Seized by the Beard

Mūsā, when he came back and saw what they were doing — the first thing he did was throw the tablets from his hand: wa alqā al-alwāḥa fī nuskhatihā hudā^** — he threw the tablets, and in the tablets was guidance. And then he rushed towards his brother and grabbed him, with his beard in one hand and his head in the other, and started pulling him towards himself.

And he said to his brother: O Hārūn, what prevented you, when you saw them going astray, from following me? Have you then disobeyed my order? Mūsā said: how come you did not come and tell me? How come you let this happen, and you did not come and convey this news to me?

Hārūn said: yā-bna umma — O son of my mother. That means he is trying to bring up the blood relationship between them, and the mother is the side of mercy. So he is telling him: we are brothers. O my brother, O son of my mother, do not seize me by my beard, nor by my head. Hārūn is giving the justification for why he did not come and tell Mūsā what was happening. He said: verily, I feared that you would say, you have caused a division among the children of Israel, and you have not respected my word. Hārūn said that he would have caused disunity among Banū Isrāʾīl.