need of his master, it gladdens him to hasten to him. He said: And when they departed, they had borrowed ornaments and clothing of the people of Firʿawn, and Hārūn said to them: "Indeed, these garments and ornaments are not permitted to you, so kindle a fire and cast it in and burn it." He said: So they kindled a fire. He said: And al-Sāmirī had looked at the track of the mount of Jibrīl — and he was upon a mare — and al-Sāmirī was among the people of Mūsā. He said: So he looked at its track and took a handful of it, and his hand closed over it. And when the people of Mūsā cast the ornaments into the fire, and al-Sāmirī cast with them the handful, Allah, mighty and exalted, formed that for them into a calf of gold, and the wind entered it, so that it lowed. And they said: "What is this?" And the corrupt al-Sāmirī said: هَذَا إِلَهُكُمْ وَإِلَهُ مُوسَى فَنَسِيَ ("This is your god and the god of Mūsā, but he forgot"), the verse, until His statement: حَتَّى يَرْجِعَ إِلَيْنَا مُوسَى (Ṭā-Hā: 88-91) ("until Mūsā returns to us"). He said: Until, when Mūsā arrived at the appointment, Allah said: وَمَا أَعْجَلَكَ عَنْ قَوْمِكَ يَا مُوسَى * قَالَ هُمْ أُولَاءِ عَلَى أَثَرِي ("And what has made you hasten away from your people, O Mūsā? He said: They are there, upon my track"), and he recited on until he reached: أَفَطَالَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْعَهْدُ (Ṭā-Hā: 86) ("Has the covenant been too long for you?").
923 – Al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His statement: (Then you took the calf after him), he said: the calf: the young of the cow. He said: they were ornaments which they had borrowed from the people of Firʿawn, and Hārūn said to them: "Bring it out and purify yourselves of it and burn it." And al-Sāmirī had taken a handful from the track of the horse of Jibrīl and cast it in, and it fused together, and it had as it were a hollow into which the winds howled down.
924 – Al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ādam related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, he said: it was called only "the calf" (al-ʿijl), because they hastened (ʿajilū) and took it before Mūsā came to them.
925 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-Bāhilī related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to me, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, in a manner similar to the transmission of al-Qāsim on the authority of al-Ḥasan.
926 – Al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, in a similar manner.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement: وَأَنْتُمْ ظَالِمُونَ (51) ("while you were wrongdoers")
That is: and you placed the worship in a place other than its [proper] place, for worship is befitting only to Allah, mighty and exalted, and you worshipped the calf out of wrongdoing on your part, and as a placing of the worship in a place other than its place. And we have — in another place of what has passed in our book — demonstrated that the root meaning of every wrongdoing (ẓulm) is the placing of a thing in a place other than its place, and that makes its repetition in this place superfluous.
