20:1  Tā‘ hā‘

20:2  It was not to distress you that We revealed the Koran to you

20:3  but to admonish the God-fearing

20:4  It is a revelation from Him who has created the earth and the lofty heavens

20:5  the Merciful who sits enthroned on high

20:6  His is what the heavens and the earth contain, and all that lies between them and underneath the soil

20:7  You have no need to speak aloud; for He has knowledge of all that is secret, and all that is hidden

20:8  He is God. There is no god but Him. His are the most gracious names

20:9  Have you heard the story of Moses

20:10  When he saw a fire, he said to his people: ‘Stay here, for I can see a fire. Perchance I can bring you from it a lighted torch, or find a guide hard by the fire.‘

20:11  When he came near, a voice called out to him: ‘Moses

20:12  I am your Lord. Take off your sandals, for you are now in the sacred valley of Ţuwā

20:13  And I have chosen you: so listen to what shall be revealed

20:14  I am God. There is no god but Me. Worship Me, and recite your prayers in My remembrance

20:15  The Hour is sure to come. But I choose to keep it hidden, so that every soul shall be rewarded according to its labours

20:16  Let not those who disbelieve in it and yield to their desires turn your thoughts from it, lest you perish

20:17  What is it you are carrying in your right hand, Moses?‘

20:18  He said: ‘It is my staff; upon it I lean and with it I beat down the leaves for my flock. And I have other uses for it besides.‘

20:19  He said: ‘Moses, cast it down.‘

20:20  Moses threw it down, and thereupon it turned into a slithering serpent

20:21  Take it up and have no fear,‘ He said. ‘We will change it back to its former state

20:22  And now put your hand under your armpit. It shall come out white, although unharmed: another sign

20:23  We shall show you the most wondrous of all Our signs

20:24  Go to Pharaoh; he has transgressed all bounds.‘

20:25  Lord,‘ said he, ‘put courage into my heart

20:26  and make my task easy

20:27  Free my tongue from its impediment

20:28  that men may understand my speech

20:29  Appoint for me a helper from among my kin

20:30  Aaron my brother

20:31  Grant me strength through hi

20:32  and let him share my task

20:33  so that we may give glory to You alway

20:34  and remember You always

20:35  You are surely watching over us.‘

20:36  He said: ‘Your request is granted, Moses

20:37  We had already shown you bounty whe

20:38  We revealed Our will to your mother, saying

20:39  "Put your child in the ark and let him be carried away by the river. The river will cast him on to the bank, and he shall be taken up by an enemy of Mine and his." I lavished My love on you, so that you might be reared under My eye

20:40  Your sister went to them and said: "Shall I direct you to one who will nurse him?" ‘Thus did We restore you to your mother, so that her mind might be set at ease and that she might not grieve. ‘And when you slew a man We delivered you from distress and then proved you by other trials. ‘You stayed for years among the people of Midian, and you then came here, Moses, as was ordained

20:41  I have chosen you for Myself

20:42  Go, you and your brother, with My signs, and do not cease to remember Me

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

20:44  Speak to him with gentle words; he may yet take thought and fear Us.‘

20:45  ‘Lord,‘ they said, ‘we dread his malevolence and tyranny.‘

20:46  He said: ‘Have no fear. I shall be with you. I hear all and see all.

20:47  Go to him and say: "We are the emissaries of your Lord. Let the Israelites depart with us, and oppress them no more. We have come to you with a revelation from your Lord: peace shall be his that follows the right guidance

20:48  It is revealed to us that the scourge will fall on those who deny His signs and turn away from them."‘

20:49  He said: ‘And who is your Lord, Moses?‘

20:50  Our Lord,‘ he said, ‘is He that gave all creatures their distinctive form and then rightly guided them.‘

20:51  How was it, then, with the early generations?‘ he said

20:52  He said: ‘My Lord alone has knowledge of that, recorded in a Book. My Lord does not err, neither does He forget

20:53  It is He who has made the earth your cradle and traced on it paths for you to walk on. It is He who sends down water from the sky with which We bring forth every kind of plant, saying

20:54  Eat and graze your cattle. Surely in this there are signs for rational beings

20:55  From the earth We have created you, and to the earth We will restore you; and from it We will bring you back to life

20:56  We showed him all Our signs, but he denied them and paid no heed

20:57  He said: ‘Have you come to drive us from our land with your sorcery, Moses

