| | Aisha Bewley rendition of Surah The Story, Stories, The Narrative(al-Qasas)
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| 28:1 | | Ta Sin Mim. |
| 28:2 | | Those are the Signs of the Clear Book. |
| 28:3 | | We recite to you with truth some news of Musa and Pharaoh for people who have iman. |
| 28:4 | | Pharaoh exalted himself arrogantly in the land and divided its people into camps, oppressing one group of them by slaughtering their sons and letting their women live. He was one of the corrupters. |
| 28:5 | | We desired to show kindness to those who were oppressed in the land and to make them leaders and make them inheritors |
| 28:6 | | and establish them firmly in the land and to show Pharaoh and Haman and their troops the very thing that they were fearing from them. |
| 28:7 | | We revealed to Musa´s mother, ´Suckle him and then when you fear for him cast him into the sea. Do not fear or grieve; We will return him to you and make him one of the Messengers.´ |
| 28:8 | | The family of Pharaoh picked him up so that he might be an enemy and a source of grief to them. Certainly Pharaoh and Haman and their troops were in the wrong. |
| 28:9 | | The wife of Pharaoh said, ´A source of delight for me and for you; do not kill him. It may well be that he will be of use to us or perhaps we could adopt him as a son.´ They were not aware. |
| 28:10 | | Musa´s mother felt a great emptiness in her heart and she almost gave him away; only We fortified her heart so that she would be one of the muminun. |
| 28:11 | | She said to his sister, ´Go after him.´ And she kept an eye on him from afar and they were not aware. |
| 28:12 | | We first made him refuse all wet-nurses, so she said, ´Shall I show you to a household who will feed him for you and be good to him?´ |
| 28:13 | | That is how We returned him to his mother so that she might delight her eyes and feel no grief and so that she would know that Allah´s promise is true. But most of them do not know this. |
| 28:14 | | And when he reached his full strength and maturity, We gave him judgement and knowledge. That is how We recompense good-doers. |
| 28:15 | | He entered the city at a time when its inhabitants were unaware and found two men fighting there — one from his party and the other from his enemy. The one from his party asked for his support against the other from his enemy. So Musa hit him, dealing him a fatal blow. He said, ´This is part of Shaytan´s handiwork. He truly is an outright and misleading enemy.´ |
| 28:16 | | He said, ´My Lord, I have wronged myself. Forgive me.´ So He forgave him. He is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Merciful. |
| 28:17 | | He said, ´My Lord, because of Your blessing to me, I will never be a supporter of evildoers.´ |
| 28:18 | | Morning found him in the city, fearful and on his guard. Then suddenly the man who had sought his help the day before, shouted for help from him again. Musa said to him, ´You are clearly a misguided man.´ |
| 28:19 | | But when he was about to grab the man who was their common enemy, he said, ´Musa! do you want to kill me just as you killed a person yesterday? You only want to be a tyrant in the land; you do not want to be a reformer.´ |
| 28:20 | | A man came running from the furthest part of the city, saying, ´Musa, the Council are conspiring to kill you, so leave! I am someone who brings you good advice.´ |
| 28:21 | | So he left there fearful and on his guard, saying, ´My Lord, rescue me from the people of the wrongdoers!´ |
| 28:22 | | When he turned his face in the direction of Madyan, he said, ´Hopefully my Lord will guide me to the right way.´ |
| 28:23 | | When he arrived at the water of Madyan, he found a crowd of people drawing water there. Standing apart from them, he found two women, holding back their sheep. He said, ´What are you two doing here?´ They said, ´We cannot draw water until the shepherds have driven off their sheep. You see our father is a very old man.´ |
| 28:24 | | So he drew water for them and then withdrew into the shade and said, ´My Lord, I am truly in need of any good You have in store for me.´ |
| 28:25 | | One of them came walking shyly up to him and said, ´My father invites you so that he can pay you your wage for drawing water for us.´ When he came to him and told him the whole story he said, ´Have no fear, you have escaped from wrongdoing people.´ |
| 28:26 | | One of them said, ´Hire him, father. The best person to hire is someone strong and trustworthy.´ |
| 28:27 | | He said, ´I would like to marry you to one of these two daughters of mine on condition that you work for me for eight full years. If you complete ten, that is up to you. I do not want to be hard on you. You will find me, Allah willing, to be one of the salihun.´ |
| 28:28 | | He said, ´That is agreed between me and you. Whichever of the two terms I fulfil, there should be no bad feeling towards me. Allah is Guardian over what we say.´ |
| 28:29 | | When Musa had fulfilled the appointed term and had set off with his family, he noticed a fire from one side of the Mount. He said to his family, ´Stay here, I can see a fire. Hopefully I will bring you back some news from it or a burning branch from the fire so that you will be able to warm yourselves.´ |
