Texts of Islam

The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Moses: Worshipping The Calf

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This is an Islamic exegetical text (tafsir) retelling and interpreting the Quranic account of the Golden Calf episode (primarily from Surah TaHa), drawing on hadith and scholarly commentary. It narrates how the Samarian (Al-Samiri) exploited the Israelites' impatience during Moses' absence to fashion a golden calf, allegedly using magical sand taken from the hoofprints of Gabriel's mount to animate it, and how Moses returned in anger, destroyed the calf, and banished the Samarian to a life of untouchability. A notable feature is the inclusion of a rationalist dissent by scholar Abdul-Wahab Al-Najjar, who argues the Gabriel-and-magic-sand story is legendary embellishment and that the Samarian likely simply defrauded the Israelites of their gold. The text then defends this miraculous interpretation by appealing to the authority of "the Household" (Ahl al-Bayt) as the true interpreters of Quranic meaning — a distinctively Shia framing that recurs throughout. It also addresses the theological problem of Moses grabbing Aaron by the beard, arguing this was not sinful anger but an expression of horrified grief, consistent with prophetic infallibility. A translator's bracketed note at the end independently questions one narrative detail about the location of the mass repentance killing, signaling the text has passed through at least one editorial layer of critical commentary.

The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Moses: Worshipping The Calf

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