In one of his articles,1 Mr. Jochen Katz has pointed out a contradiction in the narrative of the Qur’ān 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’ān directly blamed Aaron (sws) of being an accomplice in the referred sin. In fact, the Qur’ān 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’ān. 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’ān (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’ān is that when the Qur’ān 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’ān 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.
Courtesy: Understanding-Islam (http://www.understanding-islam.com)