Al-Ijl
Definition
Al-ijl — the calf — was the golden idol fashioned by the Samiri from the jewelry of the Israelites while Musa was away at Sinai for forty days. The Samiri cast the jewelry into a fire and produced a calf that made a lowing sound — a 'miracle' of craftsmanship that the people, despite having witnessed the parting of the Red Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh, were willing to interpret as evidence of divinity. Ibn Kathir uses the golden calf episode as the Quran's most devastating demonstration of the psychological fragility of faith that has not been grounded in knowledge — people who had seen the most spectacular miracles in human history abandoned their prophet for a golden animal while his back was turned.
As understood in the classical tradition of Ibn Kathir and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
1 book in the library
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