“And We placed upon his throne a body; then he turned back in repentance.”

And He said:

“In his absence, the people of Moses made from their ornaments a calf—a bodily form that lowed.”

And He Most High said:

“Then he brought forth for them a calf—a bodily form that lowed.”

It was as though it were a solid calf with no hollow interior. It may also be said that it had no life in it, though it let out a low. He did not say “a calf possessing a jasad, badan, or jism”—all meaning “body”—for it is well known that every calf has a jasad, namely its badan or jism. An ordinary calf is a body containing a soul.

The point is that what he brought forth was a solid body without a soul, thus making its deficiency apparent: it was devoid of life and movement. It has been reported that it lowed only once.

It may be asked: If jasad means something solid, dense, or the like, why is it said that this description was mentioned to show its deficiency in this respect? Rather, it was precisely this aspect that led them astray through it. Its deficiency lay only in the fact that “it neither spoke to them nor guided them to any way.”

It may also be said: If it had no life, its deficiency lay in its lack of life and other attributes of perfection, not in whether or not it had a body; a human being, after all, has a body. Had he brought forth for them a calf like any other calf, a complete human being, a living horse, a camel, or any other animal, it too would have had a body. That, however, would have been a tremendous marvel, and the trial it posed would have been even greater. Yet Allah, glorified be He, made clear that what had been brought forth possessed attributes of deficiency. The following confirms this.