20:58  We will surely confront you with sorcery as powerful as yours. Appoint a day when both of us can meet, a tryst which neither we nor you shall fail to keep, and a place at an equal distance from us both.‘

20:59  He said: ‘Meet me on the day of the Feast, and let all the people come together before noon.‘

20:60  Pharaoh withdrew; he gathered his sorcerers and then returned

20:61  Woe betide you!‘ said Moses to them. ‘Invent no falsehoods against God, or He will obliterate you with a scourge. Those that invent falsehood have ever failed.‘

20:62  They conferred among themselves, whispering to one another

20:63  They said: ‘These two are sorcerers who intend to drive you from your land by their sorcery and do away with your best traditions

20:64  Muster all your forces and array them in their ranks; those who win today will surely triumph.‘

20:65  They said: ‘Moses, either you throw down, or we shall be the first to throw?‘

20:66  Throw you down,‘ he said. And lo! by their sorcery their ropes and staffs appeared to Moses‘ eyes as though they were running

20:67  Moses was much alarmed

20:68  We said: ‘Have no fear; you shall surely win.

20:69  Throw that which is in your right hand. It will swallow up their devices, for their devices are but the deceitful show of a sorcerer. And the sorcerer shall never prosper, wherever he has come from.‘

20:70  The sorcerers prostrated themselves, they said: ‘We now believe in the Lord of Aaron and Moses.‘

20:71  ‘Do you dare believe in Him before I give leave?‘ said Pharaoh. ‘This man must be your master, who taught you witchcraft. I will cut off your hands and feet on alternate sides and crucify you on the trunks of palm-trees. You shall learn whose punishment is more terrible, and more lasting.‘

20:72  They said: ‘We cannot have greater faith in you than in the miracles which we have witnessed and in Him who has created us. Therefore do your worst; you can punish us only in this present life

20:73  We have put our faith in our Lord so that He may forgive us our sins and the sorcery you have imposed upon us. Better is God‘s recompense, and more lasting

20:74  He that comes before his Lord laden with sin shall be consigned to Hell, wherein he shall neither die nor live

20:75  But they that come before Him with true faith, having done good works, shall be exalted to the highest ranks

20:76  in the Gardens of Eden, watered by running brooks, wherein shall they abide forever. Such shall be the recompense of those that keep themselves pure.‘

20:77  And We revealed Our will to Moses: ‘Set forth with My servants in the night and strike for them a dry path across the sea. Have no fear of being overtaken, nor let anything dismay you

20:78  Pharaoh pursued them with his warriors, but the waters of the sea overwhelmed them

20:79  For Pharaoh misled his people: he did not guide them

20:80  Children of Israel! We delivered you from your enemies and made a covenant with you on the right flank of the Mount. We sent down for you manna and quails

20:81  Eat of the wholesome things with which We have provided you and do not transgress, lest you should provoke My ire

20:82  He that provokes My ire shall assuredly be lost; and I will surely forgive him that repents and believes in Me, does good deed, and follows the right path

20:83  But, Moses, why have you come with such haste from your people?‘

20:84  He said: ‘There they are, close behind me. I hastened to You, Lord, so that I might earn Your pleasure.‘

20:85  He said: ‘We proved your people in your absence, but the Sāmirī¹ has led them astray.‘

20:86  Moses went back to his people, angry and sorrowful. ‘My people,‘ he said, ‘did your Lord not make you a gracious promise? Did my absence seem too long to you, or was it to incur your Lord‘s anger that you failed me?‘

20:87  They replied: ‘We did not fail you of our own free will. We were made to carry the people‘s trinkets and cast them into the fire. The Sāmirī threw likewise

20:88  and forged for them a calf, an image with a hollow sound. "This," they said, "is your god and the god of Moses whom he has forgotten."‘

20:89  Did they not see that it returned to them no answer, and that it could neither harm nor help them

20:90  Aaron had said to them: ‘My people, this is but a test for you. Your Lord is the Merciful. Follow me and do as I bid you.‘

20:91  But they had replied: ‘We will not cease to worship it until Moses returns.‘

20:92  He said to Aaron: ‘Why did you not seek me out when you saw them go astray

20:93  Why did you disobey my bidding?‘

20:94  ‘Son of my mother,‘ he replied, ‘let go, I pray you, of my beard and my head. I was afraid that you might say: "You have sown discord among the Israelites and did not wait for my orders."‘

20:95  Sāmirī,‘ he said, ‘what had come over you?‘

20:96  He replied: ‘I saw what they did not see. I took a handful of dust from the trail of the Messenger and flung it away: thus did my soul prompt me.‘

