51. " and (remember) when we appointed forty nights for
moses,
and you then took the calf (for worship) after him,
and you were unjust (to yourselves)."
52. "then we pardoned you after that in order that you might be
thankful."
53. " and (remember) when we gave moses the book as a criterion
(between right and wrong) so that you might be guided (aright)."
54. " and (remember) when moses said to his people: ` o' my people,
you have indeed wronged yourselves by worshipping the calf;
so turn (in repentance) to your creator and slay yourselves
(the wrong doers), that will be better for you with your creator'.
then, he turned towards you (mercifully). truly, he is the
oft-pardoning, the most merciful."
commentary :
the israelites' greatest deviation
in these four verses, the qur'an refers to
another episode in the
adventurous history of the children of israel and reminds the jews of
some shaking events of theirs.
these verses speak of their greatest deviation throughout the
history of their lives which was their aberration from the path of
monotheism to the worshipping of the calf. the qur'an warns them
that they had gone astray once in their history because of the
temptations of the mischief makers. now they should beware not to
repeat that mistake. they should be attentive that the way of pure
monotheism, viz. the way of islam and the qur'an, is open to them.
they must not detach from it. first the verse says :
" and (remember) when we appointed forty nights for moses, ..."
when he (moses) departed from you and his
thirty night appointment
delayed for forty nights, "...and you then took the calf (for worship) after
him, and you were unjust to yourselves."
this event will be scrutinized
when commenting on sura
al-'a`raf, no. 7, verse 142 and sura taha, no. 20, verses 86 on.
the story in brief is as follows:
after the deliverance of the children of israel from the tyrannical
grips of pharaoh and his men, who drowned in the sea, moses (a.s.) was
commanded to leave for mount sinai to stay there for thirty days and
nights in order to receive the law or the turah on the tablets from the
lord. subsequently, the term was extended by ten more days and
nights for the trial of the people. the delay in the return of moses
(a.s.) to his people at the end of thirty days, owing to the extension of
the time by ten days and nights, was sufficient to create in the minds of
the israelites doubt about the authenticity of moses (a.s.) as a true
prophet, on one hand, and for fallacious seducive sameri to make a
golden calf possessing a special sound in order to deceive the israelites,
on the other hand. they, thereby, were deluded into calf-worship.
the majority of the children of israel joined him. aaron (a.s.),
the deputy and brother of moses (a.s.) with a minority of people
remained faithful to their monotheistic creed. they tried very much to
restrain others from that great deviation, but they failed finally.
when moses (a.s.) returned from the mount end observed the
circumstances, he became angry about it and scorned them severely.
they understood that they had done wrong and decided to repent.
moses (a.s.) on allah's command suggested to them an important
repentance, whose explanation will be presented in future verses.
in the next verse it says :
" then we pardoned you after that in order that you might be
thankful."
then, it continues mentioning the series
of happenings that had
occurred before, saying:
" and
(remember) when we gave moses the book as a criterion
(between right and wrong) so that you might be guided (aright)."
" and (remember)
when moses said to his people: ` o' my people, you
have indeed wronged yourselves by worshipping the calf; ..."
"...so turn (in repentance) to your creator..." your
repentance
should be fulfilled in this definite form: "...and slay yourselves (the wrong
doers), ...", in which the
righteous had to kill the wrong doers. of
course, those who had not worshipped the calf were not condemned to
death, but they were commissioned to slay those calf-worshippers
among themselves, be they their own kith and kin, i.e. their own fellow
men whom they loved the most because they had associated a partner,
the calf, to the lord, the one true god. 1
"...that will be better for you with your creator.
..."
"...then, he turned toward you (mercifully). truly, he is the
oft-pardoning, the most merciful."
the phrase /innakum zalamtum anfusakum/
`you have indeed
wronged yourselves', here, is also noteworthy because: in islam, sin
which a man or a woman commits, is done against the individual's own
self. for, the first and the immediate effect of a sin committed is that
the individual becomes degenerated and thus gets far away from divine
mercy.