Surah Taa-Haa (20) — Ayah 96

He (Samiri) said, "I saw what they did not see, so I took a handful (of dust) from the footprint of the Messenger [66] and threw it (into the calf). This is what my soul prompted me to do."

[66]
Question and Answer with Samiri:

After addressing his people and then his brother Harun, Sayyiduna Musaؑ now turned to Samiri and asked: Tell me, Samiri! What is this matter? It should be noted that the Quran here uses the word "khatb," which is used to inquire about an unpleasant situation. Also, although this Samiri apparently had believed in Sayyiduna Musaؑ, he was a hypocrite, a mischief-maker, and a cunning person who concealed disbelief and polytheism in his heart. He could not openly oppose Sayyiduna Musaؑ, but he was always on the lookout for an opportunity to lead the people back to their ancestral religion, i.e., calf-worship. In the absence of Sayyiduna Musaؑ, he found such an opportunity. In response to Sayyiduna Musaؑ's question, he said: The matter is that I saw something which others could not see, and that was when Jibril came at the time of Pharaoh's death, I sensed his arrival and took a handful of dust from beneath his feet. When I made the shape of the calf, I put this dust into it. It was due to the miracle of this dust that when the calf was prepared, it began to make a sound like that of a calf, and I did all this because I wanted to see some miracle of this dust.

The Reality of Samiri's Statement:

This was the statement of Samiri which he gave in response to Musaؑ's question. Whereas the reality was that even this statement was full of deception. He did not only want to revive idol-worship and calf-worship, but in fact, he wanted to become the leader himself in opposition to Musaؑ. He was a clever man. Seeing Sayyiduna Harunؑ as weak, he cleverly paved the way for himself. That is, Samiri's real aim was to shine his own leadership in opposition to Sayyiduna Musaؑ. And for this, it was necessary that his path should be separate from the path and objectives of Musaؑ, so he led the people back to that old path of calf-worship with which they were already familiar and enamored. In this way, in the absence of Sayyiduna Musaؑ, he actually became the leader of the people. And this is what is evident from the statement of Sayyiduna Harunؑ. If Sayyiduna Harunؑ had acted strictly to stop this polytheism, the people would have split into two factions and civil war would have broken out among them, and then the situation would have gone out of control. Some scholars have taken the "Messenger" here to mean Musaؑ himself. In this case, this answer indicates the extreme cunning of Samiri, that in this way he tried to win over Sayyiduna Musaؑ by flattering him. From the style of the Noble Quran, it appears that Samiri's statement was all based on his own deceit and trickery. As for how the sound was produced in the calf, this was not at all difficult. When air passed through the open mouth of the calf, it would produce a sound like that of a calf, just as when one blows into a musical instrument, different kinds of sounds are produced, or when the switch of an electric bell is pressed, different kinds of sounds come from different bells. And the different sounds are related to the internal structure of the instrument or electric bell. In the same way, Samiri had arranged the metal plates inside the body of the calf so that when air passed through its body, it would begin to make a sound.