فَرَجَعَ مُوسَى إِلَى قَوْمِهِ غَضْبَانَ أَسِفًا قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ أَلَمْ يَعِدْكُمْ رَبُّكُمْ وَعْدًا حَسَنًا أَفَطَالَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْعَهْدُ أَمْ أَرَدْتُمْ أَنْ يَحِلَّ عَلَيْكُمْ غَضَبٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ فَأَخْلَفْتُمْ مَوْعِدِي ﴿۸۶﴾ قَالُوا مَا أَخْلَفْنَا مَوْعِدَكَ بِمَلْكِنَا وَلَكِنَّا حُمِّلْنَا أَوْزَارًا مِنْ زِينَةِ الْقَوْمِ فَقَذَفْنَاهَا فَكَذَلِكَ أَلْقَى السَّامِرِيُّ ﴿۸۷﴾ فَأَخْرَجَ لَهُمْ عِجْلًا جَسَدًا لَهُ خُوَارٌ فَقَالُوا هَذَا إِلَهُكُمْ وَإِلَهُ مُوسَى فَنَسِيَ ﴿۸۸﴾

﴾86﴿ Faraja'a Moosaaa ilaa qawmihee ghadbaana asifaa; qaala yaa qawmi alam ya'idkum Rabbukum wa'dan hasanaa; afataala 'alaikumul 'ahdu am arattum ai yahilla 'alaikum ghadabum mir Rabbikum fa akhlaftum maw'ideeh
﴾87﴿ Qaaloo maaa akhlafnaa maw'idaka bimalkinna wa laakinna hummilnaaa awzaaram min zeenatil qawmi faqazafnaahaa fakazaalika alqas Saamiriyy
﴾88﴿ Fa akhraja lahum 'ijlan jasadal lahoo khuwaarun faqaaloo haazaaa ilaahukum wa ilaahu Moosaa fanasee

﴾86﴿ Then Moses (peace be upon him) returned to his people, angry and sorrowful. He said, O my people, did your Lord not promise you a good promise? Did the time of fulfillment seem too long to you, or did you desire that wrath from your Lord should descend upon you, so you broke your promise to me
﴾87﴿ They said, We did not break our promise to you of our own accord, but we were burdened with the weight of the people's ornaments (from the wealth of Pharaoh's people), so we threw them [into the fire], and thus did the Samiri cast as well
﴾88﴿ So he (the Samiri) made for them the figure of a calf that produced a lowing sound. Then they said, This is your god and the god of Moses, but he (Moses) has forgotten

[86] In this verse, there is an indication that becoming angry upon witnessing wrongdoing is the way of the prophets (peace be upon them). The word (ghaḍbān) refers to outward anger, while (asifan) refers to deep inner grief — and it signifies intense anger.
The phrase (wa‘dan ḥasanan) refers to the matter of monotheism, which Allah the Exalted established through proofs and miracles. The essence is that you broke the covenant of monotheism because a long time had passed, and it became distant and was forgotten by you — or you deliberately broke it, thus desiring the descent of Allah's wrath.
Another interpretation is that (wa‘dan ḥasanan) refers to the promise of the Torah. The essence here is: you broke the covenant (i.e., you didn’t even wait for the fulfillment of the promise), due to the long delay. So the promise was forgotten by you, or you willed that Allah’s wrath descend upon you — and thus, you broke the covenant.
[87] This means they presented a third excuse for breaking the covenant, different from the two previous ones mentioned in the earlier verse. The essence of this third excuse is that Samiri rebuked them on the matter and pressured them. He said: “You have with you the jewelry of the people of Pharaoh, and this is war booty. It is not lawful to benefit from war booty” (as was the ruling in previous nations). Therefore, these should be burned in fire. So, to save ourselves from this sin, we threw the jewelry into the fire. And Samiri also, to deceive us, threw his own jewelry into the fire.
But in truth, this excuse was invalid. If burning this jewelry had been necessary, then why didn’t Musa (peace be upon him) give that command? If a Prophet hasn’t declared something to be forbidden, then the people have no right to declare it unlawful themselves. So they followed Samiri in opposition to Musa (peace be upon him).
Note: Ibn Kathir wrote that these people refrained from what they considered a minor sin, yet did not stop themselves from a major sin — the worship of the calf. This is the behavior of the foolish.
Zīnah means ornament or jewelry, and awzāran means sins. The phrase ḥummilnā refers to the sin of betrayal, as taḥmīl can sometimes imply treachery.
[88] (جَسَدًا) indicates that this calf had not turned into flesh, bones, and blood but was made of gold.
It’s possible that a device producing sound was installed in it, and commentators have reported this narration from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him).
(فَقَالُوا) indicates that other companions of Samiri were also present, and all of them together started the call to worship the calf.
They referred to the calf as a deity because they believed that Allah Almighty had incarnated into the body of the calf, or that Allah had manifested in the form of the calf.
They would circle around the calf and dance, considering it an act of worship—similar to how some of the present-day mystics consider dancing and singing as worship and call it the Chishti way.
This belief aligns with the doctrines of those who believe in divine incarnation and unity of being.
(فَنَسِيَ) – the pronoun here refers to Musa (peace be upon him), so it is included in their statement (فقالوا), or it refers to Samiri—then it is the statement of Allah Almighty, meaning that Samiri forgot his Lord.