Al-A'raf 7:139

<h2>The Children of Israel safely cross the Sea, but still held on to the Idea of Idol Worshipping</h2><p>Allah mentions the words that the ignorant ones among the Children of Israel uttered to Musa after they crossed the sea and witnessed Allah's Ayat and great power.</p><p>فَأَتَوْاْ عَلَى قَوْمٍ يَعْكُفُونَ عَلَى أَصْنَامٍ لَّهُمْ</p><p>(And they came upon a people devoted to some of their idols (in worship).) Some scholars of Tafsir said that the people mentioned here were from Canaan, or from the tribe of Lakhm. Ibn Jarir commented, "They were worshipping idols that they made in the shape of cows, and this influenced the Children of Israel later when they worshipped the calf. They said here,</p><p>يَمُوسَى اجْعَلْ لَّنَآ إِلَـهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ ءَالِهَةٌ قَالَ إِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ</p><p>("O Musa! Make for us a god as they have gods." He said: "Verily, you are an ignorant people.") Musa replied, you are ignorant of Allah's greatness and majesty and His purity from any partners or anything resembling Him.</p><p>إِنَّ هَـؤُلاءِ مُتَبَّرٌ مَّا هُمْ فِيهِ</p><p>("Verily, these people will be destroyed for that which they are engaged in) they will perish,</p><p>وَبَطَلَ مَا كَانُواْ يَعْمَلُونَ</p><p>("and all that they are doing is in vain.") Commenting on this Ayah, Imam Abu Ja`far …

Lo! as for these, their way will be destroyed and all that they are doing is in vain.

"As to these folk,- the cult they are in is (but) a fragment of a ruin, and vain is the (worship) which they practise."

[Musa (Moses) added:] "Verily, these people will be destroyed for that which they are engaged in (idols-worship). And all that they are doing is in vain."

“What these people are concerned with is perdition, and their deeds are based on falsehoods.”