20:1  T. (Ta), H. (Ha) the Surah Opens with these introductory letters from the Arabic Alphabet to draw attention to the miracle of the Quran which though written in the people's tongue, cannot be emulated

20:2  We have not revealed to you O Muhammad the Quran to cause you hardship nor to put you to trouble

20:3  But to serve as a reminder to those who keep in awe of Allah and entertain the profound reverence dutiful to Him

20:4  A disclosure of divine knowledge to man from Him, AL-Rahman Who Created the earth and the heavens of the imposing altitude

20:5  AL-Rahman Who set Himself on the Throne of supremacy and dominion , of grace and mercy

20:6  AL-Rahman to Whom belong all that is in the heavens and on earth and all that is between, all that lies in the depths below the face of the earth and of all other planets

20:7  If you express your thoughts or declare your mind aloud, Allah does know what is suggested secretly to the mind and what man thinks but unwilling to avow

20:8  He is Allah, there is no Ilah but He; to Him belong, the unique and Commendable attributes

20:9  And now, have you been informed O Muhammad of the narrative of Mussa

20:10  He saw a fire from far**, He said to his family: "You stay here; I have jus

20:11  And when he reached the destined spot, he was called to: "O Mussa", Allah sai

20:12  "I am Allah, your Creator; you are in My Presence, therefore, take off your shoes, you are in The Sacred Valley, Tuwa

20:13  "And I have chosen you to convey My divine message, therefore, listen carefully to all that shall be inspired to you"

20:14  "I am Allah, there is no Ilah but I, therefore, worship Me and adore Me with the appropriate acts and rites and observe the act of divine worship applying remembrance to Me."

20:15  " The predetermined Eventful Hour shall inevitably come to pass, I almost keep it from the knowledge of others so that each soul be requited with what is commensurate with its deeds,"

20:16  " Therefore do not let those who reject the idea of Resurrection and lust after vanity influence your conduct, your belief or your trust in Me lest you suffer spiritual death and moral ruin"

20:17  "And", Allah asked: "What is that you hold in your right hand O Mussa? "

20:18  "It is my staff", Mussa said, "I lean on and with it I beat the smaller bushes, the shrubs and the trees to furnish my sheep with food in addition to using it for other purposes."

20:19  "Drop it O Mussa. " Allah Said

20:20  And when Mussa did, the staff was instantaneously transformed into a serpent in motion

20:21  "Pick it up O Mussa", Allah said " and do not be afraid; We will make it go back to its original state"

20:22  "Draw your hand* O Mussa close to your side, it shall come out transfigured in a radiance of white divine light unharmed and all sound; another sign"

20:23  "This is just to make you witness personally Our Omnipotence as featured in what We show you of Our signs so that you satisfy your reason, have peace of mind and rest assured and be capable of carrying the great responsibility of fulfilling your obligation"

20:24  "Go to Pharaoh", Allah said, "he has transgressed all bounds"

20:25  Mussa prayed: "Solace me O Allah, my Creator, and make my breast responsive to the joyful thought of performing my duty and make my spirit thirsty for knowledge, wisdom and spiritual light"

20:26  "And make my task go easily"

20:27  "And loosen my tongue and untie its impeding knot to allow me free expression"

20:28  "So that they understand my discourse and comprehend all that I say"

20:29  "And appoint for me a minister from my family"

20:30  "Harun (Aaron), my brother"

20:31  "To exert influence, power and effect and to have security of position"

20:32  "To engage him in the conduct of my cause, Your cause, and interchange with him opinions, consultation and deliberation of action"

20:33  "So that much we glorify You and extoll Your glorious attributes"

20:34  "And much We think of You"

20:35  "For, You have regarded us with an eye of favour"

20:36  "And there," Allah said, "you are granted your humble request Q Mussa"

20:37  "And We have been gracious to you O Mussa", Allah said, "on another occasion"

20:38  "When We inspired a course of action to your mother and actuated her with what she would do to save your life"

20:39  "Put the child in the chest", We said, "and throw the chest into the river, the waves will drive the chest to the bank and there shall he be picked up by a common enemy of Mine and of his". And I endowed you with the prerogative of amiability and I had an eye upon you so that you grow and develop under My observation

