His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And certainly Moses came to you with clear signs. Then you took the calf after him, and you were wrongdoers." "And when We took your covenant and raised the mountain above you, take what We have given you with strength and listen." They said, "We have heard and disobeyed," and they were imbued in their hearts with the calf because of their disbelief. Say, "Evil is what your faith commands you if you are believers." "Say, if the Hereafter with Allah is exclusively for you, apart from the people, then wish for death if you are truthful." "And they will never wish for it because of what their hands have sent before, and Allah is Knowing of the wrongdoers."

"The clear signs": the Torah, and the staff, and the parting of the sea, and other signs of Moses, blessings and peace be upon him. And His saying: "Then you took the calf" indicates that they did that after a delay in contemplating the signs. This is greater in their sin. The story of their taking the calf has already been mentioned. The pronoun in His saying: "after him" refers to Moses, blessings and peace be upon him, meaning after he was absent from you in the conversation. It is possible that the pronoun in "after him" refers to the coming. This verse refutes them in that whoever believes in what has been revealed to him does not take the calf. The taking of the covenant and raising the mountain has already been mentioned.

And His saying: "Take what We have given you with strength" means the Torah and the Sharia. And "with strength" means with determination, enthusiasm, and seriousness. "And listen" here means: and obey, and it does not mean merely the command to understand the words. A group of the interpreters said: They said, "We have heard and disobeyed," and they uttered these words as an exaggeration in obstinacy and disobedience. Another group said: This is a metaphor, and they did not actually say, "We have heard and disobeyed," but their actions necessitated it, as the poet said:

The pond was filled and he said, 'Cotton...'

And this is also an argument against them regarding the falsehood of their saying: "We believe in what has been revealed to us."

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And they were imbued in their hearts with the calf" means: the love of the calf, and the meaning is: their hearts made them drink it. This is a metaphor and a figurative expression about the strong hold of the matter of the calf in their hearts. Some said: The meaning of His saying: "And they were imbued in their hearts with the calf" is their drinking the water in which Moses cast the calf's ashes, and that he had ground it with a grinder and thrown it into the water, and it was said to the Children of Israel: drink from that water, and they all drank. Whoever loved the calf, the gold dust came out on his lips. This statement is refuted by His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "in their hearts." It has been narrated that those who showed love for the calf were afflicted by that water with jinn.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "because of their disbelief" may be that the 'b' is for causation, and it may mean 'with'.

'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' And His saying, exalted is He: "Say, 'Wretched is what..." The verse commands Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, to reprimand them by saying that these are wretched things that you have done. And your command by it is your faith, which you claimed in your saying: "We believe in what has been revealed to us" [Al-Baqarah: 91]. And "what" is in the position of a subject, and the meaning is: Wretched is the thing, killing and taking the calf. And the saying "We have heard and disobeyed." It is permissible for "what" to be in the position of an object, and "if you are believers" is a condition. The condition may come, and the one who conditions knows that the matter is on one of the two sides, as Allah, exalted is He, said about Jesus, peace be upon him: "If I said it, then you would have known it" [Al-Ma'idah: 116]. And Jesus, peace be upon him, knew that he did not say it. Likewise, "if you are believers," and the speaker knows that they are not believers, but it is establishing proof by a clear analogy. And a group said: "If" here is negating, equivalent to "what" as mentioned earlier. And Al-Hasan and Muslim ibn Jundub read "it is your faith" with the pronoun in the nominative case.

And His saying, exalted is He: "Say, 'If the Hereafter is for you...'" The verse is a command for Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, to reprimand them. The meaning is: If you have its bliss, its favor, and its goodness, then that necessitates your eagerness to attain it, "so wish for death." And "the abode" is the name of "was," and "purely" is its predicate. It is permissible for "purely" to be in the accusative case as an adverbial. And "with Allah" is the predicate of "was," and "besides people" may be intended by "people" to refer to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and those who followed him, or it may refer to the complete generality, which is the saying of the Jews regarding what has been preserved from them. Ibn Abi Ishaq read with a kasra on the waw of "wish for" for the sake of meeting. And Al-Ahwazi reported from Abu Amr that he read "wish for death" with a fatha on the waw, and it was reported from others that the movement was omitted in the nominative case, while the reading of the majority is with a damma on the waw.

And this is a clear verse that Allah gave to His Messenger Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, because the Jews said: "We are the children of Allah and His beloved ones" [Al-Ma'idah: 18], and similar statements. So Allah commanded His Prophet to invite them to wish for death, and to teach them that whoever among them wishes for it will die. So the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, did so, and the Jews knew his truthfulness, so they refrained from wishing for it out of fear of Allah due to the ugliness of their deeds, and their knowledge of their lies in their saying: "We are the children of Allah" [Al-Ma'idah: 18], and their eagerness for life. And it was said that Allah prevented them from wishing, and confined them to abstaining from it, so that the verse would manifest for His Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him.

And the intended meaning of His saying: "Wish for it" is to desire it with your hearts and ask for it. This is the saying of a group of the interpreters. Ibn Abbas said: The intended meaning here is merely to ask, even if it is not from the heart. He also said, along with others, that they were commanded to pray for death against the worst of the two factions of the believers or among them.

And the Mahdi and others mentioned that this verse was during the lifetime of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and it ceased with his death. The correct view is that this incident regarding the death of one who wished for death was indeed many days at the time of the verse's revelation. It is like the supplication of the Christians from the people of Najran to the mutual imprecation. And a group said: The reason for this supplication to wish for death is that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, intended by it the destruction of the disbelieving group, or cutting off their argument, not that its cause was their saying: 'We are the sons of Allah' [Al-Ma'idah: 18]. Then Allah, the Exalted, informed about their inability, and that they do not wish for it. 'Abadan' is a time frame. And if 'ma' is in the meaning of which, it requires a return that is to be estimated: it has been presented. And if it is with 'qaddamat' it is like the source and does not need the pronoun. This is the saying of Sibawayh, and Al-Akhfash sees the pronoun in the source. He added their sins and transgressions to the hands, and attributed the presentation to them, since most of the servant's earning of good and evil is indeed in his hands. Thus, he carried all things on that. And His saying, the Exalted, 'And Allah is Knowing of the wrongdoers' has an apparent meaning of news, and its implication is a warning, because Allah is Knowing of the wrongdoers and others. So the benefit of specifying them is the occurrence of the warning.