He said, “We have then put your people to test after you (left them) and Sāmiriyy has misguided them.”

So, Mūsā went back to his people, angry and sad. He said, “O my people, did your Lord not promise you a good promise? Did then the time become too long for you, or did you wish that wrath from your Lord befalls you, and hence you broke your promise to me?”

They said, “We did not break our promise to you of our own accord, but we were burdened with loads from the ornaments of the people;so we threw them, and thus did Sāmiriyy cast.”

Then he brought forth for them a calf, which was (merely) a body with a lowing sound. Then they said, “This is your god and the god of Mūsā, and he (Mūsā) erred.”

Have they not been seeing that it did not respond to them (even) with a word, nor did it have power to harm or benefit them?

Hārūn had already said to them, “O my people, you have only been led astray with it, and your Lord is the RaHmān (All-Merciful). So follow me and obey my command.”

They said, “We will never cease to stay with it in devotion, until Mūsā returns to us.”

He (Mūsā) said, “O Hārūn, what did prevent you from following me when you saw them going astray?

Did you then disobey my command?”

He said, “O son of my mother, do not hold me by my beard, nor by my head. I feared that you would say, ‘You have caused discord among the children of Isrā’īl and did not observe my advice.’”

He (Mūsā) said, “What then is your case, O Sāmiriyy?”

He said, “I perceived something they did not perceive. So I picked up a handful from under the footstep of the messenger. Then, I cast it. And thus my inner self tempted me.”

He (Mūsā) said, “Then go away; it is destined for you that, throughout your life, you will say: ‘Do not touch me’. And, of course, you have another promise that will not be broken for you. And look at your god to which you stayed devoted. We will certainly burn it, then we will scatter it thoroughly in the sea.

Your God is Allah other than whom there is no god. He encompasses everything with knowledge.”