Hornbill then said, "After Prophet Musa, alaihissalam, had gone to Mount Tur, as-Samiri moulded out of golden jewellery a calf. Then he put into it the earth that was beneath the hoof of Jibril's horse so that it began to breathe. His people then worshipped the calf. The Qur'an has narrated this incident, in brief at some occasions but in detail at some others. There is a Hadith describes yet other details of this incident. Al-Hakim has transmitted in Mustadrak the narration of Ali, radhiyallahu 'anhu. He said,
After Musa had gone to his Rabb, as-Samiri (a sorcerer) decided (to mould a calf). He collected all the jewellery he could from the Children Israel. He moulded the jewellery into the form of a calf. He then put into its hollow a handful of dust so that it began to make sounds (like a calf with lite); he said to the Bani Israel, "This is your ilah and the ilah of Musa."Some people have said that as-Samiri was an Egyptian Copt who lived next door to Musa and had accepted Islam. When Musa took the Children of Israel out of Egypt, he also joined the exodus. Others have said that he was the chief of one of the clans of the Children of Israel called Samira, which is still well-known in Syria.
Aaron said to them, "O my people, has not your Rabb given you a good promise?"
When Musa returned to them and found that as-Samiri had misled them already, (in anger) he held the hair of his brother (Harun). Harun told him what he had to say. Then Musa said to Samiri, "How does it fare with you?" (why did you do it?) He said, "I had seized a handful of dust from the footprints of the Messenger (Jibril, alaihissalam) and I put it into this calf. This seemed good to my mind."
Musa took the calf and peeled it with a carpenter's plane. He was at the banks of a river when he was doing it (so that the peelings fell into the river). Thus, whoever of the worshippers of the calf drank the water of the river, had his face turn into golden colour. Then they asked Musa how they should repent?
Musa said, "Kill one another." So, they picked up knives and they began to stab one another. Someone stabbed his father, another person stabbed his brother, without considering whom they killed. In this way they killed seventy thousand of themselves.
Allah then Commanded Musa through a revelation that they should cease (the killing). Allah said, "I have forgiven those who have been killed and accepted the repentance of the rest."
[Narrated by Al-Hakim in Mustadrak, 2/412, no. 3434; in the Kitabut Tafsir (interpretation of the Surah Ta Ha). He said, "This hadith is sahih on the terms of Shaykhain and both of them did not narrate it." This was agreed by Ad-Dhahabi].
According to Sa'id Ibn Jubair, radhiyallahu 'anhu, he was a Persian from the Kirman province. Ibn Abbas says, according to Qurtubi, that he belonged to a nation of cow-worshippers, who somehow reached Egypt and pretended to join the religion of the Children of Israel, whereas in actual fact he was an hypocrite. Another version is that he was a Hindu from India who worshipped cows, adopted the religion of Musa truly, and later returned to his infidel faith, or had accepted the true faith in hypocrisy.
As-Samiri's name, as generally believed, was Musa Ibn Zafar. Ibn Jarir has related from Ibn Abbas that as-Samiri was born in the year when under the orders of the Pharaoh, all male Israeli children were to be killed. His mother, fearing the worst, put him in the hallow of a cave and covered its mouth. She would visit him from time to time and feed him as best as she could.
On the other hand, Allah appointed Gabriel to look after the child and provide him nourishment. Gabriel brought honey on one finger, butter on the second finger and milk on the third finger which he fed to the child. He lived in the cave until he grew to manhood and, as has already been narrated above, became an unbeliever, involved the Children of Israel in a great disaster and himself suffered a terrible fate as a punishment from Allah.
A poet has made a reference to this story in the following two couplets:
"If a person is not fortunate in his birth, then the minds of those who bring him up are bewildered and those who attach high hopes on him are disillusioned.
Lo! The Musa whom Gabriel brought up became an infidel and the Musa who was raised by the Pharaoh became the Prophet of Allah."
Neverthless, he collected the jewellery from his people after Mus was gone and put a handful of dust (into the calf moulded from the jewellery). The dust was what he had picked up from the footprints of Gabriel. Samiri had observed when Gabriel had come to Musa once on horseback that wherever he landed his foot the place grew greenery and came to life. He understood that under Jibril's footstep, lay traces of life.
