(83–86) “What caused you to hasten ahead of your people, O Moses?” He replied, “They are close on my heels. I hastened to You, my Lord, so that You may be pleased.” Allah said, “We have indeed tested your people in your absence, and al-Sāmirī has led them astray.” So Moses returned to his people, angry and deeply grieved. He said, “O my people! Did your Lord not make you a gracious promise? Did the lapse of time seem too long to you? Or did you wish wrath from your Lord to descend upon you, so that you broke your promise to me?”
Allah Most High had appointed Moses to come to Him after thirty nights so that He might send down the Torah to him, and He completed them with ten more. When the appointed period was complete, Moses, peace be upon him, hastened to attend the meeting out of longing for his Lord and eagerness for what He had promised him. Allah therefore said to him, “What caused you to hasten ahead of your people, O Moses?” That is: What caused you to arrive before them? Why did you not wait until you and they arrived together? He replied, “They are close on my heels”—that is, they are near me and will arrive after me. What caused me to hasten to You, my Lord, was my desire for nearness to You, my eagerness to attain Your pleasure, and my longing for You.
Allah said to him, “We have indeed tested your people in your absence”—that is, We tried and tested them through the worship of the calf. They did not remain steadfast; when the ordeal came upon them, they fell into disbelief—“and al-Sāmirī led them astray.”
“He brought forth for them a calf—a mere body.” He fashioned it until “it made a lowing sound. Then they said” to them, “This is your god and the god of Moses.” Moses had forgotten it, they claimed. The Children of Israel were beguiled by it and worshipped it. Aaron forbade them, but they would not desist.
When Moses returned to his people angry and deeply grieved—that is, filled with rage, fury, and sorrow—he reprimanded them and condemned the ugliness of their deed, saying, “O my people! Did your Lord not make you a gracious promise?” This was His promise to send down the Torah. “Did the lapse of time seem too long to you?” That is, did the period seem so long that you found my absence excessive, even though it was brief? This is the view of many exegetes.
It may also mean: Had the age of prophethood and the message become so remote for you that you retained neither knowledge nor any vestige of prophethood, its traces had disappeared, and you had received no report of it? Had its traces been erased by the passage of time, causing you to worship other than Allah because ignorance prevailed and knowledge of the message’s legacy was absent? That was not the case. Rather, prophethood was present in your midst, knowledge remained established, and no excuse was acceptable.
“Or did you wish,” by your deed, “wrath from your Lord to descend upon you?” That is, did you expose yourselves to the causes of His wrath and plunge headlong into what entailed His punishment? This is what actually happened. “So that you broke your promise to me” when I commanded you to remain upright and entrusted you to Aaron’s care. You showed no regard for the one who was absent and no respect for the one who was present.