| 28:30 | | But when he reached it a voice called out to him from the right hand side of the valley in the part which was full of blessing, from out of the bush: ´Musa, I am Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. |
| 28:31 | | Throw down your staff!´ Then when he he saw it slithering like a snake he turned and fled and did not turn back again. ´Musa, approach and have no fear! You are one of those who are secure. |
| 28:32 | | Put your hand inside your shirt front. It will emerge pure white yet quite unharmed. And hug your arms to your sides to still your fear. These are two proofs from your Lord for Pharaoh and his ruling circle. They are a deviant people.´ |
| 28:33 | | He said, ´My Lord, I killed one of them and I am afraid they will kill me; |
| 28:34 | | and my brother Harun is more eloquent than me so send him with me to support me and back me up. I am afraid they will call me a liar.´ |
| 28:35 | | He said, ´We will reinforce you with your brother and by Our Signs will give you both authority, so that they will not be able to lay a hand on you. You and those who follow you will be the victors.´ |
| 28:36 | | But when Musa brought them Our Clear Signs they said, ´This is nothing but trumped-up magic. We never heard anything like this among our earlier forefathers.´ |
| 28:37 | | Musa said, ´My Lord knows best who has come with guidance from Him and who will have the best Home in the end. The wrongdoers will certainly not be successful.´ |
| 28:38 | | Pharaoh said, ´Council, I do not know of any other god for you apart from Me. Haman, kindle a fire for me over the clay and build me a lofty tower so that perhaps I may be able to climb up to Musa´s god! I consider him a blatant liar.´ |
| 28:39 | | He and his troops were arrogant in the land without any right. They thought that they would not return to Us. |
| 28:40 | | So We seized him and his troops and flung them into the sea. See the final fate of the wrongdoers! |
| 28:41 | | We made them leaders, summoning to the Fire, and on the Day of Rising they will not be helped. |
| 28:42 | | We pursued them with a curse in this world and on the Day of Rising they will be hideous and spurned. |
| 28:43 | | We gave Musa the Book after destroying the earlier nations, to awaken people´s hearts and as a guidance and a mercy so that hopefully they would pay heed. |
| 28:44 | | You were not on the western side when We gave Musa the command. You were not a witness. |
| 28:45 | | Yet We produced further generations and ages passed. Nor did you live among the people of Madyan and recite Our Signs to them, yet We have sent you news of them. |
| 28:46 | | Nor were you on the side of the Mount when We called, yet it is a mercy from your Lord so that you can warn a people to whom no warner came before, so that hopefully they will pay heed. |
| 28:47 | | If a disaster had struck them because of what they had already done, they would have said, ´Our Lord, why did You not send us a Messenger so that we could have followed Your Signs and been muminun?´ |
| 28:48 | | But when the truth did come to them from Us they said, ´Why has he not been given the same as Musa was given?´ But did they not previously reject what Musa was given? They say, ´Two magicians who back each other up.´ And they say, ´We reject both of them.´ |
| 28:49 | | Say: ´Bring a Book, then, from Allah which guides better than both of them and follow it if you are telling the truth.´ |
| 28:50 | | If they do not respond to you then know that they are merely following their whims and desires. And who could be further astray than someone who follows his whims and desires without any guidance from Allah? Allah does not guide the people of the wrongdoers. |
| 28:51 | | We have conveyed the Word to them so that hopefully they will pay heed. |
| 28:52 | | Those We gave the Book before this have iman in it. |
| 28:53 | | When it is recited to them they say, ´We have iman in it; it is the truth from our Lord. We were already Muslims before it came.´ |
| 28:54 | | They will be given their reward twice over because they have been steadfast and because they ward off the bad with the good and give from what we have provided for them. |
| 28:55 | | When they hear worthless talk they turn away from it and say, ´We have our actions and you have your actions. Peace be upon you. We do not desire the company of the ignorant.´ |
| 28:56 | | You cannot guide those you would like to but Allah guides those He wills. He has best knowledge of the guided. |
| 28:57 | | They say, ´If we follow the guidance with you, we shall be forcibly uprooted from our land.´ Have We not established a safe haven for them to which produce of every kind is brought, provision direct from Us? But most of them do not know it. |
| 28:58 | | How many cities We have destroyed which lived in insolent ingratitude! There are their houses, never again inhabited after them, except a little. It was We who were their Heir. |
| 28:59 | | Your Lord would never destroy any cities without first sending to the chief of them a Messenger to recite Our Signs to them. We would never destroy any cities unless their inhabitants were wrongdoers. |
