“Remember, O children of Israel, when ye said, O Moses, we will not bear patiently the having one kind of food, the manna and the quails; therefore supplicate for us thy Lord, that He may produce for us somewhat of that which the earth bringeth forth, of its herbs and its cucumbers and its wheat and its lentils and its onions:—he said unto them, Will ye take in exchange that which is worse for that which is better?—But they refused to recede; therefore he supplicated God, and He said, Get ye down into a great city; for ye shall have therein what ye have asked.—And the marks of abjection and poverty were stamped upon them: so these characteristics necessarily belong to them, even if they are rich, as necessarily as the stamped coin belongeth to its die; and they returned with indignation from God. This was because they did disbelieve in the signs of God, and slay the prophets (as Zechariah and John) unjustly: this was because they rebelled and did transgress.” ([Sūrah ii. 58].)
“And remember when Moses asked drink for his people, who had become thirsty in the desert, and We said, Strike with thy rod the stone. (It was the stone that fled away with his garment: it was light, square, like the head of a man, marble or kedhdhán.) Accordingly he struck it; and there gushed out from it twelve fountains, according to the number of the tribes, all men (each tribe of them) knowing their drinking-place. And We said unto them, Eat ye and drink of the supply of God, and commit not evil in the earth, acting corruptly. ([Sūrah ii. 57].)
“Remember also when We obtained your bond that ye would do according to that which is contained in the Law, and had lifted up over you the mountain, namely Mount Sinai, pulled it up by the roots and raised it over you when ye had refused to accept the Law, and We said, Receive that which We have given you, with resolution, and remember that which is contained in it, to do according thereto: peradventure ye will fear the Fire, or acts of disobedience.—Then ye turned back after that; and had it not been for the grace of God towards you and His mercy, ye had certainly been of those who perish. And ye know those of you who transgressed on the Sabbath, by catching fish, when We had forbidden them to do so, and they were the people of Eyleh, and We said unto them, Be ye apes, driven away from the society of men.—Thereupon they became such, and they perished after three days.—And We made it (namely that punishment) an example unto those who were contemporary with them and those who came after them, and a warning to the pious. ([Sūrah ii. 60–62].)
“And We appointed unto Moses thirty nights, at the expiration of which We would speak to him, on the condition of his fasting during them; and they were [the nights of the month of] Dhu-l-Kaadeh; and he fasted during them: but when they were ended, he disliked the smell of his breath; so he used a tooth-stick; whereupon God commanded him to fast ten other nights, that He might speak to Him with the odour of his breath, as He whose name be exalted hath said, and We completed them by adding ten nights of Dhu-l-Ḥijjeh: so the stated time of his Lord was completed, forty nights. And Moses said unto his brother Aaron, at his departure to the mountain for the private collocution, Be thou my deputy among my people, and act rightly, and follow not the way of the corrupt doers by agreeing with them in acts of disobedience. And when Moses came at Our appointed time, and his Lord spake unto him without an intermediary, he said, O my Lord, show me Thyself, that I may see Thee. He replied, Thou shalt not see Me: but look at the mountain, which is stronger than thou; and if it remain firm in its place, then shalt thou see Me. And when his Lord displayed Himself to the mountain (that is, when there appeared, of His light, half of the tip of His little finger, as related in a tradition which El-Ḥákim hath verified), He reduced it to powder, levelling it even with the ground around it; and Moses fell down in a swoon. And when he recovered, he said, Extolled be Thy perfection! I turn unto Thee repenting, and I am the first of the believers in my time.—God said unto him, O Moses, I have chosen thee above the people of thy time by honouring thee, by My commissions and by My speaking unto thee: therefore receive what I have given thee, and be of those who are grateful. And We wrote for him upon the tables of the Law (which were of the lote-tree of Paradise, or of chrysolite, or of emerald; in number seven, or ten) an admonition concerning every requisite matter of religion, and a distinct explanation of everything; and said, Therefore receive it with resolution, and command thy people to act according to the most excellent [precepts] thereof. ([Sūrah vii. 138–142].)
“And the people of Moses, after it (that is, after his departure for the private collocution), made of their ornaments (which they had borrowed of the people of Pharaoh), a corporeal calf which Es-Sámiree cast for them, and which lowed; for he had the faculty of doing so in consequence of their having put into its mouth some dust taken from beneath the hoof of the horse of Gabriel; and they took it as a god. Did they not see that it spake not to them, nor directed them in the way? They took it as a god, and were offenders. But when they repented, and saw that they had erred, which was after the return of Moses, they said, Verily if our Lord do not have mercy upon us and forgive us, we shall assuredly be of those who perish. ([Sūrah vii. 146–148].)
