His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

﴿And the people of Moses took, after him, from their ornaments a calf, a body that had a lowing. Did they not see that it could not speak to them nor guide them to a way? They took it, and they were wrongdoers.﴾ ﴿And when they saw that they had gone astray, they said, 'Unless our Lord has mercy upon us and forgives us, we will surely be among the losers.'﴾

The root of 'took' is 'ittakhadha', its form is 'if'ta'ala', from 'takhadha'. This is the saying of Abu Ali al-Farisi. The pronoun in 'after him' refers back to Moses, meaning after his departure to the place of speaking with Allah. The ornaments are attributed to the Children of Israel, even though they were borrowed from the Copts, as they had possessed them, either by being given as a gift as has been narrated, and Yahya ibn Salam narrated from al-Hasan that he said: The Children of Israel borrowed the ornaments of the Copts for the day of adornment. When Moses was commanded to lead them by night, it became difficult for them to return the borrowed items. They also feared that their secret would be exposed. Then Allah granted them those ornaments. It is possible that the ornaments are attributed to the Children of Israel in terms of their handling of them after the plundering of the people of Pharaoh.

It is narrated that Samiri - his name is Musa ibn Dhafir and he is attributed to a village called Samira - said to Harun when Moses went to the place of speaking: 'O Harun, the Children of Israel have scattered the ornaments that were borrowed from the Copts and have handled them and spent from them. So if you gather them until Moses sees what he thinks of it.' Harun gathered them, and when they were gathered, he said to Samiri: 'You are the most deserving of them to be kept with you.' So Samiri took it - and he was a goldsmith - and he made from it the image of a calf, which is the offspring of the cow. ﴿A body﴾ means a mass and an inanimate object, and it was said: it was a body without a head. This relates to the fact that a body in the language is what is besides the head. It was said that Allah made for it flesh and blood.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And this is weak because the reports that Musa cooled it with the coolers contradict that. And the 'khawar' is the sound of the cow. It is narrated that this calf only 'khara' once, and that was by a trick from the Samaritan or by a magic that he concocted from the handful of the Messenger's trace. Or that Allah made the calf 'khara' to test the Children of Israel. A group read: 'lahu jawar' with a 'jeem', which is the crying out. Abu Hatim said: and the intensity of the sound. Ibn Kathir, Nafi', Asim, Ibn Amir, Abu Amr, Al-Hasan, Abu Ja'far, and Shaiba read: 'min huliyhim' with a 'dhamma' on the 'ha' and a 'kasra' on the 'lam', which is the plural of 'hily', similar to 'thadi' and 'thudhi'. Its origin is 'hulwi', the 'waw' was changed to a 'ya' and it was assimilated, thus it came as 'huliyy', and the 'lam' was broken to match the 'ya'. Hamza and Al-Kisai read: 'min hiliyhim' with a 'kasra' on the 'ha' as we have previously explained. Abu Hatim said: except that they broke the 'ha' following the 'kasra' of the 'lam'. Abu Ali said: and the change that entered upon the plural was strengthened by this last change. He said: and what confirms the breaking of the 'fa' in this manner of the plural is their saying: 'qisi'. Abu Hatim said: and this is how Yahya ibn Thabitat, Talha, Al-A'mash, and the companions of Abdullah read. Ya'qub Al-Hadhrami read: 'min haliyhim' with a 'fatha' on the 'ha' and a sukoon on the 'lam'. This could either mean the singular intended for the plural, or it could be the plural of 'hilya' like 'tamra' and 'tamr'. The meaning of 'huliy' is what one adorns oneself with from stones, gold, and silver. Then Allah, glorified and exalted is He, clarified the bad nature of them and established the corruption of their belief by His saying: 'Did they not see that it does not speak to them' (p-50) the verse. This is because the silent inanimate object does not possess divinity, and that which does not guide to good nor relieve distress likewise. The pronoun in 'ittakhadhuhu' refers back to the calf. And His saying: 'and they were' is news to us about all their states, past, present, and future. It is possible that the 'wa' is a 'wa' of state. The reason for taking the calf has already passed in Surah Al-Baqarah, and the elaboration of that state is sufficient to avoid repeating it here. The majority of the people read with a 'kasra' on the 'qaf' and a 'dhamma' on the 'sin': 'suqita fi aydihim'. A group read: 'saqata' with a 'fatha' on the 'sin' and 'qaf', as reported by Al-Zajjaj. Ibn Abi Abla read: 'usqiṭa', which is a language reported by Al-Tabari with a hamza and a 'dhamma' and a silent 'sin'. The Arabs say to one who is striving for a goal or seeking an aim that what overcomes him has stopped him from his direction and has placed him in a position of inability to achieve his desire, and he is certain that he has failed: 'suqita fi yad fulan'. Abu Ubaida said: it is said to one who has undertaken a matter and is unable to accomplish it: 'suqita fi yadihi'. The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

Regret, in my view, is a condition that affects the owner of this state, and it may not affect him. So, regret is not fundamentally part of this. However, most of the people in this state are accompanied by regret, and likewise, the Children of Israel mentioned in the verse were accompanied by it. The connection between these words and the meaning we mentioned is that striving, turning away, or defending has fallen into the hands of the one referred to, so it is in his hands and does not exceed it, nor does it have an effect outside of it. Al-Zajjaj said: The meaning is that regret has fallen into their hands, and it is possible that loss and disappointment have fallen into their hands.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

Based on all this, it is necessary that 'has fallen' is transitive, for 'has fallen' implies an object, which here is the source of it, which is the act of falling. As it is said: 'Zayd was taken away.' In this, I have a consideration. As for the reading of the one who read: 'has fallen' in the form of the verb for the doer, or 'was made to fall' in the transitive form with the hamzah, it is clear in its sufficiency without the transitive. It is possible to say: 'has fallen into his hands' in the meaning of the comparison to the captive whose hands are tied, so it is as if the owner of this state is captured, and the appearance of dominance over him occurs in his hands, or it is as if the intended meaning is that he has fallen by dominance and subjugation into his hands. I was informed by Abu Marwan ibn Siraj that he used to say: The saying of the Arabs 'has fallen into his hands' is among what I have seen its meaning. Al-Jurjani said: This is among what has become rare in its usage, similar to what has become rare in the usage of His saying, the Most High: 'So We struck upon their ears.' (Al-Kahf: 11)

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

In this speech, there is weakness, and falling in the speech of the Arabs is the abundance of error and regret over it. Among it is the saying of Suwayd ibn Abi Kahl:

How do they hope for my falling after The gray hair has wrapped the head.

And the saying of the Children of Israel: 'If our Lord does not have mercy on us' was after the return of Musa and his change towards them, and their seeing that they had deviated from the religion and had fallen into disbelief. Ibn Kathir, Nafi', Abu Amr, Ibn Amir, Asim, Al-Hasan, Al-A'raj, Abu Ja'far, Shaiba ibn Nasih, Mujahid, and others read: 'They said: If our Lord does not have mercy on us' with the ya in 'have mercy on us' and attributing the action to the Lord, the Most High, 'and forgive' with the ya. Hamza, Al-Kisai, Al-Sha'bi, Ibn Wathab, Al-Jahdari, Talha ibn Musarif, Al-Amash, and Ayyub read: 'Have mercy on us, our Lord' with the ta in 'have mercy on us' and the accusative of 'our Lord' in the sense of addressing, 'and forgive' with the ta, from above. In the Mus'haf of Ubayy, it is written: 'They said: Our Lord, if You do not have mercy on us and forgive us, we will surely be among the losers.'