“Moses, I have chosen you above all people”—that is, I selected you, chose you, and favored you ⦗303⦘, distinguishing you with immense virtues and illustrious merits—“through My messages,” which I grant and entrust only to the best of creation,
“and through My speaking to you” directly, without any intermediary. This is a distinction bestowed exclusively upon Moses, the one to whom Allah spoke, by which he became known among his fellow messengers. “So take what I have given you” of blessings, and receive the commands and prohibitions I have given you with an open heart, accepting and submitting to them. “And be among the grateful” to Allah for having distinguished and favored you.
“And We wrote for him on the Tablets concerning everything” that people need, “an admonition” that inspires souls to perform good deeds and deters them from evil deeds, “and a detailed explanation of all things,” including the rulings of the Sacred Law, tenets of faith, morals, and proper conduct. “So take hold of them firmly”—that is, with earnestness and diligence in upholding them—“and command your people to follow the best of them,” namely, the obligatory and recommended commands, for these are the best of what they contain. This is evidence that Allah’s commands in every revealed law are perfect, just, and good.
“I shall show you the abode of the defiantly disobedient,” after Allah has destroyed them and left their dwellings behind as a lesson, from which humble believers who have been granted success take heed.
As for others, He said of them: “I shall turn away from My signs”—that is, from reflecting upon the signs in the horizons and within themselves, and from understanding the signs of the Book—“those who are arrogant upon the earth without right.” That is, they behave arrogantly toward Allah’s servants, the truth, and those who bring it. Whoever possesses this quality is deprived by Allah of abundant good and forsaken. He understands nothing of Allah’s signs from which he might benefit; indeed, realities may even become inverted for him, so that he regards what is ugly as beautiful.
“Even if they see every sign, they will not believe in it,” because of their aversion, objections, and opposition to Allah and His Messenger. “If they see the way of right guidance”—that is, guidance and uprightness, the path leading to Allah and to the abode of His honor—“they will not adopt it”; that is, they will neither follow it nor desire it. “But if they see the way of error”—that is, the misguidance that leads those who follow it to the abode of misery—“they will adopt it as their way.” The reason they deviated so grievously is that “this is because they denied Our signs and remained heedless of them.” Their rejection of Allah’s signs, their heedlessness of their intended meaning, and their contempt for them were what led them to follow the path of error and abandon the path of right guidance.
“Those who denied Our signs”—the mighty signs demonstrating the truth of what We sent Our messengers with—“and the meeting in the Hereafter—their deeds have come to nothing,” because those deeds were founded upon no sound basis and lacked their essential condition: faith in Allah’s signs and belief in His recompense. “Are they recompensed”—by their deeds becoming void and by receiving the opposite of what they sought—“except for what they used to do?” Anyone who does not believe in the Last Day hopes for no reward through his deeds, nor do they have any ultimate end toward which they are directed. They therefore fade away and become void.
“In Moses’ absence, his people fashioned from their ornaments the body of a calf.” Al-Sāmirī molded it and cast into it a handful taken from the messenger’s trace, so it came to have “a lowing sound”—a voice. They then worshipped it and took it as a god.
He said, “This is your god and the god of Moses, but Moses forgot.” That is, Moses forgot him and went away searching for him. This arose from their foolishness and lack of insight. How could they mistake the Lord of the earth and the heavens for a calf, one of the lowliest of creatures?
Thus He said, explaining that it possessed none of the essential or active attributes that would warrant its being a god: “Did they not see that it did not speak to them?” The inability to speak is a grave deficiency, while they themselves were in a more perfect state than this animal or inanimate object that could not speak. “Nor did it guide them to any way”; that is, it neither directed them to any religious path nor secured any worldly benefit for them. It is firmly established in reason and innate human nature that taking as a god something that cannot speak, benefit, or harm is among the falsest of falsehoods and the most repellent of follies. He therefore said, “They took it, and they were wrongdoers,” for they directed worship where it did not belong and associated with Allah something for which He had sent down no authority. This is also evidence that anyone who denies that Allah speaks has denied one of the distinctive attributes of Allah’s divinity, for Allah stated that the inability to speak proves that one who cannot speak is unfit for divinity.
When Moses returned to his people, found them in this condition, and informed them of their error, they regretted it and “were overcome with remorse”—that is, with anguish and regret over what they had done. “They saw that they had gone astray,” so they pleaded before Allah, implored Him, and “said, ‘If our Lord does not have mercy on us’” by guiding us to Him, granting us the worship of Him, and enabling us to perform righteous deeds, “and forgive us” for our worship of the calf, “we will surely be among the losers,” who lose both this world and the Hereafter.