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One of the verses that mention the escape of the Israelites from Egypt is the verse 20/87. In this verse, the calf (idol) made by the Israelites with the ornaments they borrowed from the Egyptians is mentioned and the factors leading to this process are conveyed with their own expressions. A few questions need to be answered here: What was the burden of the Israelites at the escape? Who owned these ornaments which seemed to be precious? How did they get them? If they borrowed, did they betray what is entrusted to them and get into the haram? If they counted as booty/ghanimah, how should the hadiths that express the prohibition of taking ghanimah for the Israelites be understood? Who told them to take these ornaments? According to contradictory information in the Torah; could Moses or Aaron have ordered them to take? Could Moses, a prophet, aim to rob them? This article was written to find answers to these questions. The scope of article is limited to the verse 20/87 and its etymological structure.
The Israelites, who escaped from the Pharaoh, worshiped a golden calf idol made by Samiri during Moses' seclusion on Mount Sinai. When Moses returned, he got very angry and asked them the reason for this behavior. The Israelites tried to explain the reasons for getting out of the true path. In this context, they used the following expressions, as mentioned in the verse: قَالُوا مَا أَخْلَفْنَا مَوْعِدَكَ بِمَلْكِنَا وَلَكِنَّا حُمِّلْنَا أَوْزَارًا مِنْ زِينَةِ الْقَوْمِ فَقَذَفْنَاهَا فَكَذَلِكَ أَلْقَى السَّامِرِيُّ
We can clearly say that the mufassirs who said that Moses had given the order to borrow the ornaments of Egyptians were influenced by their knowledge from the Torah. Some mufassirs are of the opinion that the Almighty Allah ordered the Israelites to borrow these precious ornaments. The main problem here is that te Israelites unfairly embezzled others' property. However, it is understood that the mufassirs who want to solve this problem are trying to reach the conclusion that the goods are ghanimah, based on the assumption that the ornaments were taken after the perishing of the Pharaoh. The reason for the problem is the hadith which says that taking ghanimah is not halal for the Israelites: “I have been given five things which were not given to any amongst the Prophets before me: The booty/ghanimah has been made Halal (lawful) for me (and was not made so for anyone else)…” (Bukhari, “Salat” 438; “Tayammum” 335.)
According to some mufassirs, at night before leaving Egypt, Moses ordered the Israelites to borrow the precious ornaments of the Egyptians and stated that Allah gave them as ghanimah. However, accusation of this kind of theft, which is carried out through the borrowed goods, to an ulu’l-azm prophet is also anotherproblem. In some sources, it is stated that the Israelites had a specially organized and prepared feast, so they borrowed this precious ornaments from the Copts, however they did not return the ornaments for fear that Egyptians would understand their escape. Some mufassirs who are aware of the same problem report that the Israelites took ornaments they carried with them at shore after Pharaoh drowned in the sea. However, according to all of these comments, it is understood that the Israelites took the ornaments with their own will.
Another point which supports the idea that Israelites borrowed jewelry with their own will is the recitation of the verb ḥamala/ حمل in verse 20/87 as ḥamalnā/ حَمَلْنَا. In this case, the reason that pushes them to borrow the ornaments is the desire of their nafs. Therefore, the issue of borrowing and carrying the ornaments was not done by anyone else, but by the self-desire of the Jews.
According to our understanding, the word awzār is one of the most important words in the correct understanding of the verse. This word has been used both in terms of load and sin in various passages of the Qur’an. Thus, choosing the word awzār in this verse refers to both the load carried by the Jews and the haram act. In other words, with the word awzār/أوزَار , the Israelites confess that they had sinned because they did not return the ornaments they had borrowed from the Copts. Because the word actually expresses the spiritual load (burden), so the Israelites took something that did not belong/halal to them, and loaded this sin.