20:1  Ta Ha

20:2  We have not sent down the Qur'an to thee that thou shouldst be distressed

20:3  But as a reminder to him who fears God

20:4  And a revelation from HIM Who created the earth and the high heavens

20:5  HE is the Gracious God Who has settled Himself firmly on the throne

20:6  To HIM belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and whatsoever is between them, and whatsoever is beneath the moist sub-soil

20:7  And if thou speakest aloud, HE hears it and also if thou speakest in a low voice, For HE knows the secret thoughts of man and what is yet more hidden

20:8  ALLAH - there is no god but HE. HIS are the most beautiful names

20:9  And has the story of Moses come to thee

20:10  When he saw a fire, and he said to his family, `Tarry ye, I perceive a fire; perhaps I may bring you a brand therefrom or find guidance at the fire

20:11  And when he came to it, he was called by a voice, `O Moses

20:12  `Verily, I am thy Lord. So take off thy shoes; for thou art in the sacred Valley of Tuwa

20:13  And I Myself have chosen thee; so hearken to what is revealed to thee

20:14  `Verily , I am ALLAH; there is no god but I, so worship ME alone and observe Prayer for my remembrance

20:15  Surely, the Hour is coming and I am going to manifest it, that every soul may be recompensed for its labours

20:16  `So let not him, who believes not therein and follows his own low desires, turn thee away therefrom, lest thou perish

20:17  `And what is that in thy right hand, O Moses?

20:18  Moses said, `This is my rod, I lean on it and beat down therewith leaves for my sheep and other uses also I find in it.

20:19  God said, `Cast it down, O Moses.

20:20  So he cast it down, and behold ! it was a serpent running

20:21  God said, `Take hold of it, and fear not. WE shall restore it to its former state

20:22  `And draw thy hand closer under thy arm-pit, it shall come forth white, without any disease - another Sign

20:23  `That WE may show thee some of OUR greater Signs

20:24  `Go thou to Pharaoh; he has indeed exceeded all bounds.

20:25  Moses said, `My Lord, expand for me my breast

20:26  `And make my task easy for me

20:27  `And loose the knot from my tongue

20:28  `That they may understand my speech

20:29  `And grant me an assistant from my family

20:30  `Aaron, my brother

20:31  `Increase my strength by him

20:32  `And make him share my task

20:33  `That we may glorify thee much

20:34  `And remember thee much

20:35  Thou art, surely, Ever-Watching over us.

20:36  God said, `Granted is thy prayer, O Moses

20:37  `And WE did indeed confer a favour upon thee at another time also

20:38  `When WE revealed to thy mother what was an important revelation, to wit

20:39  `Put him in the ark, and place in into the river, then the river will cast it on to the shore, and there one who is an enemy to ME and also an enemy to him will take him up.' And I wrapped thee with love from ME; and this I did that thou mightest be reared before MY eye

20:40  `When thy sister walked along and said, `Shall I direct you to one who will take charge of him? So WE restored thee to thy mother that her eye might be cooled and she might not grieve. And thou didst slay a man, but WE delivered thee from sorrow. Then WE tried thee with various trials. And thou didst tarry several years among the people of Midian. Then thou camest up to the required standard, O Moses

20:41  `And I have chosen thee for Myself

20:42  `Go, thou and thy brother, with MY Signs, and slacken not in remembering ME

20:43  `Go, both of you, to Pharaoh, for he has transgressed all bounds

20:44  `But speak to him a gentle word, haply he might take heed or fear.

20:45  They replied, `Our Lord, we fear lest he commit some excess against us, or exceed all bounds in persecuting us.

20:46  God said, `Fear not; for I am with you both. I hear and I see

20:47  `So go ye both to him and say, `We are the Messengers of thy Lord; so let the Children of Israel go with us; and torment them not. We have, indeed, brought thee a great Sign from thy Lord; and peace shall be on him who follows the guidance

20:48  It has, indeed, been revealed to us that punishment shall come upon him who rejects the Message of God and turns away.

20:49  Pharaoh said, `Who then is the Lord of you two, O Moses?

20:50  Moses said, `Our Lord is HE Who gave unto everything its proper form and then guided it to its proper function.

20:51  Pharaoh said, `What will be the fate of the former generations?

20:52  Moses said, `The knowledge thereof is with my Lord preserved in a Book. My Lord neither errs nor forgets

20:53  It is HE WHO has made the earth for you a bed and has caused pathways for you to run through it; and WHO sends down rain from the sky and thereby WE bring forth various kinds of vegetation in pairs

20:54  `Eat ye and pasture your cattle. Verily, in this are Signs for those endowed with reason.

20:55  From the earth have WE have created you, and into it shall WE cause you to return, and from it shall WE bring you forth a second time

20:56  And WE did show Pharaoh Our Signs, all of them; but he rejected them and refused to believe

20:57  He said, `Has thou come to us, O Moses, to drive us out of our land by thy magic

20:58  But we shall assuredly bring thee magic the like thereof; so make an appointment between us and thyself which we shall not fail to keep - neither we nor thou - at a place alike for us both.

