Sūrat Ṭāhā
Section 7 of 18 · Surah Studies · Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
The Handful of Dust
There is then one story that is related with great prominence: the story of the Sāmirī. The Sāmirī is the man who, when Mūsā (peace be upon him) had gone to the meeting with his Lord, took the gold that the people had carried off from the houses, fashioned it into a calf, and said: this is your god, and Mūsā (peace be upon him) has forgotten.
The sūrah then relates Mūsā (peace be upon him) returning, growing angry with his brother, and then seizing the Sāmirī and demanding: why did you do that? The Sāmirī replies:
قَالَ بَصُرْتُ بِمَا لَمْ يَبْصُرُوا۟ بِهِۦ فَقَبَضْتُ قَبْضَةً مِّنْ أَثَرِ ٱلرَّسُولِ فَنَبَذْتُهَا وَكَذَٰلِكَ سَوَّلَتْ لِى نَفْسِى
“He said, “I perceived something they did not perceive. So I picked up a handful from under the footstep of the messenger. Then, I cast it. And thus my inner self tempted me.”” (20:96)
In verse 96: I saw what they did not see, fa-qabaḍtu qabḍatan min athari al-rasūl — so I took a handful from the place where the messenger had passed — fa-nabadhtuhā, and then I threw it in.
The sense of it is that it was either Jibrīl (peace be upon him) or whoever else it was who led them while Mūsā (peace be upon him) was away, and they noticed that wherever the hooves of that leader's horse — Jibrīl (peace be upon him), it seems — happened to land, the ground would turn green. The Sāmirī concluded that this was something remarkable, a kind of magic dust, and so he must have gathered some of it. This comes from the commentaries; it is not stated in the Qur'an, but it is alluded to here. That is what he had used.
The punishment given to him was this:
قَالَ فَٱذْهَبْ فَإِنَّ لَكَ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ أَن تَقُولَ لَا مِسَاسَ ۖ وَإِنَّ لَكَ مَوْعِدًا لَّن تُخْلَفَهُۥ ۖ وَٱنظُرْ إِلَىٰٓ إِلَـٰهِكَ ٱلَّذِى ظَلْتَ عَلَيْهِ عَاكِفًا ۖ لَّنُحَرِّقَنَّهُۥ ثُمَّ لَنَنسِفَنَّهُۥ فِى ٱلْيَمِّ نَسْفًا
“He (Mūsā) said, “Then go away; it is destined for you that, throughout your life, you will say: ‘Do not touch me’. And, of course, you have another promise that will not be broken for you. And look at your god to which you stayed devoted. We will certainly burn it, then we will scatter it thoroughly in the sea.” (20:97)
Go now — he is cast out, he is exiled — and for the rest of your life it will be your lot to say to anybody who approaches you: lā misās, no touching, do not touch me, no touching. And in the end you too will die out. That was his punishment: that nobody was permitted to have any dealings with him afterwards, and he could have dealings with nobody afterwards.
The sūrah then speaks of the Banū Isrāʾīl failing in other ways and going astray in other ways, and of Mūsā (peace be upon him) bringing the Torah.