148 Preface وَاتَّخَذَ قَومُ موسىٰ مِن بَعدِهِ مِن حُلِيِّهِم عِجلًا جَسَدًا لَهُ خُوارٌ ۚ أَلَم يَرَوا أَنَّهُ لا يُكَلِّمُهُم وَلا يَهديهِم سَبيلًا ۘ اتَّخَذوهُ وَكانوا ظالِمينَYusuf AliThe people of Moses made, in his absence, out of their ornaments,1 the image of calf, (for worship):2 it seemed to low: did they3 not see that it could neither speak to them, nor show them the way? They took it for worship and they did wrong.The making of the golden calf and its worship by the Israelites during the absence of Moses on the Mount were referred to in 2:51 and some further details are given in 20:83-97. Notice how in each case only those points are referred to which are necessary to the argument in hand. A narrator whose object is mere narration, tells the story in all its details, and is done with it. A consummate artist, whose object is to enforce lessons, brings out each point in its proper place. Master of all details, he does not ramble, but with supreme literary skills, just adds the touch that is necessary in each place to complete the spiritual picture. His object is not a story but a lesson. Here notice the contrast between the intense spiritual communion of Moses on the Mount and the simultaneous corruption of his people in his absence. We can understand his righteous indignation and bitter grief (7:150). The people had melted all their gold ornaments, and made the image of a calf like the bull of Osiris in the city of Memphis in the wicked Egypt that they had turned their backs upon.Image of a Calf:Jasad is literally a body, especially the body of a man according to Khalil quoted by al Ragvhib. In 21:8 it is used obviously for the human body, as also in 38:34; but in the latter case, the idea of an image, without any real life or soul, is also suggested. In the present passage I understand many suggestions: (1) that it was a mere image, without life; (2) as such, it could not low, therefore the appearance of lowing, mentioned immediately afterwards, was a fraud; (3) unlike its prototype, the bull of Osiris, it had not even the symbolism of Osiris behind it; the Osiris myth, in the living religion of Egypt, had at least some ethical principles behind it.The lowing of the golden calf was obviously a deception practised by the Egyptian promoters of the cult. Lytton in his “Last Days of Pompeii” exposes the deception practised by the priests of Isis. Men hidden behind images imposed on the credulity of the commonalty.