so that the calf let out a low like a real animal.

Some said that it actually turned into a corporeal calf—flesh and blood, alive and lowing. This was the view reported from Qatādah and others. Another opinion holds that whenever the wind entered through its rear and exited from its mouth, it would make the sound of a cow; the people would then dance around it and rejoice, proclaiming, “This is your god and the god of Moses; he forgot.” That is, “Moses has forgotten his Lord here with us and has gone off in search of Him, while He is right here.” Far exalted is Allah above what they allege—infinitely exalted is He; sanctified are His Names and Attributes; multiplied are His favors and promises.

Allah, exalted is He, refuted the absurdity to which they clung, the divinity they ascribed to something that at best was a dumb beast—and, in reality, a despised devil—saying: “Do they not see that it does not return any speech to them and that it possesses no power to harm or benefit them?” and: “Did they not see that it could neither speak to them nor guide them to any way? They took it for worship and thus were wrongdoers.” He made clear that this creature could not speak, could not answer, could not bring harm or benefit, nor guide to right conduct—yet they adopted it, wronging themselves while knowing inwardly the falsity of their ignorant error.

“When regret seized them,”—that is, when they felt remorse for what they had done—“and they saw that they had gone astray, they said, ‘If our Lord does not have mercy upon us and forgive us, we will surely be among the losers.’”

When Moses, peace be upon him, returned and saw them worshipping the calf, he was carrying the Tablets containing the Torah; he cast them down. It is said that he smashed them—so report the People of the Book, who add that Allah later replaced them—yet nothing in the Qur’anic wording explicitly states this; it only says that he threw them when he beheld what he beheld. The People of the Book maintain they were two tablets, whereas the apparent sense of the Qur’an indicates they were several.

He had not been so shaken merely by Allah’s earlier report to him of their calf-worship; rather, he was made to witness it with his own eyes. Hence the ḥadīth recorded by Imām Aḥmad and Ibn Ḥibbān from Ibn ʿAbbās: “Hearing is not the same as seeing.”

He then turned to them, sternly rebuking, scolding, and censuring them for this loathsome deed. They offered an excuse that did not hold: “We were made to carry burdens from the people’s ornaments, so we cast them—and likewise did the Sāmirī cast.” They scrupled at keeping the jewelry of Pharaoh’s folk—though they had been at war and Allah had permitted them to take it—yet, in their ignorance and lack of sense, they felt no shame in worshipping a lifeless, lowing calf alongside the One, Unique, Self-Sufficient, All-Compelling God.

Then he turned to his brother Aaron, peace be upon him, saying: “O Aaron, what prevented you, when you saw them going astray, from following me?”—that is, why did you not come after me and inform me of what they had done? Aaron replied, “I feared that you would say, ‘You have caused division among the Children of…"