According to one version, when the Children of Israel were afforded a path across the Red Sea, over which they went to the other side, there as-Samiri saw Jibril. He recognised him because he had nurtured and sustained him.
According to another version, it was the devil who prompted him that under the footpripts of Gabriel, lay signs of life. So, he had picked up a handful of dust from there. He put it in the jewellery and the calf came to life mooing like a real one. Samiri then told the people that Musa was gone and it was not known whether he would return or not. "This calf is your ilah and the ilah of Musa." (Nauzubillah min zalik!)
Many of the people believed in what he said and did 'not pay attention to Aaron when he tried to stop them.
Musa, meanwhile, returned from Tur, the Tablets of Torah in his hands. He saw that the people whom he had left behind as worshippers of One Ilah had turned to cow-worshipers. This infuriated him strongly. It were these people on whom Allah had bestowed many blessings and rescued them from the Pharaoh, but they had become polytheists. In his anger he held his brother, Aaron, by the hair saying, "Why did'nt you stop them? What prevented you from coming to me at the Tur when these people became idolaters? Why did you continue to stay with these polytheists?"
Aaron said, "O son of my mother! Listen to me, I did not wish to cause dissension among the Children of Israel. If I had brought with me the unitarians numbering twelve thousand to you, then it would have created trouble and disagreement among the Children of Israel, while I was confident that on your retutn these people would mend their ways." He added, "Also most of these people had gone on the wrong path and very few were on my side. If I had persisted then they might have killed me. I tried to bring them to reason but they did not listen to me and were ready to slay me."
Musa understood Aaron argument and absolved him of blame and turned to the real culprit, as-Samiri. He asked him what explanation he had and why he had done the mischief. As-Samiri recounted how he had observed life originate on the spots where Gabriel feet touched the ground and concluded that they had the capability to produce life. Therefore, he seized the earth from those spots and put it in the (contraption of the) jewellery. As-Samiri boasted, "That was what my heart cherished."
Then Musa said to him, "Your punishment is that all people will ostracise you in this world." Apart from this social boycott, he also commanded him not to touch anyone and live away from all men like a wild animal.
Some said that initially Musa had intended to execute as-Samiri, but Allah stopped him because as-Samiri was a very generous person and helped people who were in distress. The punishment proposed by Musa for as-SAmiri in this world was that everyone should sever all contacts with him and not to come near him, and he too was commanded not to touch anyone. Thus he was condemned to spend the rest of his life away from all social contacts - like a wild animal. Whether this punishment was awarded to him by Musa, by means of a law which was binding on as-Samiri as well as on the Children of Israel, or whether as-Samiri was smitten by some peculiar affliction which deterred people from making any physical contact with him, is not known.
Some traditions have it that Musa had laid a curse on as-Samiri so that if anyone touched him then both the parties came down with fever (Ma'aalim). Thus he spent all his life hiding from people and whenever he saw someone approaching him, he would call out, " لَا مِسَاسَ" ("Don't touch me!")."
Hornbill paused for a moment, then continued, "O my brothers and sisters, on the Day of Judgment everybody will carry his bundle of sins on his shoulders just as one carries a load; therefore the sin is also termed as 'wizr' (load), plural : awzaar. The Children of Israel had borrowed ornaments from the Copt on the pretext of wearing them on their festival day, but which they did not return to their owners and carried with them on their flight from Egypt. These ornaments have been described as 'awzaar', the sense of "sins", because these were borrowed articles, and by not returning them to their lawful owners the Children of Israel had committed a sin.
Same said that Aaron warned them about their guilt and directed them to throw all the ornaments in a pit. According to some other versions it was as-Samiri who told them that, by holding on to something which did not belong to them, they were committing a sin and advised them to throw all the ornaments in a pit, which they did."
Seagull asked, "When does the property of infidels become lawful for the Muslims?" Hornbill said, "The non-Muslims who live in a Muslim state and abide by its laws, they are known as Dhimmis [ذمي]. Such people as well as those infidels who have entered into a treaty with the Muslims remain in full control of their properties and it is not lawful for the Muslims to deprive them of any part of it. However, the properties of those infidels, who are neither Dhimmis nor have any treaty with the Muslims, and who are described by the jurists as "kaafir harbee", [كافر حربى], an infidel belonging to country's enemy", are lawful for the Muslims.