20:97  Go!‘ he said. ‘An outcast shall you be in this life, nor shall you escape your appointed doom. Behold this idol which you have served with such devotion: we will burn it to cinders and scatter its ashes far and wide over the sea

20:98  Your Lord is God, other than whom there is no god. His knowledge encompasses all things

20:99  Thus do We recount to you the history of events gone by. An Admonition of Our own have We given you

20:100  those that reject it shall bear a heavy burden on the Day of Resurrection

20:101  Forever shall they bear it: an evil burden on the Day of Resurrection

20:102  On the day when the Trumpet shall be blown; on that day We shall herd all the sinners together. Their eyes blue with terror

20:103  they shall murmur among themselves: ‘You lingered on the earth but ten days.‘

20:104  We know full well what they will say. The most upright among them will say: ‘You lingered but one day.‘

20:105  And they ask you about the mountains. Say: ‘My Lord will crush them to fine dus

20:106  and reduce them to a desolate waste

20:107  with no hollows nor jutting mounds to be seen.‘

20:108  On that day men will follow their truthful summoner, their voices hushed before the Lord of Mercy; and you shall hear only the sound of marching feet

20:109  On that day no intercession will avail except from him that has received the sanction of the Merciful and whose word was pleasing to Him

20:110  He knows what is before them and behind them, but of Him they have no knowledge

20:111  They will hang their heads with awe before the Living One, the Ever-existent. Those who are burdened with sin shall come to grief

20:112  but those who have believed and done good works shall fear no tyranny or injustice

20:113  And thus have We sent it down: a Koran in the Arabic tongue, and proclaimed in it warnings and threats, that they may fear God and be admonished

20:114  So, exalted be God, the True King! Do not be quick to recite the Koran before its revelation is completed, but rather say: ‘Lord, increase my knowledge.‘

20:115  We had made a covenant with Adam, but he forgot, and We found him lacking in steadfastness.

20:116  And when We said to the angels: ‘Prostrate yourselves before Adam,‘ they all prostrated themselves except Satan, who refused

20:117  Adam,‘ We said, ‘Satan is an enemy to you and to your wife. Let him not turn you both out of Paradise and plunge you into affliction

20:118  Here you shall not hunger or be naked

20:119  you shall not thirst, or feel the scorching heat.‘

20:120  But Satan whispered to him, saying: ‘Adam, shall I show you the Tree of Immortality and an imperishable kingdom?‘

20:121  They both ate from it, so that they saw their shameful parts and began to cover themselves with the leaves of the Garden. Thus did Adam disobey his Lord and stray from the right path

20:122  Then his Lord chose him; He relented towards him and rightly guided him

20:123  Get you down hence, both, all together‘ He said, ‘and may you be enemies to each other. When My guidance is revealed to you, he that follows it shall neither err nor grieve

20:124  but he that forsakes My remembrance shall live in woe and come before Us blind on the Day of Resurrection

20:125  Lord, he will say, "why have You brought me blind before You when I had once been clear-sighted?"‘

20:126  He will say: ‘Just as Our revelations were declared to you and you forgot them, so on this day shall you be yourself forgotten.‘

20:127  Thus shall We reward the transgressor who denies his Lord‘s revelations. But the scourge of the life to come is more terrible and more lasting

20:128  Do they not comprehend how many generations We have destroyed before them? They walk amidst the very ruins wherein once they dwelt. Surely in this there are signs for those endowed with good sense

20:129  But for a Word from your Lord, long since decreed, their destruction in this life would have been certain

20:130  Therefore bear with what they say. Give glory to your Lord before sunrise and before sunset. Praise Him night and day, so that you may find comfort

20:131  Do not regard with envy what We have given some among them to enjoy ― the flower of the present life ― for with this We seek only to try them. Better is your Lord‘s provision, and more lasting

20:132  Enjoin prayer on your people and be diligent in its observance. We demand of you no provision: We shall Ourself provide for you. Blessed shall be the end of the devout

20:133  And they say: ‘Why does he not bring us a sign from his Lord?‘ Have they not been given sufficient proof in previous scriptures

20:134  Had We destroyed them with a scourge before his¹ coming they would have said: ‘Lord, if only You had sent us an apostle! We would have followed Your revelations before we were humbled and disgraced.‘

20:135  Say: ‘All are waiting: so wait if you will. You shall learn who have followed the even path and who have been rightly guided.‘