In one of his articles,*
Mr. Jochen Katz has pointed out a contradiction in the narrative of the
Qur’an regarding the event (relating to the history of the Jews)
of the worship of the Golden calf. This ‘contradiction’ is based on 20:86-92
and 7:149-151.
In this article, there are, in fact,
two separate contradictions pointed out by Mr. Katz. The first objection
is that according to 20:90, Aaron (sws) does not share the guilt of the
Israelites in their worship of the calf. On the contrary, according to
Mr. Katz, 20:92 and 7:150-151 place the blame of the sin on Aaron (sws)
as well. The second objection is that according to 7:149, the Israelites
repented about worshipping the calf before Moses (sws) returned to them.
While, on the contrary, according to 20:91, they (the Israelites) refused
to repent and continued to worship the calf until Moses (sws) came back
to them.
In the following sections, we shall
attempt to analyse these two contradictions pointed out by Mr. Katz.
Was Aaron (sws) an Accomplice to the Sin?
Let us first consider the first contradiction
pointed out by Mr. Katz. The related verses are given below. 20:90 reads
as:
And even though, before that, Aaron had said to them:
‘O my people, indeed you are being tried in this, and indeed your [true]
Lord is only the Merciful. Therefore, follow me and obey my directives.’
(20:90)
20:92 reads as:
He [Moses] said: ‘O Aaron, what hindered you from stopping
them when you saw them going astray?’ (20:92)
7:150-1 reads as:
And when Moses returned to his people, angry and sorrowful,
he said: ‘Evil is the thing you did in my absence! Would you hasten the
retribution of your Lord?’ He threw down the Tablets and, seizing his brother
by the hair, dragged him closer: ‘Son of my mother’, cried Aaron: ‘the
people overpowered me and almost killed me. Do not let my enemies gloat
over me; do not consider me among the wrongdoers’. ‘Lord’, said Moses:
‘forgive me and my brother. Admit us to Your mercy, for, of all those that
show mercy, You are the most merciful.’ (7:150-1)
The reader is requested to take a close
look at these verses. Anyone can easily see that no where in these verses
has the Qur’an directly blamed Aaron (sws) of being an accomplice
in the referred sin. In fact, the Qur’an has not even implied any
thing to that effect. Let us see how Mr Katz has framed his objection.
He writes:
In 20:85, Allah told Moses: ‘We have tested your people
in your absence; the Samiri has led them astray’. Allah did not place any
blame on Aaron. Aaron admitted that he did no wrong: ‘O my people! Y you
are being tested in this ... so follow me and obey my command’ (20:90).
Since Moses knew this (because Allah told him already),
why did he place the blame on Aaron? ‘O Aaron! What kept you back, when
you saw them going wrong, from following me? Did you then disobey my order?’
(20:92). And why did he drag him by the hair (7:150)? These two accounts
contradict. According to (7:151), Aaron was partly responsible for the
sins of his people because Moses prayed for Aaron’s forgiveness. And this
time (contrary to his other confession), Aaron admits to idol making/idol
worshipping in verse 150 because of the people who nearly killed him when
he tried to resist it. But seemingly he gave in and did as they said.
It should be clear to the reader that
in 20:92, Moses (sws) is not reported to have blamed Aaron (sws) of being
an accomplice in the crime. The words: ‘What hindered you from stopping
them when you saw them going astray?’ can by no means be taken to imply
that Moses (sws) thought Aaron (sws) to be an accomplice in the crime of
the calf worshippers. At the most, they can be taken to signify Moses’
(sws) anger at Aaron (sws) for not stopping the Israelites from committing
the heinous crime. The same is the case of 7:150.
Mr Katz’s derivation that Moses’ (sws)
prayer for Aaron’s forgiveness (7:152) implies that Aaron (sws) shared
the guilt of the grave crime is also not correct. The prayer, as Mr Katz
can see, is not for Aaron’s (sws) forgiveness alone. The words of the said
prayer are: ‘Lord, forgive me and my brother’. Obviously if the referred
forgiveness was being asked for Aaron’s (sws) guilt in the crime, there
was no need for Moses (sws) to mention himself in the prayer. In fact,
the prayer is not because of Aaron’s involvement in the grave crime but
for any unintentional mistake that he or Moses (sws) himself, as the prophets
and guides of the Israelites, may have committed in performing their duties,
which might, in any way, resulted in the crime of the Israelites.
The Sequence of Events
The second objection raised by Mr
Katz relates to a contradiction in the sequence of events in the two narratives
of the Qur’an. Mr Katz writes:
... in 7:149, the people repented about worshipping the
golden calf before Moses returned, but according to 20:91 they refused
to repent but rather continued to worship the calf until Moses came back.
