Ṭāhā

وَمَآ أَعْجَلَكَ عَن قَوْمِكَ يَا مُوسَي

قَالَ هُمْ اُوْلآءِ عَلَي أَثَرِي وَعَجِلْتُ إِلَيْكَ رَبّ‌ِ لِتَرْضَي

قَالَ فَإِنَّا قَدْ فَتَنَّا قَوْمَكَ مِن بَعْدِكَ وَأَضَلَّهُمُ السَّامِرِيُّ

83. “And (Allah said): ‘What caused you to hasten from your people, O’ Moses?’”
84. “Said (Moses): ‘They are upon my track, and I hastened unto You, my Lord, that You might be pleased’.”
85. “Said He: ‘Verily We have tested your people in your absence and the Samiri has led them astray’.”

Upon the commentary of these verses, Imam Sadiq (as) has illustrated the feature of a lover as this:

“A lover thinks neither of food, clothing, and residence, nor does he have calmness and tranquility until he reaches what he is desirous to; as Moses, desirous to receive revelation from the Lord, did neither sleep nor feed, and he said to the Lord that he had come to Him sooner than his people in order that He became pleased.” ⁴

Then the Qur’an refers to another important part of the life of Moses (as) and the Children of Israel, which relates to the time when he (as), accompanied with a number of the representatives of the Children of Israel, went to the tryst of Tur Mount, and, in their absence, the Children of Israel committed Calf worship. It was appointed that Moses (as) would go to Tur to take the laws of the Turah, and some of the Children of Israel might also accompany him along that way.

But, in view of the fact that the desire of conversation to Allah was flaming in the heart of Moses, he went alone to the tryst of the Lord before others. Here, the revelation was sent down to him as follows:

Then Moses immediately answered Him, as the verse says:

Moses implied that not only the love of conversation to Him and listening to His statements had made him impatient, but also he had been desirous to take His Laws and ordinances as soon as possible to convey them to His servants, so that, by this manner, he could attract His pleasure better. Yes, Moses was in love of Allah’s pleasure and was also desirous to hear His command. Yet, in this meeting, his tryst prolonged from thirty nights to forty nights, and different grounds of aberration, which had existed among the Children of Israel from before, manifested. Samiri, that heretic but clever man, by means of some materials made a Calf and invited people to worshipping it. Then, it was in the same tryst that Allah told Moses that his people did not pass their trial well.

The verse says:

With the presence of the leader in the society, the enemies cannot do any thing. The heretic persons usually misuse the absence of the Divine leader in the society.