Moses in Islam grabbed hold of Aaron by his beard and admonished him for doing nothing to stop them. But when Aaron told Moses of his fruitless attempt to stop them, Moses understood his helplessness and they both prayed to God for forgiveness. Moses then questioned Samiri for creating the Golden Calf. Samiri replied that it had occurred to him and he had done so. Samiri was exiled and the Golden Calf was burned to ashes, and the ashes were thrown into the sea. The wrong-doers who had worshipped the Calf were ordered to be killed for their crime. Moses then chose seventy
Golden calf believe until they had witnessed God with their sight. As punishment, God struck the delegates with lightning and killed them with a violent earthquake. Moses prayed to God for their forgiveness. God forgave and resurrected them and they continued on their journey. In the Islamic view, the calf-worshipers' sin had been shirk (), the sin of idolatry or polytheism. Shirk is the deification or worship of anyone or anything other than Allah, or more literally the establishment of "partners" placed beside God, a most serious and unforgivable sin, with the calf-worshipers' being ultimately forgiven being a mark of special forbearance