The Calf of al-Sāmirī

What did al-Sāmirī do? Allah (swt) gave al-Sāmirī the ability to see something nobody else saw.

I saw what they were not able to see. What did he see? When Allah (swt) was destroying Firʿawn and his army, Jibrīl was there. The mufassirūn say that whenever Jibrīl — or his horse — stepped on a piece of land, life would immediately grow up from that place, from the footstep. Al-Sāmirī saw Jibrīl. It was an unusual, supernatural ability that al-Sāmirī had. It was a fitnah; it was a trial from Allah. So al-Sāmirī went and picked up some of that dirt from under the footsteps of Jibrīl's horse, and he kept that dirt with him.

Then al-Sāmirī told Banū Isrāʾīl to gather all of the gold they had brought with them from Egypt. The women of Egypt, the Egyptian women, had their jewellery with the women of the children of Israel; somehow the women of the children of Israel had the gold that belonged to the Egyptian women. And they were feeling guilty because of that gold: this gold does not belong to us; what shall we do with it? They had a feeling of guilt. Al-Sāmirī suggested that they gather all of this gold together and burn it, and then they made a calf out of it.

And what did al-Sāmirī do? He threw the dirt he had with him into the gold. So it was mixed with the gold, and they moulded the gold into the shape of a calf. Somehow, that calf would make a sound — khuwār, the sound of a cow — as if it were alive. Some of the commentators of the Qur'an say that al-Sāmirī made a hole through the inside of the animal, so that wind would go into it and make a breezing or whistling sound, and the people would think it was alive. Some of them say that somehow it was a miracle, and because of that dirt in it, it had some sort of life in it. It was not alive, but it was making some sound. It was making a sound.

And this was a fitnah for Banū Isrāʾīl. When they saw this calf made of gold, making this sound, al-Sāmirī told them: this is your god. So they started worshipping it, and they were making sujūd to the calf. They were worshipping it.