SURA XX (20) - TA. HA. (Mecca - 135 Verses) (LV - p. 94)

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Ta. Ha. Not to sadden thee have we sent down this Koran to thee,

But as a warning for him who feareth;

It is a missive from Him who hath made the earth and the lofty heavens!

The God of Mercy sitteth on his throne:

His, whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and
whatsoever is between them both, and whatsoever is beneath the humid soil!

Thou needest not raise thy voice: for He knoweth the secret whisper,
and the yet more hidden.

God! There is no God but He! Most excellent His titles!

Hath the history of Moses reached thee?

When he saw a fire, and said to his family, "Tarry ye here, for I
perceive a fire:

20:10 Haply I may bring you a brand from it, or find at the fire a guide."

And when he came to it, he was called to, "O Moses!

Verily, I am thy Lord: therefore pull off they shoes: for thou art in
the holy valley of Towa.

And I have chosen thee: hearken then to what shall be revealed.

Verily, I am God: there is no God but me: therefore worship me, and
observe prayer for a remembrance of me.

Verily the hour is coming: - I all but manifest it -

That every soul may be recompensed for its labours.

Nor let him who believeth not therein and followeth his lust, turn thee
aside from this truth, and thou perish.

Now, what is that in thy right hand, O Moses?"

Said he, "It is my staff on which I lean, and with which I beat down
leaves for my sheep, and I have other uses for it."

20:20 He said, "Cast it down, O Moses!"

So he cast it down, and lo! it became a serpent that ran along.

He said, "Lay hold on it, and fear not: to its former state will we
restore it."

"Now play thy right hand to thy arm-pit: it shall come forth white, but
unhurt: - another sign! -

That we may shew thee the greatest of our signs.

Go to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds."

He said, "O my Lord! enlarge my breast for me,

And make my work easy for me,

And loose the knot of my tongue,

That they may understand my speech.

20:30 And give me a counsellor from among my family,

Aaron my brother;

By him gird up my loins,

And make him a colleague in my work,

That we may praise thee oft and oft remember thee,

For thou regardest us."

He said, "O Moses, thou hast obtained thy suit:

Already, at another time, have we showed thee favour,

When we spake unto thy mother what was spoken:

'Cast him into the ark: then cast him on the sea [the river], and the
sea shall throw him on the shore: and an enemy to me and an enemy to him shall
take him up.' And I myself have made thee an object of love,

20:40 That thou mightest be reared in mine eye.

When thy sister went and said, 'Shall I shew you one who will nurse
him?' Then We returned thee to thy mother that her eye might be cheered, and
that she might not grieve. And when thou slewest a person, We delivered thee
from trouble, and We tried thee with other trial.

For years didst thou stay among the people of Midian; then camest thou
hither by my decree, O Moses:

And I have chosen thee for Myself.

Go thou and thy brother with my signs and be not slack to remember me.

Go ye to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds:

But speak ye to him with gentle speech; haply he will reflect or fear."

They said, "O our Lord! truly we fear lest he break forth against us, or
act with exceeding injustice."

He said, "Fear ye not, for I am with you both. I will hearken and I
will behold.

Go ye then to him and say, 'Verily we are Sent ones of thy Lord; send
therefore the children of Israel with us and vex them not: now are we come to
thee with signs from thy Lord, and, Peace shall be on him who followeth the
right guidance.

20:50 For now hath it been revealed to us, that chastisement shall be on him
who chargeth with falsehood, and turneth him away.'"

And he said, "Who is your Lord, O Moses?"

He said, "Our Lord is He who hath given to everything its form and then
guideth it aright."

"But what," said he, "was the state of generations past?"

He said, "The knowledge thereof is with my Lord in the Book of his
decrees. My Lord erreth not, nor forgetteth.

He hath spread the earth as a bed, and hath traced out paths for you
therein, and hath sent down rain from Heaven, and by it we bring forth the
kinds of various herbs:

- 'Eat ye, and feed your cattle.' Of a truth in this are signs unto men
endued with understanding.

From it have we created you, and into it will we return you, and out of
it will we bring you forth a second time."

And we shewed him all our signs: but he treated them as falsehoods, and
refused to believe.

He said, "hast thou come, O Moses, to drive us from our land by thine
enchantments?

20:60 Therefore will we assuredly confront thee with like enchantments: so
appoint a meeting between us and you - we will not fail it, we, and do not thou
- in a place alike for both."

