Page 229 - The Profound Darkness of the Hypocrite

A D N A N O K TA R ( H A R U N Y A H Y A )

Samiri, who was talented in sculpting idols as a sculptor and molding craftsman,
took advantage of the Prophet Moses' (pbuh) leaving his tribe and made a big
furnace in a place out of the Prophet Aaron's (pbuh) sight. He melted the hundreds
of kilograms of stolen gold he collected in this furnace. First, he made a very big

statue of a calf from clay. Then he made a casting mold for it. He thus made a

hollow calf statue composed of gold blocks by pouring the melted gold into the

mold and then he filed and smoothed that melted, soft gold and made it flawless by

polishing. As a result, he made a bulky and shiny golden calf statue weighing hun-

dreds of kilograms. Along with the other hypocrites around him and people he

tricked from his tribe, he placed this giant calf statue over a high hill, on a stand.

In the Qur'an, the fact that Samiri collected and melted the jewelry and gold of

the Israelites in this way, is explained with the following verse;

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 jewelry and we
threw them in, for that is what the Samari did.' (Surah Ta Ha, 87)
Showing a craftsmanship that would impress his tribe, Samiri made the calf

statue he sculpted from this melted raw gold bellow. In the Qur'an, it is explained

that Samiri 'made a calf statue making a sound like calf lowing':
"Then he produced a calf for them, a physical form which made a lowing
sound.." (Surah Ta Ha, 88)

Besides, in order to attract peoples' attaction even more, he made statements
like "I saw what they didn't see'' and thereby tried to show himself as 'a person
possessing a special kind of knowledge, someone who is informed about some

secret knowledge no one else has'. He wanted to impress people around him by

ascribing a mystical and metaphysical meaning to the calf. This statement of
Samiri is explained in the Qur'an as follows:

the calf statue from clay, He said, 'I saw what they did not see. So I gathered up a handful from the
t Messenger's footprints and threw it in. That is what my inner self urged me
to do.' (Surah Ta Ha, 96)

Those who saw that brightly shining calf were astounded. The lowing sound
coming from the calf statue as the wind blew made the Israelites in his tribe feel

great admiration for Samiri's talent.
While making this golden calf statue, Samiri was also aiming to attract Is-
raelites' attention to that old 'Egyptian culture' and their 'pagan beliefs they
have had in Egypt' again. That is because, among the Israelites who left Egypt with
the Prophet Moses (pbuh) there were those who were still wrapped up in the idol-

atrous religion of the Pharaoh and Egyptian culture. In the Qur'an, it is stated that

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