[4:153] The People of the Scripture will ask of you to cause a Book to be revealed to them from the heaven. They asked Moses for something greater than that, for they said, 'Show us God openly'; so the thunderbolt seized them for their evildoing. They then took to themselves the [golden] calf after clear proofs had come to them; yet We pardoned that; and We bestowed upon Moses clear authority.
The verse includes two kinds of unseemly acts that they did. The first was their asking to be shown [God] and the second was their worshipping the calf after clear signs had been made manifest to them. As for their asking to be shown [God], they were blameworthy because they impudently demanded that, even after their excuses should have been cut off by the occurrence of miracles. They were therefore not seeking the vision for instruction, nor as a means to confirm their faith, nor were they brought to that by an intensity of longing. Both acts were bad manners (sūÌ adab). There is also the allusion to those who are content to have the calf as their object of worship. How can they bear witness to the Real when they submit to it?
It is said direct mystical knowledge (ʿirfān) did not touch the innermost hearts (asrār) of the people. Because of that they clung with their intellects (ʿuqūl) to a limited thing (maḥdūd), allowing that to be their object of worship.
And we bestowed upon Moses clear authority: manifest proof (hujja ẓāhir), indeed a light preserved from comparing God to other things (tamthīl) or stripping Him of His attributes (taʿ?īl).
The clear authority is to have access (taḥṣīl) while declaring God incomparable (tanzīh), neither stripping God of His attributes (taʿ?īl) or comparing Him to His creation (tashbīh).
It is said the clear authority is the power to hear the Speech (al-khi?āb) without intermediary.
It is said the clear authority belongs to this community in the future, which will be their abiding in the state of their meeting [God]. In the tradition of the Vision, [the Prophet] (ṣ) said: You will not have only one vision in seeing Him.