20:40  "Your sister", Allah said, "marches to the gate of the Palace and says to the household: "shall I inform you of an acceptable woman who would nurse and rear the child! There, We returned you to your mother so that she would be delighted and her eyes speak content and she would take off the robe of grief". "Moreover, you killed a man -unintentionally when helping the Israelite against the Egyptian- (Surah 28, V.19), and We relieved you and freed you of the anguish and in various ways did We put you to straits" "And by consequence you stayed for a number of years among the Madianites, then you were impelled upon My will to come to serve Me here as I had planned O Mussa"

20:41  "And I made you", Allah said, "what you are for My purpose, O Mussa"

20:42  "Now, you go together with your brother Harun equipped with My divine signs betokening My Omnipotence and Authority and slack not Me nor My words to remember"

20:43  "Go to Pharaoh", Allah added, " he has transgressed all bounds and played the tyrant"

20:44  "And speak gently to him, so that he might hopefully be brought to his senses and entertain a profound reverence for Allah"

20:45  They Mussa and Harun said: "O Allah, our Creator, we fear he might show a strong dislike to us and involve in some notion repugnant to the moral sense or he might play the blasphemer, the persecutor and the tyrant"

20:46  "Do not be afraid ever", Allah said, "I am with you all along, I am Omnipresent with unlimited audition and I see all that is being done"

20:47  "Go to him and say": "We are Messengers of Allah, your Creator, We ask you to release the children of Israel from bondage and to send them with us and not to torture them. We have brought you an evident sign from Allah, your Creator, and peace be upon those who have the world all before them and Providence their guide

20:48  "We have been inspired and prompted by Allah", they continued, " to indicate that punishment shall befall whoever suspects Allah's Messengers of falsehood and turns his back upon Allah's message"

20:49  There, said Pharaoh defiantly: " Who is your Ilah, O Mussa!"

20:50  "Our Allah, The Creator", "They said," "is He Who gave form, shape and features to every entity He created and vested each entity With its qualities and attributes guiding each creature to its inherent role in life"

20:51  "What about the earlier generations!" asked Pharaoh, "and what say you to that!"

20:52  "Only Allah knows what happened to them", they said " knowledge of the hidden is an attribute of Him, Our Creator, Who puts everything on record. and never goes wrong nor does He forget"

20:53  "He is it Who made the earth a liveable place* suitable for your livelihood and furnished it with paths, roads and channels, and He sent from the floor of the vault of heaven water, the means of producing pairs of diverse plants

20:54  To eat therefrom and put cattle to pasture. Indeed, these are tokens representing convincing divine evidence, tokens symbolic of Allah's Omnipotence and Authority, giving insight to those who grasp with the mind

20:55  From the earth We created you and back to it We will bring you -at death-, and out of it will We bring you again -in Day of Judgement-

20:56  We presented Pharaoh with all Our evident and convincing signs but he simply denied them and counselled deaf and suspected Mussa of falsehood

20:57  He said to him: "Have you come back to us, to oust us out of our land by your magic, O Mussa!"

20:58  "We will not bend to your magic art", "and We will meet your threats with defiance and your sorcery with a similar art having an over -mastering influence-". "Therefore," added Pharaoh, make a tryst neither We nor you shall fail to keep and the place where we meet shall be equidistant and overt"

20:59  "The time", said Mussa, "is your festive day and the place is where people are thronged for festive celebration in the forenoon"

20:60  There, Pharaoh drew himself away and concerted an insurrection of necromancers and came back

20:61  "Woe betide you", said Mussa to the magicians, "do not devise falsehood against Allah lest He should uproot you by a torment He lays upon the damned. The hopes of those who devise falsehood are doomed to disappointment"

20:62  There and then did the sorcerers dispute and debate their plan among themselves in a secret counsel

20:63  They concluded, thus; "these two men Mussa and Harun are necromancers planning to drive you people out of your land by their magic and do away with your exemplar constitution"

20:64  "Therefore", they added, "gather up your thoughts and muster your wits to work out an over -mastering plan and come in imposing lines, for he who gains the upper hand shall be the winner"

20:65  Face to face with Mussa, they said to him: "Would you like to cast down your staff first or shall we cast ours first!"

