The Quran

150

Preface

وَلَمّا رَجَعَ موسىٰ إِلىٰ قَومِهِ غَضبانَ أَسِفًا قالَ بِئسَما خَلَفتُموني مِن بَعدي ۖ أَعَجِلتُم أَمرَ رَبِّكُم ۖ وَأَلقَى الأَلواحَ وَأَخَذَ بِرَأسِ أَخيهِ يَجُرُّهُ إِلَيهِ ۚ قالَ ابنَ أُمَّ إِنَّ القَومَ استَضعَفوني وَكادوا يَقتُلونَني فَلا تُشمِت بِيَ الأَعداءَ وَلا تَجعَلني مَعَ القَومِ الظّالِمينَ

Yusuf Ali

When Moses came back to his people, angry and grieved, he said: “Evil it is that ye have done in my place in my absence: did ye¹ make haste to bring on the judgment of your Lord?” He put down the Tablets,² seized his brother by (the hair of) his head, and dragged him³ to him. Aaron said: “Son of my mother! the people did indeed reckon me as naught, and went near to slaying me! Make not the enemies rejoice over my misfortune, nor count thou me amongst the people of sin.”⁴

Didye make haste . . . ? 'In your impatience, could you not wait for me? Your lapse into idolatry has only hastened God’s wrath. If you had only waited. I was bringing to you in the Tablets the most excellent teaching in the commands of God.' There is subtle irony in the speech of Moses. There is also a play upon words: 'ijl= calf; and 'ajila = to make haste: no translation can bring out these niceties.
Put down the Tablets: we are not told that the Tablets were broken; in fact 7:154 (below) shows that they were whole. They contained God’s Message. There is a touch of disrespect (if not blasphemy) in supposing that God’s Messenger broke the Tablets in his incontinent rage, as is stated in the Old Testament: “Moses’s anger waxed hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands, and brake them beneath the Mount.” (Exod. 32:10). On this point and also on the point that Aaron (in the Old Testament story) ordered the gold to be brought, made a molten calf, fashioned it with a graving tool, and built an altar before the calf, (Exod. 32:2-5), our version differs from that of the Old Testament. We cannot believe that Aaron, who was appointed by God to assist Moses as God’s Messenger, could descend so low as to seduce the people into idolatry, whatever his human weaknesses might be.
Moses was but human. Remembering the charge he had given to Aaron (7:142) he had a just grievance at the turn events had taken. But he did not wreak his vengeance on the Tablets of God’s Law by breaking them. He laid hands on his brother, and his brother at once explained, (Cf. 20:94).
Aaron’s speech is full of tenderness and regret. He addresses Moses as “son of my mother”- an affectionate term. He explains how the turbulent people nearly killed him for resisting them. And he states in the clearest terms that the idolatry neither originated with him nor had his consent. In 20:85 we are told that a fellow described as the Samiri had led them astray. We shall discuss this when we come to that passage.