Page 231 - 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 )

After this incident, the Prophet Aaron (pbuh) warned his tribe not to go astray
and called them to leave Samiri's heresies and to abide by his word. Whereas, the
Israelites insisted on these heresies and said that 'they would continue to abide by
Samiri and the pagan religion he called them to, until the return of the Prophet

Moses (pbuh):
Aaron had earlier said to them, 'My people! It is just a trial for you. Your
Lord is the All-Merciful, so follow me and obey my command!' They said,

'We will not stop devoting ourselves to it until Moses returns to us.' (Surah
Ta Ha, 90-91)

After he left, Moses' people adopted a calf made from their ornaments, a
form which made a lowing sound. Did they not see that it could not speak
to them or guide them to any way? They adopted it and so they were wrong-
doers. (Surah al-A'raf, 148)
Lying to his tribe with the words 'this calf idol was the real deity of the

Israelites and the Prophet Moses (pbuh) –surely God is above such thoughts-
and that the Prophet Moses (pbuh) had left his tribe to look for it,' Samiri made

the majority of them worship the calf.

While all this was happening, God revealed to the Prophet Moses (pbuh) what

was going on in his tribe: "He said, 'We tried your people after you left and the

Samiri has misguided them.' (Surah Ta Ha, 85)

Upon this, the Prophet Moses (pbuh) returned to his tribe. In the mean time,

Samiri had stepped into action to 'win over the community who were watching

him with admiration' and 'shake their faith in the Prophet Moses (pbuh)'. One

of the speeches Samiri made with this purpose is explained in the Qur'an as fol-

lows:

Then he produced a calf for them, a physical form which made a lowing
sound. So they said, 'This is your god – and Moses's god as well, but he
forgot.' (Surah Ta Ha, 88)
Calling out to his tribe saying that 'Moses forgot', Samiri claimed that the
Prophet Moses (pbuh) had actually been brought up with the Pharaoh's culture
and the pagan religion in Egypt, but that he supposedly 'forgot' this culture later
on. Thereby, he claimed that 'the Prophet Moses (pbuh) had adopted this calf
statute which he too had used once upon a time, as a symbol of power, govern-
ment, glory and wealth while he was in the Pharaoh's palace'. He continued his
lies and said 'they should all return to this great god of Egypt since the Prophet

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