20:66  "But", Mussa said, "you cast first", and there, their ropes and their rods seemed as though they were living serpents in motion

20:67  A wave of terror swept over Mussa in his innermost being

20:68  Allah inspired to him: "Do not be alarmed O Mussa", "nor be pervaded with fear. You have mastery over them and indeed you have the upper hand"

20:69  He added, "Cast down what you hold in your right hand. It shall swallow up all that they laid in fakes. Indeed, all they presented was simply an optical illusion made manifest by sorcerers, and no sorcerer can accomplish a useful purpose nor succeed in reaching a positive end no matter whence he came

20:70  There and then fell the necromancers prostrate in adoration and they prostrated their reason to divine revelation and said: "We do recognize Allah, the Creator, of Mussa and Harun"

20:71  "Have you conformed your will" said Pharaoh, "to the will of the Ilah of Mussa before I permit you to do so! Indeed it is your chief who taught you magic has misled you". Therefore, you just wait. I will amputate your hands and feet on opposite sides and I will have you all crucified on the trunks of palm - trees, and you shall come to know which of us, can inflict punishment to a greater degree, agonizing, and more lasting to make you live in Hell on earth"

20:72  The magicians said to Pharaoh: "We will not look with favour on your system of faith in preference to the truth and the enlightenment we have received; nor in preference to Him Who created us. Therefore, decide what you will; you can only sit in judgement here below"

20:73  "We have recognized Allah", they said, "and conformed our will to His will; may He forgive us our sins and the sinful act of magic you forced us to do" "Allah is indeed the best purpose for which we are destined and He is Eternal"

20:74  Indeed, he who presents himself to Allah, his Creator, in Day of Judgement invested with crime, shall be destined to Hell wherein he neither dies nor lives

20:75  Whereas he who presents himself then with a heart impressed with the image of religious and spiritual virtues and deeds with wisdom and piety shall he and such persons be rewarded with the highest and most dignified places in the social scale of life Hereafter

20:76  They shall be rewarded with the abode in the Gardens of Eden beneath which rivers flow, wherein they will have passed through nature to Eternity. This is the reward of those who have cleansed themselves from moral and spiritual defilement and purposed to meet their Creator pure in heart

20:77  Meanwhile, We inspired Mussa to conduct My servants by night to the sea and to strike for them a dry path across and We assured him, thus: "You shall not be overtaken by Pharaoh and his people. They shall not catch up with you nor should you fear them"

20:78  Pharaoh in command of his troops went in pursuit of Mussa and his people whom he considered as enemies to the community of nature, but they were overwhelmed with the sea water which overpowered them

20:79  In effect what Pharaoh actually did was that he fooled his people, led them astray and never did he really guide them to a path of righteousness

20:80  O Children of Israel: We delivered you from your enemy and We ordained for you the divine assignation -through Mussa on the right side of Mount Sinai to receive the commandments- and We provisioned you with Al Manna, the continual dew of the blessed victuals, and with the Quails

20:81  And We said to you: Eat of the worthy victuals We provisioned you, do not transgress nor carry anything to excess lest you should come within the measure of My wrath, for, he who suffers My wrath sways his destiny and incurs spiritual death and moral ruin

20:82  However, I am indeed Forgiving; I extend forgiveness to him whose heart reflects the image of religious and spiritual virtues and his deeds wisdom and piety and Providence his guide

20:83  "And", Allah asked, "what made you hasten on O Mussa and outstrip your` people -the seventy elders who were to accompany him-"

20:84  "They are tailing me on" Mussa said "but I hastened on to You O Allah my Creator, so that You might be pleased with me"

20:85  "We have tested your people O Mussa" Allah said, after you left. They succumbed to Samiri who led them astray

20:86  And there, Mussa returned to his people provoked to wrath and grieved indeed. He said to them: "My people, did Allah, your Creator, not afford you ground of expectation and led you to expect a handsome promise!" "Did you believe it took too long or did you intend to come within the measure of His wrath and by consequence you failed to keep your promise to me -to remain faithful-!"

20:87  "We did not break our promise of our own accord," they said, "but we were made to carry loads of ornaments -of Egyptian women- which we thought portend evil and We threw them in the fire to get rid of them and so did Samiri"

20:88  And he fashioned it -the melted gold- in the shape of a calf's body -like the bull of Osiris in the city of Memphis, Egypt- which mowed like cattle when down wind. No sooner did they see a golden Calf emitting a sound than they forgot Allah Who delivered them and gave themselves up to the calf as the object of worship saying to each other: "This is your Ilah, the Ilah of Mussa whom he forgot, and by consequence he missed his way

20:89  Did they not see that it was mute, unable to respond to their discourse nor could it cause them harm nor afford them help

20:90  Harun had said to them earlier: "O my people, be careful, you have, consented to this enticement while your Allah is the Creator, AL-Rahman; therefore, follow me and obey my command"

20:91  But they said to him: "We will not renounce our devotion to it -the calf- until Mussa comes back to us"

20:92  And when Mussa returned, he said to Harun: "What kept you Harun from acting when you saw them deviated in mind and wandering from the path of righteousness!"

