قَالَ

فَإِنَّا

قَدۡ

فَتَنَّا

قَوۡمَكَ

مِنۢ

بَعۡدِكَ

وَأَضَلَّهُمُ

ٱلسَّامِرِيُّ

٨٥

Allah responded, “We have indeed tested your people in your absence, and the Sâmiri¹ has led them astray.”

So Moses returned to his people, furious and sorrowful. He said, “O my people! Had your Lord not made you a good promise?¹ Has my absence been too long for you? Or have you wished for wrath from your Lord to befall you, so you broke your promise to me?”² 

They argued, “We did not break our promise to you of our own free will, but we were made to carry the burden of the people’s ˹golden˺ jewellery,¹ then we threw it ˹into the fire˺, and so did the Sâmiri.”