Page 318
wa-la-qad qāla lahum hārūnu min qablu yā-qawmi ʾinnamā futintum bihī wa-ʾinna rabbakumu r-raḥmānu fa-ttabiʿūnī wa-ʾaṭīʿū ʾamrī
Aaron had certainly told them earlier, ‘O my people! You are only being tested by it. Indeed your Lord is the All-beneficent. So follow me and obey my command!’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Ta Ha – Verses 90 - 91
90. “And (yet) Aaron had aforetime said to them: ‘O my people! Verily you are being tested therewith (the Calf), and verily your Lord is the Beneficent (Allah); therefore follow me and obey my order’.”
91. “They said: ‘Never will We cease worshipping it, until Moses returns unto us’.”
At the time of appearing an innovation, the duty of a leader and his followers is that they should protest loudly and give an ultimatum. That was why Aaron, the successor of Moses and the great prophet of Allah, did not leave out his prophetic mission and fulfilled the duty of struggling against aberration and corruption as much as he could. As the Qur’an in this regard says:
Therefore, they should be careful not to be deceived and not to go astray from the path of Monotheism. Then, the Qur’an adds that their Lord is surely that very Beneficent Allah Who has bestowed on them all of these bounties. The verse says:
This statements implies that formerly they were slaves and He made them free; they were captives, He delivered them; they were misguided, He guided them; they were in dispersion He gathered them and, under the light of the leadership of a godly man, united them; they were ignorant and immoral, He cast the light of knowledge over them, and He guided them unto the Straight Path of Monotheism. The verse, addressing them, from the tongue of Aaron says:
It implies that whether they have forgotten that his brother, Moses, has introduced him as his successor and has made the obedience of Aaron (as) obligatory for them. Why have they committed breach of promise? But the Children of Israel had so obstinately been attached to the Calf that the strong logic and the clear evidences of that godly man, that sympathetic leader, did not influence in them, and they manifestly opposed Aaron. The verse says:
Thus, they refused both the firm order of intellect, and the command of the successor of their Divine leader. But in any case, Aaron accompanied with a minority of the true believer, who were about ten thousand persons, separated from that community, while a majority of them, who were ignorant and obstinate, wanted to kill him. They were neglectful that obedience from the successor and representative of the prophet was obligatory for them. They did not care that following the Divine leaders was the secret of immunity from seditions.