That being so why did Aaron describe the ornaments borrowed by the Children of Israel from the Egyptians as a burden, meaning sin, and ordered them to throw everything in a pit? One explanation, which a majority of commentators have given is, that the properties of infidels of an enemy state carried the same status as that of spoils of war. The law governing the spoils of war before the promulgation of the Islamic code was that while the Muslims could forcibly dispossess the infidels of their properties, they were forbidden to use them for their personal benefits. All the spoils of war [مال غنيمت] thus acquired were collected and placed on a mound as offering where a fire from the sky - such as lightning - consumed them and this was a sign that Allah approved their war against the unbelievers.
According to the laws, in force then, even if the ornaments borrowed by the Children of Israel from the Egyptians were considered as spoils of war, those could not have been allowed for the personal benefit of The Children of Israel. That is why everything was thrown into the pit under the orders of Aaron.
According to the Islamic Shari'ah, the Children of Israel could not have lawfully used the ornamentsfor their personal benefit. It is well-known that when the Prophet (ﷺ) decided to migrate to Madinah, he had with him many valuables which the infidels of Arabia had entrusted to him for safe custody because they had full faith in his honesty and integrity and had, in recognition of these qualities, bestowed upon him the title of al-Amin (the honest). He was so solicitous about these deposits that he placed them in the hands of Ali, radhiyallahu 'anhu, and specifically directed him to restore them to their rightful owners before migrating to Madhah. This clearly shows that it is not lawful for Muslims to appropriate, for their personal use, the valuables belonging to non-Muslims."
Seagull asked, "Are there lessons from the hadith related by Al-Hakim?" Hornbill said, "The basic lesson we learn from the Hadith of this story is, that man must always pray to Allah to keep him steadfast on religious practice. No one can claim for himself that he will always be on the guided path. Someone gets guidance in the beginning but later on Allah takes away from him. His bounties and favours and he is deprived for ever.
This is what happened to as-Samiri. In the beginning, he was guided and he had joined Musa, but later this blessing was taken away from him and he plunged into perpetual loss. Therefore, we must always ask Allah for safety, steadfastness on religion and inclination towards piety apd righteousness. We must never resign ourselves to a condition or be satisfied with our way of living.
We also learn from this Hadith that the conditions for acceptance of repentance from earlier people were very severe. Sometimes, they were forgiven only after they had killed their own numbers. This is what happened in the foregoing episode. Musa commanded them to kill one another and about seventy thousand people were killed before their repentance was accepted.
Compared to that, the Ummah of our beloved Prophet (ﷺ) are much better off. Allah has blessed them with extraordinary mercy. No severe condition is attached for their repentance to be accepted. In fact, repentance is made so easy that anyone may repent when he likes, at any moment, wherever he likes and get forgiveness for his sins. Any slave may seek forgiveness of Allah for his sins sincerely and with a repenting heart, and resolve from the core of his heart not to sin again. At the same time, he must cease the sin without delay. That purifies him and preserves him from sin. His repentance is accepted, Insha Allah.
The story also tells us that Allah distinguishes His pious slaves from the sinners and the sinners from His pious slaves sometimes through an obvious sign. This is what happened in the story under discussion.
Those who had worshipped the calf had their faces change colour when they drank the water of the river. Their faces became a golden tinge. The calf was peeled and the peeling dropped into the river.
And finally, belief in unity of Allah, is a great blessing from Him. It is a standard of faith. We must be most careful to protect this faith. If there is any wavering in this regard, then man spoils his chances in both this world and the next. Allah has made it very clear that He never forgives idolatory or polytheism. Therefore, we must preserve from associating partners to Him in every way. In fact, even seemingly good people can plunge us into the abyss of polytheism. And also, we must shun even the doubtful things in this regard. And Allah knows best."
- Mohammad Zakariya Iqbal, Stories from the Hadith, Darul Isha'at.
- Maulana Mufti Muhammad Shafi, Ma'ariful Quran Volume 6, Maktaba-e-Darul-'Uloom.
