Part 79

He said, "Of a truth now have we proved thy people since thou didst leave them, and Samiri19 had led them astray."

And Moses returned to his people, angered, sorrowful.

He said, "O my people! did not your Lord promise you a good promise? Was the time of my absence long to you? or desired ye that wrath from your Lord should light upon you, that ye failed in your promise to me?"

They said, "Not of our own accord have we failed in the promise to thee, but we were made to bring loads of the people's trinkets, and we threw them into the fire and Samiri likewise cast them in, and brought forth to them a corporeal lowing20 calf: and they said, "This is your God and the God of Moses, whom he hath forgotten."'

What! saw they not that it returned them no answer, and could neither hurt nor help them?

And Aaron had before said to them, "O my people! by this calf are ye only proved: surely your Lord is the God of Mercy: follow me therefore and obey my bidding."

They said, "We will not cease devotion to it, till Moses come back to us."

He said, "O Aaron! when thou sawest that they had gone astray, what hindered thee from following me? Hast thou then disobeyed my command?"

He said, "O Son of my mother! seize me not by my beard, nor by my head: indeed I feared lest thou shouldst say,

Thou hast rent the children of Isreal asunder, and hast not observed my orders."'

He said, "And what was thy motive, O Samiri?" He said, "I saw what they saw not: so I took a handful of dust from the track21 of the messenger of God, and flung it into the calf, for so my soul prompted me."

He said, "Begone then: verily thy doom even in this life shall be to say, 'Touch me not.'22 And there is a threat against thee, which thou shalt not escape hereafter. Now look at thy god to which thou hast continued so devoted: we will surely burn it and reduce it to ashes, which we will cast into the sea.

Your God is God, beside whom there is no God: In his knowledge he embraceth all things."

Thus do We recite to thee histories of what passed of old; and from ourself have we given thee admonition.

Whoso shall turn aside from it shall verily carry a burden on the day of Resurrection:

Under it shall they remain: and grievous, in the day of Resurrection, shall it be to them to bear.

On that day there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and We will gather the wicked together on that day with leaden23 eyes:

They shall say in a low voice, one to another,-"Ye tarried but ten days on earth."

We are most knowing with respect to that which they will say when the most veracious24 of them will say. "Ye have not tarried above a day."

And they will ask thee of the mountains: SAY: scattering my Lord will scatter them in dust;

And he will leave them a level plain: thou shalt see in it no hollows or jutting hills.

On that day shall men follow their summoner25-he marcheth straight on: and low shall be their voices before the God of Mercy, nor shalt thou hear aught but the light footfall.

No intercession shall avail on that day, save his whom the God of Mercy shall allow to intercede, and whose words he shall approve.

He knoweth their future and their past; but in their own knowledge they comprehend it not:-

And humble shall be their faces before Him that Liveth, the Self-subsisting: and undone he, who shall bear the burden of iniquity;

But he who shall have done the things that are right and is a believer, shall fear neither wrong nor loss.

Thus have We sent down to thee an Arabic Koran, and have set forth menaces therein diversely, that haply they may fear God, or that it may give birth to reflection in them.

Exalted then be God, the King, the Truth! Be not hasty in its recital26 while the revelation of it to thee is incomplete. Say rather, "O my Lord, increase knowledge unto me."