He said, "On the feast day be your meeting, and in broad daylight let
the people be assembled."

And Pharaoh turned away, and collected his craftsmen and came.

Said Moses to them, "Woe to you! devise not a lie against God:

For then will he destroy you by a punishment. They who have lied have
ever perished."

And the magicians discussed their plan, and spake apart in secret:

They said, "These two are surely sorcerers: fain would they drive you
from your land by their sorceries, and lead away in their paths your chiefest
men:

So muster your craft: then come in order: well this day shall it be
for him, who shall gain the upper hand."

They said, "O Moses, wilt thou first cast down thy rod, or shall we be
the first who cast?

He said, "yes, cast ye down first." And lo! by their enchantment their
cords and rods seemed to him as if they ran.

20:70 And Moses conceived a secret fear within him.

We said, "Fear not, for thou shalt be the uppermost:

Cast forth then what is in thy right hand: it shall swallow up what
they have produced: they have only produced the deceit of an enchanter: and
come where he may, ill shall an enchanter fare."

And the magicians fell down and worshipped. They said, "We Believe in
the Lord of Aaron and of Moses."

Said Pharaoh, "Believe ye on him ere I give you leave? He, in sooth, is
your Master who hath taught you magic. I will therefore cut off your hands and
your feet on opposite sides, and I will crucify you on trunks of the palm, and
assuredly shall ye learn which of us is severest in punishing, and who is the
more abiding."

They said, "We will not have more regard to thee than to the clear
tokens which have come to us, or than to Him who hath made us: doom the doom
thou wilt: Thou canst only doom as to this present life: of a truth we have
believed on our Lord that he may pardon us our sins and the sorcery to which
thou hast forced us, for God is better, and more abiding than thou.

As for him who shall come before his Lord laden with crime - for him
verily is Hell: he shall not die in it and he shall not live.

But he who shall come before Him, a believer, with righteous works, -
these! the loftiest grades await them:

Gardens of Eden, beneath whose trees the rivers flow: therein shall
they abide for ever. This, the reward of him who hath been pure."

Then revealed we to Moses, "Go forth by night with my servants and
cleave for them a dry path in the sea;

20:80 Fear not thou to be overtaken, neither be thou afraid."

And Pharaoh followed them with his hosts, and the whelming billows of
the sea overwhelmed them, for Pharaoh misled his people, and did not guide
them.

O children of Israel! we rescued you from your foes; and We appointed a
meeting with you on the right side of the mountain; and We caused the manna and
the quail to descend upon you:

"Eat," said We, "of the good things with which we have supplied you; but
without excess, lest my wrath fall upon you; for on whom my wrath doth fall,
he perisheth outright.

Surely however will I forgive him who turneth to God and believeth, and
worketh righteousness, and then yieldeth to guidance.

But what hath hastened thee on apart from thy people, O Moses?"

He said, "They are hard on my footsteps: but to thee, O Lord, have I
hastened, that thou mightest be well pleased with me."

He said, "Of a truth now have we proved thy people since thou didst
leave them, and Samiri had led them astray."

And Moses returned to his people, angered, sorrowful.

He said, "O my people! did not your Lord promise you a good promise?
Was the time of my absence long to you? or desired ye that wrath from your Lord
should light upon you, that ye failed in your promise to me?"

20:90 They said, "Not of our own accord have we failed in the promise to
thee, but we were made to bring loads of the people's trinkets, and we threw
them into the fire - and Samiri likewise cast them in, and brought forth to
them a corporeal lowing calf: and they said, 'This is your God and the God of
Moses, whom he hath forgotten.'"

What! saw they not that it returned them no answer, and could neither
hurt nor help them?

And Aaron had before said to them, "O my people! by this calf are ye
only proved: surely your Lord is the God of Mercy: follow me therefore and
obey my bidding."

They said, "We will not cease devotion to it, till Moses come back to
us."

He said, "O Aaron! when thou sawest that they had gone astray, what
hindered thee from following me? Hast thou then disobeyed my command?"

He said, 'O Son of my mother! seize me not by my beard, nor by my head:
indeed I feared lest thou shouldst say, 'Thou hast rent the children of Israel
asunder, and hast not observed my orders.'"

He said, "And what was they motive, O Samiri?" He said, "I saw what they
saw not: so I took a handful of dust from the track of the messenger of God,
and flung it into the calf, for so my soul prompted me."