20:93  "What hindered you" Mussa added, "from following my instructions and fulfilling your obligation; have you disobeyed my command!"

20:94  "O son of my mother", Harun said, "do not drag me by the beard nor by the head. I was afraid you would say I have set the children of Israel at variance and did not listen to your instructions"

20:95  Turning to the Samiri, Mussa ask: "What is on your mind O Samiri!"

20:96  "I have seen", said Samiri, "what they failed to see -meaning the Spirit Jabril (Gabriel)- and so I took a handful of dust from the track of the Messenger of Allah and I tossed it toward the calf, for so did my soul prompt me -a made- up excuse for his unforgivable sinful act-

20:97  "Go away", Mussa said, you shall be punished in this life by isolation -like a terrible contagion, a way of punishing a grave sin in the Mosaic law- and you shall have a conviction of this fact that you shall say " I am a touch -me- not", that is besides the promised punishment which shall not fail nor shall you be able to escape it Hereafter" "And now", Mussa added, "look at your god to which you appropriated yourself and applied it exclusively as if by a vow; We will burn it to the melting point -or to ashes- and scatter it and disseminate it in the sea"

20:98  "Indeed", Mussa said, "your Allah is the One Who is the Creator; there is no Ilah but He; His knowledge is absolute, it embraces the whole and all in all"

20:99  Thus do We relate to you O Muhammad narratives of some of the proceeding generations, and We have given you by Our grace from Our realm in heaven a Book -Quran- helping you and the wide circle of the all to keep Allah in mind and to ponder His marvels

20:100  A Quran, a spirit of truth guiding into all truth, and he who rejects it or turns his back upon it will have rejected Allah's mercy and he shall suffer the heavy burden he carries in Day of Judgement

20:101  There and then he and such persons will have passed through nature to eternal suffering and evil and indeed tormenting to them shall this burden be

20:102  The Day shall come when the trumpet is sounded and We throng the sinful who shall look blue, being affected with terror, distress and anxiety

20:103  They whisper to each other guessing their duration in life below and some think it was so short that it could not have been more than ten days

20:104  We know best what they discourse, but those among them with veracious insight will say: "You sojourned no more than one day"

20:105  And they ask you O Muhammad about the mountains, say to them "Allah, my Creator, shall uproot them to extirpation"

20:106  So that He leaves them leveled with the ground smooth - faced surface"

20:107  "Wherefore you cannot see curves, elevations nor depressions"

20:108  There and then shall all resurrected beings faithfully follow the announcer -the angel Israfil- who marches straight on, and all voices and sounds are humbled and die away that you can only hear the soft and fair sound of their foot-steps treading the straight path

20:109  This is the Day when no intercession shall be accepted from anyone on behalf of another except from him who is granted permission from Allah AL-Rahman on the basis of his virtuous attributes and his pleading is acceptable to Him

20:110  He knows fully well what they have brought of doings or handiwork into His presence and He knows their past which they do not presently comprehend with their minds nor do they know what Allah has for them in store

20:111  All countenances shall express humility before Him, the Eternal, the Omnipotent Who preserves existence. But defeated and miserably disappointed of their expectations shall be those who bear the burden of iniquity and wrongful actions

20:112  And he who imprints his deeds with wisdom and piety and his heart with religious and spiritual virtues shall not fear injustice nor abridgement or privileges

20:113  Thus have We revealed it -the Quran- in the Arabic literary from and therein We expounded enough warnings that they may hopefully keep in awe of Allah or keep Him in mind and lift to Him their inward sight

20:114  Exalted be Allah and extolled are His glorious attributes, the Supreme Sovereign, the Truth personified. Do not rush O Muhammad to recite the Quran before the inspired passage is completed -that is while the Angel Jebril is imparting the divine revelation- and invoke Allah to augment your knowledge, thus: "May I ask You O Allah, my Creator, to advance my knowledge"

20:115  We entered into a covenant with Adam but he forgot and We found him irresolute; he lacked firmness of purpose