To analyze this alleged contradiction,
let us first take a look at the related verses. 7:148-150 read as:
In his absence, the people of Moses made a calf from
their ornaments -- an image with a hollow sound. Did they not see that
it could neither speak to them nor give them guidance? Yet they worshipped
it and thus committed [a great] evil. But when they realized that they
had sinned and repented, they said: ‘If our Lord does not have mercy on
us and pardon us, we shall surely be among the lost.’ And when Moses returned
to his people, angry and sorrowful, he said: ‘Evil is the thing you did
in my absence! Would you hasten the retribution of your Lord?’ He threw
down the Tablets and, seizing his brother by the hair, dragged him closer.
‘Son of my mother’, cried Aaron, ‘the people overpowered me and almost
killed me. Do not let my enemies gloat over me; do not consider me among
the wrongdoers’. (7:148-150)
A close look at the above verses shall
show that they do not necessarily give a chronological sequence of events.
These verses only state that in the absence of Moses (sws) his people took
a calf for worship. Although Aaron (sws) tried to get them out of this
sin, yet they persisted with it. Later, when they realized that they had
gone astray, they asked for God’s forgiveness. However, this narrative
does not clearly state whether this realization of the Israelites was before
or after the return of Moses (sws). Nevertheless, I do submit that because
the return of Moses (sws) is mentioned in the succeeding verse, one does
get the impression that the Israelites pleaded for forgiveness before Moses
(sws) returned. Moreover, the words of verse 149 (... when they realized
that they had sinned and repented, they said: ‘If our Lord does not have
mercy on us and pardon us, we shall surely be among the lost’) do not necessarily
imply that all those who were a part of the crime repented and corrected
their behaviour. It is possible that some of them realized their mistake
and sincerely asked forgiveness from God, while others persisted in the
sin.
Now, let us take a look at the verse,
which according to Mr Katz, tells us that the Israelites did not repent
from their sin until Moses (sws) came back to them. 20:90-1 read as:
And even though, before that, Aaron had said to them:
‘O my people, indeed you are being tried in this, and indeed your [true]
Lord is only the Merciful. Therefore, follow me and obey my directives.’
They said: ‘We will keep to its worship until Moses returns to us.’ (20:91)
This verse again only tells us that when
Aaron (sws) called the people back to the true path of the Lord, they replied
that they shall not give up worshipping the idol till Moses (sws) comes
back. This obviously is a statement of resolve. These verses do not say
whether actually the Israelites kept to the worship of the calf till Moses
(sws) returned or not. They only tell us that at Aaron’s (sws) call they
refused to give up the worship of the calf and showed their determination
of carrying on the practice till Moses (sws) returned.
Thus the referred verses of the Qur’an
(7:148-150
and 20:90-1) neither say that the Israelites asked for forgiveness before
Moses (sws) returned and nor do they say that they deferred asking for
forgiveness after the return of Moses (sws). The two set of verses entail
the following possibilities:
When Aaron (sws) called the Israelites
to the true path, they refused to listen to him and showed their resolve
of carrying on worshipping the calf until Moses (sws) came back. Later
on, they realized that they were committing a grave sin and subsequently
asked for God’s forgiveness. At this juncture (or later) when Moses (sws)
returned.
When Aaron (sws) called the Israelites
to the true path, they refused to listen to him and showed their resolve
of carrying on worshipping the calf until Moses (sws) came back. Later
on, when Moses (sws) came back, they realized that they were committing
a grave sin and subsequently asked for God’s forgiveness.
When Aaron (sws) called the Israelites
to the true path, they refused to listen to him and showed their resolve
of carrying on worshipping the calf until Moses (sws) came back. Later
on, some of them realized that they were committing a grave sin and subsequently
asked for God’s forgiveness. At this juncture, Moses (sws) returned and
subsequently directed the Israelites to ask forgiveness of their Lord.
As a show of true repentance, the Israelites were also commanded to kill
all those who were still persistent in the worship of the calf (as pointed
out in 2:54).
In my opinion, the event took place
in a manner somewhat similar to what has been pointed out above as the
third possibility.
If all the related verses are examined
in the light of the above explanation, I am sure no contradictions would
be felt. Nevertheless, an important point to note here, with regard to
the style of the Qur’an is that when the Qur’an refers to
a particular event of history, it normally restricts itself to only those
parts of the related event which are relevant to its particular context
and topic. Thus, at one instance, the Qur’an may narrate the event
in a slightly different manner from what it has narrated at another place.
However, to the more observant eye, this difference is not of the nature
of contradiction. On the contrary, this difference only stresses some aspects
of the narrative which are of a special significance to the particular
context in which the event is being cited.
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