(90–94) “Aaron had indeed told them beforehand, ‘O my people! You are only being tested through this, and your Lord is the Most Compassionate. So follow me and obey my command.’ They said, ‘We will remain devoted to it until Moses returns to us.’ Moses said, ‘O Aaron! When you saw that they had gone astray, what prevented you from following me? Did you disobey my command?’ Aaron said, ‘O son of my mother! Do not seize me by my beard or by my head. I feared that you would say, “You caused division among the Children of Israel and failed to heed my word.”’”

That is, they had no excuse for taking the calf as a god. Even if something had arisen that made its worship appear plausible to them, Aaron had forbidden them from worshipping it and told them that it was merely a trial. He also told them that their Lord was the Most Compassionate, from whom all outward and inward blessings come and who wards off afflictions. He commanded them to follow him and forsake the calf, but they refused and said, “We will remain devoted to it until Moses returns to us.”

Moses then turned to his brother and reproached him, saying, “O Aaron! When you saw that they had gone astray, what prevented you from following me”—so that you could inform me and I could hasten back to them? “Did you disobey my command” when I said, “Take my place among my people, set matters right, and do not follow the way of those who spread corruption”?

In his anger and reproach, Moses seized Aaron by the head and beard and began pulling him. Aaron said, “O son of my mother!”—an appeal intended to move him to compassion, though Aaron was in fact his full brother. “Do not seize me by my beard or by my head. I feared that you would say, ‘You caused division among the Children of Israel and failed to heed my word.’” You commanded me to take your place among them; had I followed you, I would have abandoned the duty you had commanded me to remain committed to. I feared your reproach and that you would say, “You caused division among the Children of Israel,” because I had left them with neither a guardian nor a deputy. That would have divided them and shattered their unity. So do not count me among the wrongdoing people, nor give our enemies cause to rejoice over us.

Moses then regretted what he had done to his brother, for Aaron had not deserved such treatment, and said, “My Lord, forgive me and my brother, and admit us into Your mercy, for You are the Most Merciful of those who show mercy.”

Then he turned to al-Sāmirī