20:116  We said to the angles: "Prostrate yourselves to Adam in adoration", and the angels prostrated to Adam in comely order, praise and admiration except Iblis AL-Shaytan- to- be- who aspersed with calumny and declined with inordinate self-esteem

20:117  And there, We said to Adam: "This - Iblis - is an avowed enemy to you and to your wife; let him not be the cause of ousting you from Paradise wherefore you suffer"

20:118  "You may rest assured He, Allah added, "that herein never shall you suffer hunger nor go naked"

20:119  "Nor shall you suffer thirst nor be exposed to the parching heat of the sun"

20:120  But AL-Shaytan sneakingly whispered to him, instigating evil. He said to Adam: "Shall I show you the tree of eternity and the kingdom which suffers no declension!"

20:121  Deceived by AL-Shaytan's allurement and consenting to his enticement, they both ate of the tree and there, their private parts were exposed wherefore they realized how shameful this was. They kept collecting leaves from the trees of Paradise -to cover their naked bodies which aroused their sense of shame- and there, has Adam disobeyed Allah, His Creator, and strayed from the path of righteousness

20:122  But Allah, his Creator, reclaimed him and relented in mercy to him and guided him to the path of righteousness

20:123  "upon Our Command", Allah said "We down both of you upon, together with AL- Shaytan from hence with mutual enmity to each other" - "You shall receive from Me the spirit of truth guiding into all truth, and he who follows the path of righteousness and Providence his guide shall not err nor suffer spiritual death nor moral ruin"

20:124  And he who turns his back upon My spirit of truth that guides into all truth and does not keep Me in mind shall live a life of misery and hardness of fate and circumstances and We throng him in Day of Judgement as blind, lacking in intellectual, moral and spiritual perception as he was in life

20:125  Then shall he say: "O Allah, my Creator, wherefore You thronged me blind when in life I was able to see and to argue and defend myself!"

20:126  "Like this", Allah says, "you blinded yourself and closed your heart's ears and mind's eyes to Our revelations and authoritative signs and you consigned them to oblivion and by consequence you are, this Day, forgotten, neglected and disregarded"

20:127  Thus do We requite him who has exceeded his limitations and carried things to excess and did not acknowledge Allah's revelations and authoritative signs, and the punishment Hereafter is indeed more severe and more lasting

20:128  Do they not perceive O Muhammad mentally and by sight the significance of Allah's penalties! and have they failed to realize how many generations before them did We reduce to a useless form? They tread their dwellings they once occupied and they see with their own eyes the consequence of disobeying Allah. Indeed such outcome is emblematic of Allah's signs recognized by people of insight

20:129  Had it not been for Allah's word proclaimed beforehand -to put punishment in respite- it would have been timely to plant their Hereafter in the now, but We grant them respite up to a predetermined point of time

20:130  Therefore, be patient O Muhammad and put up with what they insolently and defiantly say, and praise Allah, your Creator, and extol His glorious attributes before sunrise and before sunset and some time during the night and at both ends of the day so that you may hopefully be pleased with Allah's distinguished reward

20:131  And do not direct your sight wistfully O Muhammad at the advantages We gave to some among the various sects; it is the flower of life below and it is a means of trial. It is the gist with which We test their response and their behaviour, whereas the blessed victual provisioned by Allah Hereafter is excellence personified and more lasting

20:132  And enjoin your family to observe the act of worship and you persevere in observing it and in maintaining your piety. We do not expect you to provide sustenance. It is We Who provide for you and for all, and the happy ending is the conclusion of piety

20:133  And they -the infidels- insolently and defiantly say; If only he -the Prophet- presents us with a sign -other than the Quran- from Allah, his Creator, -to evince both his wisdom and the truth of his mission-! Have they not been presented with enough Authoritative signs in former Scriptures which foretold also future events

20:134  If We had reduced them to a useless form before this Book -the Quran- was revealed, they would have said: "O Allah, our Creator, if only You had sent to us a Messenger with the spirit of truth guiding into all truth we would have acknowledged Your revelations and authoritative signs and followed Your path of righteousness before We were humbled and put to shame!"

20:135  Say to them O Muhammad: "Each of us awaits his end and what lies for him in store; therefore, you wait -until The Eventful Day comes to pass- and then you shall come to know which of us had followed the path of righteousness and who had the world all before them and Providence their guide"