And when he informed of the reason for the delay in taking revenge on them, while they were equal to those upon whom the punishment was inflicted, he informed, glorified and exalted is He, of the state of Musa, peace be upon him, with them when he returned to them from the anger for Allah and the reproach for those who opposed him, along with what he encompassed of mercy and humility. He said: ﴿And when Musa returned﴾ meaning: from the conversation ﴿to his people, angry﴾ meaning: at the time of his return when Allah, the Exalted, informed him about them from the worship of the calf ﴿in great anger﴾ meaning: intense anger and sorrow. ﴿He said: Evil is that﴾ meaning: the replacement of your replacement which ﴿you have done behind me﴾ meaning: you took my place and acted in my place and did behind me.

And when this might have led to the impression that they did it from his presence while he was present at the edge of the camp, he said: ﴿After me﴾ meaning: when you worshipped other than Allah, O worshippers, and when you did not suffice them, O monotheists, after my departure to the mountain for the divine appointment and after what you heard from me about the oneness of Allah, the Exalted, and singling Him out from His creation with worship and negating partners from Him. And you saw when I forbade you and reprimanded you from worshipping other than Him when you said: ﴿Make for us a god just as they have gods﴾ [Al-A'raf: 138]. And it is the right of the successors to follow the way of the one who appointed them and not to oppose him in anything.

And when he had commanded them not to introduce any innovation until he returned to them, he reproached them for not waiting. He said: ﴿Did you hasten?﴾ Al-Saghani said in Al-Majma: You have preceded, and others said: Hastened from the matter, if he left it incomplete, and it is implied with the meaning of preceded. The meaning is: (p-89) preceding ﴿the command of your Lord﴾ meaning: the appointment which has always been good to you, meaning: you did this before the arrival of the matter of the appointment which my Lord increased by ten days with my return to you to its limit. So you thought that I was dead, and you changed as the nations changed after the death of their prophets. Imam Abu Abdullah Al-Qazzaz also said: You hastened: you preceded, and from it you say: I hastened so-and-so, I preceded him. And Ibn Al-Tayyani attributed it to Al-Asma'i.

﴿And he threw down the tablets﴾ meaning: those in which is the Torah, in anger for Allah and to intimidate his people. And this indicated that the anger reached a level that he could not control, and that is with Allah, the Exalted: ﴿And he seized the head of his brother﴾ meaning: by his hair ﴿dragging him to himself﴾ meaning: based on the fact that he fell short and informing them that the anger from this act had reached a level that exceeds description; for it is a root pulling out of the religion.

And when Aaron, peace be upon him, was not negligent in his admonition to them, he began to inform Moses, peace be upon him, about that, specifying the mother, even though she was his sister, as a reminder to him of the kinship that necessitates compassion and tenderness, especially since she is a believer and has experienced fears in it. So, glorified and exalted is He, He commenced the narration of that with His saying: "He said, 'Son of my mother.'" He omitted the vocative particle and the genitive 'y' due to the brevity required by the situation. The majority opened the 'm' likening it to 'fifteen' and on the omission of the 'a' substituted for the genitive 'y'. Ibn 'Amir, Hamzah, al-Kisai, and Abu Bakr read it with a kasrah on the 'm' from 'Asim, estimating the omission of the genitive 'y' for ease. "Indeed, the people" means: the worshippers of the calf who know their standing in the matters they desire. "They have oppressed me" means: they counted me weak and made my weakness evident by their intimidation of me. "And they were about to kill me" means: they nearly did so for my denial of what they did. Thus, the obligation was lifted from me.

And when this was caused by his outburst, he feared that anger would prevent him from retaining that in his mind and establishing it in his heart, so he said: "So do not make the enemies rejoice over me," meaning: do not make them happy with what you do to me, so that I become blameworthy in their eyes and in yours. And when he sought to soften him by reminding him of the rejoicing, which is also a rejoicing over him, he followed it with a harm specific to him, saying: "And do not make me among the wrongdoing people," meaning: do not count me with them and place me in their group, separating me from those whom I love among the righteous, and connecting me with those I despise among the corrupt who acted like those in darkness, placing worship in a location other than its rightful place without any doubt or confusion at all.