طه

(Saying): "Eat of the good things We have provided for your sustenance, but commit no excess therein, lest My Wrath should justly descend on you: and those on whom descends My Wrath do perish indeed!

"But, without doubt, I am (also) He that forgives again and again, to those who repent, believe, and do right, who,- in fine, are ready to receive true guidance."

(When Moses was up on the Mount, Allah said:) "What made thee hasten in advance of thy people, O Moses?"

He replied: "Behold, they are close on my footsteps: I hastened to thee, O my Lord, to please thee."

(Allah) said: "We have tested thy people in thy absence: the Samiri has led them astray."

So Moses returned to his people in a state of indignation and sorrow. He said: "O my people! did not your Lord make a handsome promise to you? Did then the promise seem to you long (in coming)? Or did ye desire that Wrath should descend from your Lord on you, and so ye broke your promise to me?"

They said: "We broke not the promise to thee, as far as lay in our power: but we were made to carry the weight of the ornaments of the (whole) people, and we threw them (into the fire), and that was what the Samiri suggested.

"Then he brought out (of the fire) before the (people) the image of a calf: It seemed to low: so they said: This is your god, and the god of Moses, but (Moses) has forgotten!"

Could they not see that it could not return them a word (for answer), and that it had no power either to harm them or to do them good?

Aaron had already, before this said to them: "O my people! ye are being tested in this: for verily your Lord is (Allah) Most Gracious; so follow me and obey my command."

They had said: "We will not abandon this cult, but we will devote ourselves to it until Moses returns to us."

(Moses) said: "O Aaron! what kept thee back, when thou sawest them going wrong,

"From following me? Didst thou then disobey my order?"

(Aaron) replied: "O son of my mother! Seize (me) not by my beard nor by (the hair of) my head! Truly I feared lest thou shouldst say, ´Thou has caused a division among the children of Israel, and thou didst not respect my word!´"

(Moses) said: "What then is thy case, O Samiri?"

He replied: "I saw what they saw not: so I took a handful (of dust) from the footprint of the Messenger, and threw it (into the calf): thus did my soul suggest to me."

(Moses) said: "Get thee gone! but thy (punishment) in this life will be that thou wilt say, ´touch me not´; and moreover (for a future penalty) thou hast a promise that will not fail: Now look at thy god, of whom thou hast become a devoted worshipper: We will certainly (melt) it in a blazing fire and scatter it broadcast in the sea!"

But the god of you all is the One Allah: there is no god but He: all things He comprehends in His knowledge.

Thus do We relate to thee some stories of what happened before: for We have sent thee a Message from Our own Presence.

If any do turn away therefrom, verily they will bear a burden on the Day of judgment;