He said, "Begone then: verily thy doom even in this life shall be to
say, 'Touch me not.' And there is a threat against thee, which thou shalt not
escape hereafter. Now look at thy god to which thou hast continued so devoted:
we will surely burn it and reduce it to ashes, which we will cast into the sea.

Your God is God, beside whom there is no God: In his knowledge he
embraceth all things."

20:100 Whoso shall turn aside from it shall verily carry a burden on the day
of Resurrection:

Under it shall they remain: and grievous, in the day of Resurrection,
shall it be to them to bear.

On that day there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and We will gather
the wicked together on that day with leaden eyes:

They shall say in a low voice, one to another, - "Ye tarried but ten
days on earth."

We are most knowing with respect to that which they will say when the
most veracious of them will say. "Ye have not tarried above a day."

And they will ask thee of the mountains: Say: scattering my Lord will
scatter them in dust;

And he will leave them a level plain: thou shalt see in it no hollows
or jutting hills.

On that day shall men follow their summoner - he marcheth straight on:
and low shall be their voices before the God of Mercy,n or shalt thou heart
aught by the light footfall.

No intercession shall avail on that day, save his whom the God of Mercy
shall allow to intercede, and whose words he shall approve.

He knoweth their future and their past; but in their own knowledge they
comprehend it not: -

20:110 And humble shall be their faces before Him that Liveth, the
Self-subsisting: and undone he, who shall bear the burden of iniquity;

But he who shall have done the things that are right and is a believer,
shall fear neither wrong nor loss.

Thus have We sent down to thee an Arabic Koran, and have set forth
menaces therein diversely, that haply they may fear God, or that it may give
birth to reflection in them.

Exalted then be God, the King, the Truth! Be not hasty in its recital
while the revelation of it to thee is incomplete. Say rather, "O my Lord,
increase knowledge unto me."

And of old We made a covenant with Adam; but he forgat it; and we found
no firmness of purpose in him.

And when We said to the angels, "Fall down and worship Adam," they
worshipped all, save Eblis, who refused: and We said, "O Adam! this truly is a
foe to thee and to thy wife. Let him not therefore drive you out of the
garden, and ye become wretched;

For to thee is it granted that thou shalt not hunger therein, neither
shalt thou be naked;

And that thou shalt not thirst therein, neither shalt thou parch with
heat;"

But Satan whispered him: said he, "O Adam! shall I shew thee the tree of
Eternity, and the Kingdom that faileth not?:"

And they both ate thereof, and their nakedness appeared to them, and
they began to sew of the leaves of the Garden to cover them, and Adam disobeyed
his Lord and went astray.

20:120 Afterwards his Lord chose him for himself, and was turned towards him,
and guided him.

And God said, "Get ye all down hence, the one of you a foe unto the
other. Hereafter shall guidance come unto you from me;

And whoso followeth my guidance shall not err, and shall not be
wretched:

But whoso turneth away from my monition, his truly shall be a life of
misery:

And We will assemble him with others on the day of Resurrection, blind."

He will say, "O my Lord! why hast thou assembled me with others, blind?
whereas I was endowed with sight."

He will answer, "Thus is it, because our signs came unto thee and thou
didst forget them, and thus shalt thou be forgotten this day."

Even thus will We recompense him who hath transgressed and hath not
believed in the signs of his Lord; and assuredly the chastisement of the next
world will be more severe and more lasting.

Are not they, who walk the very places where they dwelt, aware how many
generations we have destroyed before them? Verily in this are signs to men of
insight.

And had not a decree of respite from thy Lord first gone forth, their
chastisement had at once ensued. Yet the time is fixed.

20:130 Put up then with what they say; and celebrate the praise of thy Lord
before the sunrise, and before its setting; and some time in the night do thou
praise him, and in the extremes of the day, that thou haply mayest please Him.

And strain not thine eye after what We have bestowed on divers of them -
the braveries of this world - that we may thereby prove them. The portion
which thy Lord will give, is better and more lasting.

Enjoin prayer on thy family, and persevere therein. We ask not of thee
to find thine own provision - we will provide for thee, and a happy issue shall
there be to piety.

But they say, "If he come not to us with a sign from his Lord...!" But
have not clear proof for the Koran come to them, in what is in the Books of
old?

And had We destroyed them by a chastisement before its time, they would
surely have said, "O our Lord! How could we believe if thou didst not send
unto us an Apostle that we might follow thy signs ere that we were humbled and
disgraces."