What Is the Matter With You, Sāmirī?

And then Mūsā turned towards al-Sāmirī, the cause of this whole problem. He said: fa-mā khaṭbuka yā Sāmirī — and what is the matter with you, O Sāmirī?

When Mūsā first came, whom did he blame first? First he directed the blame at his people. And then whom did he blame next? Hārūn. Finally, he blamed al-Sāmirī — even though al-Sāmirī was the cause of the problem. Look at the ḥikmah in that. Who is responsible for this sin? It is the people — the whole people. Because if al-Sāmirī gave this advice and the people did not follow it, it would not have occurred. Always, in every ummah, there are going to be some people who call to evil. Now, is the ummah going to follow them or not? So who carries the burden? It is the ummah — the whole ummah of Banū Isrāʾīl.

So Mūsā directed the blame at them first: a-fa-ṭāla ʿalaykumu al-ʿahdu am aradtum an yaḥilla ʿalaykum ghaḍabun min rabbikum fa-akhlaftum mawʿidī — did the promise then seem too long to you, or did you desire that wrath from your Lord should descend upon you, so that you broke your promise to me? Do you want the anger of Allah (swt) to come upon you? So he blamed the ummah of Banū Isrāʾīl first, because if they had not followed the advice, this problem would have stopped right there; it would not have occurred. So in the beginning, it is the responsibility of the ummah.

Any problem we are going through today is our problem — the problem of the ummah. The problem that is happening in Iraq, or in Chechnya, or in Kashmir, or in Palestine, or in Somalia, or in Eritrea, or in any part of the Muslim world, or in Sudan — it is our problem, collectively, as an ummah.

And then to whom does the blame go next? To the leaders. Mūsā did not go and speak to al-Sāmirī next; he went to the amīr, to the leader — he went to his brother Hārūn: how come you did not convey this message to me? You are the leader; you are held responsible; you are held accountable. And then, at the end, Mūsā went to al-Sāmirī and said to him: what is wrong with you, Sāmirī? Because al-Sāmirī is following Shayṭān, and he is only one person. If the people and the leader stand against him, he cannot do anything.

And what is the matter with you, O Sāmirī? He said: I saw what they saw not, so I took a handful of dust from the hoof-print of the messenger, Jibrīl, and threw it into the fire; thus my inner self suggested to me. And we talked about how he did this. When Allah (swt) was drowning Firʿawn and his army, Jibrīl was there. Al-Sāmirī, through an ayah — a sign of Allah, something supernatural — was able to see Jibrīl, and was able to see the footsteps of Jibrīl, or of the horse of Jibrīl, and he picked up some of that dirt. Then he mixed it with the gold that the women of Banū Isrāʾīl had — and to whom did that gold belong? To the women of Egypt. They mixed it together and made a calf, and that calf started making some strange sounds, like the sound of a calf, so they started worshipping it.