Did the Golden Calf say "Moo"?
Let us look at the Noble Verses that the Christian "Answering Islam" team raised:
"The people of Moses made, in his absence, out of their ornaments, the image of calf, (for worship): it seemed to low: did they not see that it could neither speak to them, nor show them the way? They took it for worship and they did wrong. (The Noble Quran, 7:148)"
"(God) said: "We have tested thy people in thy absence: the Samiri has led them astray." (The Noble Quran, 20:85)"
"So Moses returned to his people in a state of indignation and sorrow. He said: "O my people! did not your Lord make a handsome promise to you? Did then the promise seem to you long (in coming)? Or did ye desire that Wrath should descend from your Lord on you, and so ye broke your promise to me?" (The Noble Quran, 20:86)"
"They said: "We broke not the promise to thee, as far as lay in our power: but we were made to carry the weight of the ornaments of the (whole) people, and we threw them (into the fire), and that was what the Samiri suggested. (The Noble Quran, 20:87)"
" 'Then he brought out (of the fire) before the (people) the image of a calf: It seemed to low: so they said: This is your god, and the god of Moses, but (Moses) has forgotten!' (The Noble Quran, 20:88)"
They commented on the above Noble Verses by saying: "How can a mere piece of gold moo like a live cow? (This is stated again in 7:148). Apart from the scientific problem which could be answered by the reply that God can do a miracle, there is the theological problem: Has Allah given a miracle to this false idol even though idolatery is so detested by him?"
Allah Almighty didn't give any miracle to any idol. Here is what Minister Abdullah Yusuf Ali had to say about the "lowing of the image":
"The lowing of the golden calf was obviously a deception practised by the Egyptian promoters of the cult. Lytton in his "last Days of Pompeii" exposes the deception practised by the priests of Isis. Men hidden behind images imposed on the credulity of the commanalty." [2]
The Jews knew about this trick and they repented after they erred:
"When they repented, and saw That they had erred, They said: 'If our Lord Have not mercy upon us And forgive us, we shall Indeed be of those who perish. (The Noble Quran, 7:149)"
Bibliography:
1- The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an.
Author: Abdullah Yusuf Ali.
Published by: Amana Publications, 10710 Tucker Street, Suite B, Beltsville, Maryland
20705-2223 USA.
Telephone: (301) 595-5777.
Fax: (301) 595-5888.
ISBN: 0-91597-59-0 (HC).
2- The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an [1], foot note #1114, page 386.
Back to Responses to the so called "Contradictions" in the Noble Quran.