Overall meaning : After holding communion with His Lord, Allah, Exalted and Sublime be He, states, Moses returned to his people, angry and sorrowful, for Allah had already informed him that his people worshipped the calf in his absence. Moses said to them, 'Evil indeed was what you did in my absence. Did you hasten on my return to you before the end of the time Allah had appointed for its completion and worshipped the calf, in total disregard for my command to you to worship Allah alone until I came to you with His commandments?! Moses then threw down the Tablets and, seizing his brother by the hair of his head, dragged him closer to him. 'Son of my mother,’ Aaron said, 'the people who worshipped the calf deemed me weak and disobeyed me when I told them not to worship it. They overpowered me and almost killed me. Therefore, do not let the enemies—the calf worshippers—rejoice at my suffering by hitting and humiliating me, and do not count me among the wrongdoers who worshipped it.
'Lord,’ Moses prayed, 'forgive me and my brother, and admit us into Your mercy, for You are the Most Merciful of all those that show mercy.’
Those who worshipped the calf, the Almighty declares, will incur the anger of their Lord, as well as disgrace in this life, stating that thus does He punish those who fabricate falsehoods. But to those that do bad deeds but later turn to their Lord in penitence and truly believe, Allah will surely, after such repentance, forgive them and have mercy on them, for He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.