Page 95 - General Knowledge from the Qur'an

Stories Of The Prophets In The Qur'an 93

clude me with the wrongdoing people.' (Surat al-A'raf, 150)
Musa returned to his people in anger and great sorrow. He said, 'My
people, did not your Lord make you a handsome promise? Did the ful-
filment of the contract seem too long to you or did you want to unleash
your Lord's anger upon yourselves, so you broke your promise to me?'
They said, 'We did not break our promise to you of our own volition.
But we were weighed down with the heavy loads of the people's jew-
elry and we threw them in, for that is what the Samaritan did.' Then he
produced a calf for them, a physical form which made a lowing sound.
So they said, 'This is your god – and Musa's God as well, but he forgot.'
Could they not see that it did not reply to them and that it possessed
no power to either harm or benefit them? Harun had earlier said to
them, 'My people! It is just a trial for you. Your Lord is the All-Merci-
ful, so follow me and obey my command!' They said, 'We will not stop
devoting ourselves to it until Musa returns to us.' He said, 'What pre-
vented you following me, Harun, when you saw that they had gone
astray? Did you too, then, disobey my command?' He said, 'Son of my
mother! Do not seize me by the beard or by the hair. I was afraid that
you would say, "You have caused division in the tribe of Israel and
taken no notice to anything I said."' He said, 'What do you think you
were doing, Samaritan?' He said, 'I saw what they did not see. So I
gathered up a handful from the Messenger's footprints and threw it in.
That is what my inner self urged me to do.' He said, 'Go! In this world
you will have to say, "Untouchable!" And you have an appointment
which you will not fail to keep. Look at your god to which you de-
voted so much time. We will burn it up and then scatter it as dust into
the sea. Your god is Allah alone, there is no god but Him. He encom-
passes all things in His knowledge.' (Surah Ta Ha, 86-98)
He said, 'My Lord, forgive me and my brother and admit us into
Your mercy. You are the Most Merciful of the merciful.' As for those
who adopted the Calf, anger from their Lord will overtake them to-
gether with abasement in the life of this world. That is how we repay
the purveyors of falsehood. (Surat al-A'raf, 151-152)
When Musa's anger abated he picked up the Tablets and in their in-
scription was guidance and mercy for all of them who feared their
Lord. (Surat al-A'raf, 154)