Transliteration:( Qaaloo maaa akhlafnaa maw'idaka bimalkinna wa laakinna hummilnaaa awzaaram min zeenatil qawmi faqazafnaahaa fakazaalika alqas Saamiriyy )
They said, “We did not break your promise [120] of our own will, but we were made to carry some load [121] of these people’s ornaments. So we [122] cast them, then likewise did the Samri cast.” [123]
The people confessed they did not intentionally break their promise, but admitted that due to Samiri’s misguidance, their thinking was no longer upright, leading them into polytheism.
The word ‘Awzaar’ (loads) is the plural of ‘Wizar’, meaning burden.
This refers to the ornaments of the Egyptians, which the Israelites had borrowed before fleeing Egypt.
These became a spiritual and moral burden.
After Pharaoh and his people drowned, the Israelites became the rightful owners of the gold, which they had previously borrowed.
However, since the Law of the Torah forbade using spoils, they chose to melt and discard the gold.
But this gold of the wicked Pharaohs became the seed of mischief—a reminder that wealth acquired from evildoers often leads to corruption.
While the Israelites cast their gold into the fire, Samiri also cast his share, but with an evil intent.
He was a jeweller by trade and a respected member of the Samaritan tribe, using his skill and status to mislead the people by forging the golden calf.
This verse shows how material desires, weak leadership, and charismatic misguidance can lead an entire community astray.
The tafsir of Surah Ta-Ha verse 87 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Taha ayat 83 which provides the complete commentary from verse 83 through 89.
(20:87) They answered: “We did not break our promise with you out of our own volition; but we were laden with the load of people’s ornaments, and we simply threw them down[67](into the fire), and[68] the Samiri also threw down something,
67. This excuse was put forward by those people who were involved in the shirk fabricated by the Samiri. They meant to say: We did not throw down the ornaments with the intention of setting up a calf nor did we know what was going to be made of these, but when the calf was brought before us, we involuntarily got involved in shirk. The Arabic text which we have translated into: “We were laden with burdens of ornaments of the people”, simply means this: The heavy ornaments which our men and women were wearing like the Egyptians proved very burdensome to us in our wanderings in the desert and we did not know how to get rid of them for it appeared very difficult for us to travel in the desert with them. But according to the Bible these ornaments had been borrowed by every family of the Israelites from their Egyptian neighbors with this intention, “….and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters and ye shall spoil the Egyptians….and let every man borrow of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold….And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians….so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.” And that, too, on the advice of Prophet Moses, whom God Himself had instructed to do this noble deed. (Exodus, 3: 14-22, 11: 2-3, and I 2: 35-36).
It is a pity that some of our commentators have interpreted this verse in the light of the above traditions of the Bible. They say that the Israelites felt burdened with the weight of those ornaments which they had borrowed from their Egyptian neighbors, with the intention of carrying them away as a spoil bestowed by God.
We are of the opinion that the clause of the verse under discussion means this: When the people were tired of carrying their ornaments on their bodies, they decided by mutual consultation that all the ornaments should be gathered at one place and it should be noted down how much gold and silver belonged to each of the owners. Then it should be melted into bars and rods and placed on the backs of the beasts of burden. Accordingly, they might have brought their ornaments and thrown them in the common heap.
68. It is obvious from the context that the answer of the people ended with “threw them”, and Allah Himself has added the remaining story up to the end of the paragraph. It appears from this that the people including the Samiri went on bringing their ornaments and throwing them down into the heap while they were absolutely unaware of what was going to be done by the Samiri. After this the Samiri offered his services to melt it. Then he shaped it into a calf which lowed like a cow. Thus the Samiri deluded the people, saying: This god of yours has come into being by itself for I had simply thrown the gold in the fire.
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