“And Moses returned unto his people enraged against them, exceedingly sorrowful. He said, O my people, did not your Lord promise you a good true promise, that He would give you the Law? But did the time of my absence seem tedious to you, or did ye desire that indignation from your Lord should befall you, and therefore did ye break your promise to me, and abstain from coming after me?—They answered, We did not break our promise to thee of our own authority; but we were made to carry loads of the ornaments of the people of Pharaoh (which the children of Israel had borrowed of them under pretence of [requiring them for] a wedding, and which remained in their possession), and we cast them into the fire, by order of Es-Sámiree. And in like manner also Es-Sámiree cast their ornaments which he had, and some of the dust which he had taken from the traces of the hoofs of the horse of Gabriel; and he produced unto them a corporeal calf, of flesh and blood, which lowed, by reason of the dust, the property of which is to give life to that into which it is put; and he had put it, after he had moulded the calf, into its mouth. And they (namely Es-Sámiree and his followers) said, This is your god, and the god of Moses; but he hath forgotten his lord here, and gone to seek him. God saith, But did they not see that it returned them not an answer, nor was able to cause them hurt or profit? And Aaron had said unto them, before the return of Moses, O my people, ye are only tried by it; and verily your Lord is the Compassionate; therefore follow me, by worshipping Him, and obey my command. They replied, We will by no means cease to be devoted to the worship of it until Moses return unto us. Moses said after his return, O Aaron, what hindered thee, when thou sawest that they had gone astray, from following me? Hast thou then been disobedient to my command by remaining among them who worshipped another than God?—He answered, O son of my mother, seize me not by my beard (for he had taken hold of his beard with his left hand), nor by [the hair of] my head (for he had taken hold of his hair with his right hand, in anger). Verily I feared lest if I followed thee (for a company of those who worshipped the calf would inevitably have followed me) thou shouldst say, Thou hast made a division among the children of Israel, and hast not waited for my sentence. Moses said, And what was thy motive for doing as thou hast, O Sámiree? He answered, I saw that which they saw not; therefore I took a handful of dust from the foot-marks of the horse of the apostle Gabriel, and cast it into the molten calf; and thus my soul allured me to take a handful of the dust above-mentioned, and to cast it upon that which had no life, that it might have life; and I saw that thy people had demanded of thee that thou wouldst make them a god; so my soul suggested to me that this calf should be their god. Moses said unto him, Then get thee gone from among us, and [the punishment] for thee during the period of thy life [shall be], that thou shalt say unto whomsoever thou shalt see, Touch me not:—(so he used to wander about the desert, and when he touched anyone, or anyone touched him, they both became affected with a burning fever:) and verily for thee is a threat which thou shalt by no means find to be false. And look at thy god, to the worship of which thou hast continued devoted. We will assuredly burn it: then we will assuredly reduce it to powder and scatter it in the sea. (And Moses, after he had slaughtered it, did this.) Your deity is God only, except whom there is no deity. He comprehendeth all things by His knowledge.—Thus, O Moḥammad, do We relate unto thee accounts of what hath happened heretofore; and We have given thee, from Us, an admonition; namely the Kur-án. ([Sūrah xx. 88–99].)
“And they were made to drink down the calf into their hearts (that is, the love of it mingled with their hearts as drink mingleth,) because of their unbelief. ([Sūrah ii. 87].)
“Remember, O children of Israel, when Moses said unto his people who worshipped the calf, O my people, verily ye have injured your own souls by your taking to yourselves the calf as a god; therefore turn with repentance unto your Creator from the worship of it, and slay one another: (that is, let the innocent among you slay the criminal:) this will be best for you in the estimation of your Creator. And he aided you to do that, sending upon you a black cloud, lest one of you should see another and have compassion on him, until there were slain of you about seventy thousand. And thereupon He became propitious towards you, accepting your repentance; for He is the Very Propitious, the Merciful. ([Sūrah ii. 51].)
“Remember, also, O children of Israel, when ye said, having gone forth with Moses to beg pardon of God for your worship of the calf, and having heard his words, O Moses, we will not believe thee until we see God manifestly:—whereupon the vehement sound assailed you, and ye died, while ye beheld what happened to you. Then We raised you to life after ye had been dead, that peradventure ye might give thanks. ([Sūrah ii. 52, 53].)
“And Moses chose from his people seventy men, of those who had not worshipped the calf, by the command of God, at the time appointed by Us for their coming to ask pardon for their companions’ worship of the calf; and he went forth with them; and when the convulsion (the violent earthquake) took them away (because, saith Ibn-ʾAbbás, they did not separate themselves from their people when the latter worshipped the calf), Moses said, O my Lord, if Thou hadst pleased, Thou hadst destroyed them before my going forth with them, that the children of Israel might have beheld it and might not suspect me; and me [also]. Wilt Thou destroy us for that which the foolish among us have done? It is naught but Thy trial: Thou wilt cause to err thereby whom Thou pleasest, and Thou wilt rightly guide whom Thou pleasest. Thou art our guardian; and do Thou forgive us and have mercy upon us; for Thou art the best of those who forgive: and appoint for us in this world what is good, and in the world to come; for unto Thee have we turned with repentance.—God replied, I will afflict with My punishment whom I please, and My mercy extendeth over everything in the world; and I will appoint it, in the world to come, for those who fear and give the legal alms, and those who believe on Our signs, who shall follow the apostle, the illiterate prophet, Moḥammad, whom they shall find written down with them in the Pentateuch and the Gospel, by his name and his description. He will command them that which is right, and forbid them that which is evil; and will allow them as lawful the good things among those forbidden in their law, and prohibit them the impure, as carrion and other things, and will take off from them their burden and the yokes that were upon them, as the slaying of a soul [for an atonement] in repentance, and the cutting off of the mark left by impurity. And those who shall believe in him and honour him and assist him and follow the light which shall be sent down with him, namely the Kur-án, these shall be the prosperous. ([Sūrah vii. 154–156].)