20:59  Moses said, `Your appointment shall be the day of the festival and let the people be assembled when the sun is risen high.

20:60  Then Pharaoh withdrew and concerted his plan and then came to the place of appointment

20:61  Moses said to them, `Woe to you, forge not a lie against ALLAH, lest HE destroy you utterly by some punishment and, surely, he who forges a lie shall perish.

20:62  Then they argued their affair among themselves and conferred in secret

20:63  They said, `Certainly these two are magicians who seek to drive you out from your land by their magic and to destroy your best way of life

20:64  `Concert, therefore, your plan; and then come forward in a body. And, surely, he who gains ascendancy this day shall prosper.

20:65  They said, `O Moses, either do thou cast first, or we shall be the first to cast.

20:66  Moses said, `Nay, cast ye.' Then lo ! their cords and their staves appeared to him, by their magic, as though they ran about

20:67  And Moses conceived a fear in his mind

20:68  WE said, `Fear not, for thou wilt have the upper hand

20:69  `And cast that which is in thy right hand; it will swallow that which they have wrought, for that which they have wrought is only a sorcerer's trick. And a sorcerer shall not thrive, contrive what he may.

20:70  Then the realization of truth made the sorcerers fall down prostrate. They said, `We believe in the Lord of Aaron and Moses.

20:71  Pharaoh said, `Do you believe in him before I give you leave? He must be your chief who has taught you magic. I will, therefore, surely cut off your hands and your feet on alternate sides, and I will surely crucify you on the trunks of palm trees; and you shall know which of us can impose severer and more abiding punishment.

20:72  They said, `We shall not prefer thee to the manifest Signs that have come to us, nor shall we prefer thee to HIM Who has created us. So decree what thou wilt decree; thou canst only decree concerning this present life

20:73  `Surely, we have believed in our Lord that HE may forgive us our sins and forgive us the magic which thou didst force us to practise. And ALLAH is the Best and the Most Abiding.

20:74  Verily, he who comes to his Lord a sinner - for him is Hell; he shall neither die therein nor live

20:75  But he who comes to him a believer, having done good deeds, for such are the highest ranks

20:76  Gardens of Eternity, beneath which streams flow; they will abide therein for ever. And that is the recompense of those who keep themselves pure

20:77  And WE directed Moses by revelation: `Take away MY servants by night, and strike for them a dry path through the sea, fearing not to be overtaken, nor having any other fear.

20:78  Then Pharaoh pursued them with his hosts, and the waters of the sea completely covered them

20:79  And Pharaoh led his people astray and did not guide them aright

20:80  O Children of Israel, WE delivered you from your enemy, and WE made a covenant with you on the right side of the Mount, and sent down on you Manna and Salwa

20:81  And admonished you, `Eat of the good things that WE have provided for you, and transgress not therein, lest MY wrath descend upon you; and he, on whom MY wrath descends, shall perish

20:82  `But, surely, I am All-Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does righteous deeds, then sticks to guidance.

20:83  When Moses arrived for his tryst with his Lord HE said, `And what has made thee hasten away from thy people, O Moses?

20:84  He said, `They are closely following in my footsteps and I have hastened to Thee, my Lord, that Thou mightest be pleased.

20:85  God said, `WE have tried thy people in thy absence, and the Samari has led them astray.

20:86  So Moses returned to his people, angry and sad, and he said, `O my people, did not your Lord promise you a gracious promise? Did, then, the time of its fulfillment appear too long to you, or did you desire that wrath should descend upon you from your Lord, that you broke your promise to me?

20:87  They said, `We did not break our promise to thee of our own accord; but we were laden with loads of people's ornaments and we cast them away, and likewise did the Samari cast away.

20:88  Then he produced for them a calf - a mere body which emitted a lowing sound. Then he and his companions said, `This is your god, and the god of Moses but he has forgotten it and left it behind.

20:89  Could they not see that it returned to them no answer, and had no power to do them either harm or good

20:90  And Aaron had said to them before the return of Moses, `O my people, you have only been tried by means of the calf. And, surely, the Gracious God is your Lord, so follow me and obey my command.

20:91  They replied, `We shall not cease to worship it until Moses return to us.

20:92  Moses said, `O Aaron, what prevented thee, when thou didst see them gone astra

20:93  `From following me? Didst thou then disobey my command?

20:94  Aaron answered, `Son of my mother, seize me not by my beard, nor by the hair of my head. I feared lest thou shouldst say: `Thou hast caused a division among the Children of Israel, and didst not wait for my word.

20:95  Moses said, `And what then is thy plea, O Samiri?

20:96  He said, `I perceived what they perceived not. I had only adopted part of what the Messenger (Moses) inculcated, but I threw even that away. Thus it is that my mind commended to me.

