Not of Our Own Will

They said: we did not break the promise to you of our own will. It was not our own will. They refused to admit their guilt. They said: we did not break the promise to you of our own will, but we were made to carry the weight of the ornaments of the people of Firʿawn; then we cast them into the fire, and that was what al-Sāmirī suggested. Then he took out of the fire for them a statue of a calf, which seemed to low.

Let us analyse what Banū Isrāʾīl said. Mūsā told them: you have broken your promise to me. They said: no, we did not break our promise of our own will; but we were carrying ornaments with us, and this was the suggestion of al-Sāmirī. There are two problems with this.

Number one: they had guilt in their hearts because of this gold. Ibn Kathīr says, first of all, that this gold was ḥalāl for them now, because the people of Firʿawn were the enemies of Allah, and Allah had destroyed them, and that ghanīmah should go to them — so the gold, they should take it. They had guilt for carrying that gold with them, but they did not feel any guilt about committing shirk against Allah (swt). So the scale of taqwā is upside down: taqwā in very small things, but no taqwā in the major issues. So Banū Isrāʾīl are feeling the guilt of carrying with them the gold that belongs to the people of Israel^*, and they have no guilt whatsoever when they are worshipping a calf besides Allah (swt).