Punishment Due to Ascribing Plurality to God

 

Punishment of ascribing Plurality to God (L-85)

وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِۦ يَٰقَوْمِ إِنَّكُمْ ظَلَمْتُمْ أَنفُسَكُم بِٱتِّخَاذِكُمُ ٱلْعِجْلَ فَتُوبُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰ بَارِئِكُمْ فَٱقْتُلُوٓا۟أَنفُسَكُمْ ذَٰلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ عِندَ بَارِئِكُمْ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلتَّوَّابُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ . 54

54.  Wa ‘iz qaala Muusaa li-Qawmihii  yaa-qawmi  ‘innakum zalamtum  ‘anfusa-kum  bit-tikhaazikumul-‘ijla  fatuubuuu  ‘ilaa  Baari-‘ikum faqtuluuu  ‘anfusakum.  Zaalikum khay-rul-lakum ‘inda  Baari-‘ikum  Fataaba ‘alaykum ‘InnaHuuu Huwat-Tawwaa-bur-Rahiim.

54.  And when Moses said unto his people: O my people! You have wronged yourselves by your choosing of the calf (for worship), so turn in penitence to your Creator, and kill (the guilty) yourselves. That will be best for you with your Creator and He will relent toward you. Lo! He is the Relenting, the Merciful.

Li-Qawmihii – (unto his people, to His nation), in this verse aim from li-Qawmihii is particularly those persons who fell prostrate before the calf supposing their worshipped. 

Zalamtum – (you have wronged, you have lost), it means that they were involved again in plurality leaving the Unity (Oneness of God Almighty). How might be more than it loss of an individual over himself?

Faqtuluuu  ‘anfusakum – So kill (the guilty) yourselves. It signifies towards the people who did not fall prostrate before the calf that they should kill them who prostrated before it. The scholars have commented that there were three groups in the Children of Israel:

• Those people who did not fall prostrate before the calf and forbade others not to do so. They were pious persons. 

• Those people who prostrated.

• There was a group of people who did neither prostrate themselves and nor they forbid others from prostrating.

So the pious people were commanded that they should kill them who fell prostrate. In fact; the afterward two groups deserved the punishment.

Khay-rul-lakum – it is best for you. It aims that when you will kill one another; you will become chaste from the stench of sin and will acquire absolution and freedom.

In this verse, God Almighty tells the Children of Israel, “You could not remain on the straight path in the absence of Prophet (peace be upon him), involved in plurality and idol worshiping. You have lost much due to this deed of yours. Now it is its punishment that you must kill one another yourselves. When the Children of Israel obeyed the order of God Almighty, then they repented and God, the Most high accepted their penitence. Success in this world and on the Day of Resurrection for the human being is in obeying the Commandments of God Almighty whether he knows or doesn’t know its philosophy and advisability. And if he has mistaken with error, by forgetting or unintentionally, then he should be ready every time for acceptance and correctness.  

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