20:97  Moses said, `Begone then ! It shall be thine all this life to say to everyone, `Touch me not,' and there is a promise of punishment for thee which shall not fail to be fulfilled about thee. Now, look at thy god of which thou hast become a devoted worshiper. WE will certainly burn it and then WE will scatter its ashes into the sea

20:98  `Your God is only ALLAH, there is no god but HE. HE comprehends all things in HIS knowledge.

20:99  Thus do WE relate to thee the tidings of what has happened before. And WE have given thee from US a Reminder

20:100  Whoso turns away from it, he will surely bear a heavy burden on the Day of Resurrection

20:101  Abiding thereunder, and evil will the burden be to them on the Day of Resurrection

20:102  The day when the trumpet will be blown. And on that day WE shall gather the sinful together, blue-eyed

20:103  They will talk to one another in a low tone saying, `You tarried only ten days.

20:104  WE know best what they will say - when the one most upright in conduct among them will say, `You have tarried only a day.

20:105  And they ask thee concerning the mountains. Say, `My Lord will break them into pieces and scatter them as dust

20:106  `And HE will leave them a barren level plain

20:107  `Wherein thou wilt see no depression or elevation

20:108  On that day they will follow the Caller in whose teaching is no crookedness; and all voices shall be hushed before the Gracious God and thou shalt not hear but a subdued murmur

20:109  On that day intercession shall not avail save the intercession of him whom the Gracious God grants permission and with whose word of faith HE is pleased

20:110  HE knows all that is before them and all that is behind them, but they cannot compass it with their knowledge

20:111  And all great leaders shall humble themselves before the Living, Self-Subsisting and All-Sustaining God. And HE indeed is undone who bears the burden of iniquity

20:112  But he who does good works, being a believer, shall apprehend neither injustice nor loss

20:113  And thus have WE sent it down - the Qur'an in Arabic -and WE have explained therein every kind of warning, that they may fear God or that it may cause them to remember him

20:114  Exalted then is ALLAH, the True King. And make no haste to recite the Qur'an ere its revelation is completed unto thee, but only say, `Lord, bestow on me increase of knowledge.

20:115  And verily, WE had made a covenant with Adam beforehand, but he forgot, and WE found in him no resolve to disobey US

20:116  And remember when WE said to the angels, `Submit to Adam,' and they all submitted. But Iblis did not. He refused to submit

20:117  Then WE said, `O Adam, this is an enemy to thee and to thy wife; so let him not drive you both out of the garden, lest thou come to grief

20:118  `It is decreed for thee that thou shalt not hunger therein nor shalt thou be naked

20:119  `And that thou shalt not thirst therein, nor shall thou be exposed to the sun.

20:120  But Satan whispered evil suggestions to him. He said, `O Adam, shall I direct thee to the tree of eternity, and to a kingdom that never decays?

20:121  Then they both ate thereof, so that their nakedness became manifest to them, and they began to cover themselves with the leaves of the garden. And Adam observed not the commandment of his Lord, so his life became miserable

20:122  Then his Lord chose him for HIS grace, and turned to him with mercy and guided him

20:123  God said, `Go forth both of you from here; some of you will be enemies of others. And if there comes to you guidance from ME, then whoso will follow MY guidance, will not go astray, nor will he come to grief

20:124  `But whosoever will turn away from MY remembrance, his will be a straitened life, and on the Day of Resurrection WE shall raise him up blind.

20:125  He will say, `My Lord, why hast Thou raised me up blind, while I possessed sight before?

20:126  God will say, `Thus did OUR Signs come to thee and thou didst ignore them and in like manner wilt thou be ignored this day.

20:127  And thus do WE recompense him who transgresses the limits of Divine Law and believes not in the Signs of his Lord; and the punishment of the Hereafter is even severer and more lasting

20:128  Does it not furnish guidance to them, how many a generation WE destroyed before them, amid whose dwellings they now walk? Therein, verily, are Signs for those who possess understanding

20:129  And had not been for a word already gone forth from thy Lord, and a term already fixed, their punishment would have been abiding

20:130  Bear patiently then what they say, and glorify thy Lord with HIS praise before the rising of the sun and before its setting; and glorify HIM in the hours of the night and all parts of the day, that thou mayest find true happiness

20:131  And strain not thine eyes after what WE have bestowed on some classes of them of the splendour of the present world that WE may try them thereby. And the provision of thy Lord is better and more lasting

20:132  And enjoin Prayer on thy people and be constant therein. WE ask thee not for provision; it is WE who provide for thee. And the good end is for those who guard against evil

20:133  And they say, `Why does he not bring us a Sign from his Lord?' Has there not come to them clear evidence of what is contained in the former Books

20:134  And if WE had destroyed them with a punishment before the coming of this Messenger, they would have surely said, `Our Lord, wherefore didst Thou not send to us a Messenger that we might have followed Thy commandments before we were humbled and disgraced?

20:135  Say, `Each one is waiting; wait ye, therefore, and you will soon know who are the people of the right path and who follow true guidance, and who do not