| 28:60 | | Anything you have been given is only the enjoyment of the life of this world and its finery. What is with Allah is better and longer lasting. So will you not use your intellect? |
| 28:61 | | Is someone whom We have promised good and who then obtains it, the same as someone whom We have given enjoyment in the life of the dunya and who then, on the Day of Rising, is one of those brought to punishment? |
| 28:62 | | On the Day when He summons them He will say, ´Where are they, those you claimed were My associates?´ |
| 28:63 | | Those against whom the Word has been justly carried out will say, ´Our Lord, those people we misled, we only misled them as we too were misled. We declare our innocence to You. It was not us they were worshipping!´ |
| 28:64 | | They will be told, ´Call on your partner-gods!´ They will call on them but they will not respond to them. They will see the punishment. Oh if only they had been guided! |
| 28:65 | | On the Day when He summons them He will say, ´How did you respond to the Messengers?´ |
| 28:66 | | That Day the facts will be unclear to them and they will not be able to question one another. |
| 28:67 | | But as for those who make tawba and believe and act rightly, they will hopefully be successful. |
| 28:68 | | Your Lord creates and chooses whatever He wills. The choice is not theirs. Glory be to Allah! He is exalted above anything they associate with Him! |
| 28:69 | | Your Lord knows what their hearts conceal and what they divulge. |
| 28:70 | | He is Allah. There is no god but Him. Praise be to Him in the dunya and the akhira. Judgement belongs to Him. You will be returned to Him. |
| 28:71 | | Say: ´What do you think? If Allah made it permanent night for you till the Day of Rising, what god is there other than Allah to bring you light? Do you not then hear?´ |
| 28:72 | | Say: ´What do you think? If Allah made it permanent day for you till the Day of Rising, what god is there other than Allah to bring you night to rest in? Do you not then see?´ |
| 28:73 | | But part of His mercy is that He has made both night and day for you so that you can have your rest and seek His bounty, and so that hopefully you will be thankful. |
| 28:74 | | On the Day when He summons them He will say, ´Where are they, those you claimed to be My associates?´ |
| 28:75 | | We will drag out a witness from each nation and will say, ´Produce your evidence!´ They will know then that the truth is with Allah and that what they invented has forsaken them. |
| 28:76 | | Qarun was one of the people of Musa but he lorded it over them. We gave him treasures, the keys alone to which were a heavy weight for a party of strong men. When his people said to him, ´Do not gloat. Allah does not love people who gloat. |
| 28:77 | | Seek the abode of the Next World with what Allah has given you, without forgetting your portion of this world. And do good as Allah has been good to you. And do not seek to cause corruption in the earth. Allah does not love corrupters.´ |
| 28:78 | | he said, ´I have only been given it because of knowledge I have.´ Did he not know that before him Allah had destroyed generations with far greater strength than his and far more possessions? The evildoers will not be questioned about their sins. |
| 28:79 | | He went out among his people in his finery. Those who desired the life of this world said, ´Oh! If only we had the same as Qarun has been given! What immense good fortune he possesses.´ |
| 28:80 | | But those who had been given knowledge said, ´Woe to you! Allah´s reward is better for those who have iman and act rightly. But only the steadfast will obtain it.´ |
| 28:81 | | We caused the earth to swallow up both him and his house. There was no group to come to his aid, besides Allah, and he was not someone who is helped. |
| 28:82 | | Those who had longed to take his place the day before woke up saying, ´Allah expands the provision of any of His slaves He wills or restricts it. If Allah had not shown great kindness to us, we would have been swallowed up as well. Ah! Truly the kafirun are not successful.´ |
| 28:83 | | That abode of the Next World— We grant it to those who do not seek to exalt themselves in the earth or to cause corruption in it. The successful outcome is for those who have taqwa. |
| 28:84 | | Anyone who does a good action will get something better. As for anyone who does a bad action, those who have done bad actions will only be repaid for what they did. |
| 28:85 | | He who has imposed the Qur´an upon you will most certainly bring you back home again. Say: ´My Lord knows best who has brought true guidance and who is plainly misguided.´ |
| 28:86 | | You did not expect to be given the Book. It is nothing but a mercy from your Lord. So do not lend support to the kafirun. |
| 28:87 | | Do not let them debar you from Allah´s Signs after they have been sent down to you. Call people to your Lord and on no account be one of the idolaters. |
| 28:88 | | Do not call on any other god along with Allah. There is no god but Him. All things are passing except His Face. Judgement belongs to Him. You will be returned to Him. |
