20:1  Ta-h

20:2  We have not sent down the Quran upon you to cause you distress

20:3  It is but a Memorandum for one who fears Allah

20:4  It is a bestowal from the One Who created the earth and the lofty heavens

20:5  From the Gracious One, firmly established on the throne of absolute authority

20:6  Everything — that which is in the heavens, on the earth, in between the two, and underneath the ground — is all His

20:7  And if you say anything aloud, mind you, He knows the secret, and the hidden

20:8  Allah — there is no god but He; His are the very best attributes.

20:9  And has Moses' story come down to you

20:10  When he saw some fire, he said to his wife escorting him, "Wait! I do indeed see a fire. Maybe, I can bring to you therefrom a live burning coal or come to know about the right way from someone at the fire."

20:11  And when he came to it (the fire), he was called out, "O Moses!"

20:12  "Verily, I am your Lord; so take off your shoes! You are indeed in the sacred valley of Tuwa."

20:13  "And I have chosen you, so then listen to what is revealed."

20:14  "Indeed, I, Myself, am Allah! There is no god but I. So worship Me and establish regular prayer to remember Me."

20:15  "The Hour (Last Day) is indeed coming. I will unravel it anytime so that every soul is recompensed for what it strived."

20:16  "So let him not, who does not believe in it (the Hour) and follows his low desires, turn you away from it so that you should perish."

20:17  "And what is this in your right hand, Moses!"

20:18  Moses said, "It is my staff. I lean upon it and I beat the leaves with it to make them fall upon my sheep, and I have other uses for it."

20:19  Allah said, "Cast it down, O Moses!"

20:20  And as Moses cast his staff down, it instantly became a serpent moving

20:21  Allah said, "Hold it and be not afraid! We will restore it to its original state."

20:22  "And, another sign: put your hand under your arm, it shall come out perfectly white!"

20:23  "That We may show you some of Our great signs."

20:24  "Go to Pharaoh! He has indeed exceeded all bounds."

20:25  He said, "O my Lord! Broaden my mind for me."

20:26  "And make my task easy for me."

20:27  "And correct the stammer in my speech."

20:28  "Make them understand what I say."

20:29  "And appoint, from my family, an assistant for me."

20:30  "My brother, Aaron."

20:31  "Strengthen me with his support."

20:32  "And make him my associate in my work."

20:33  "So that we should glorify You much."

20:34  "And remember You often."

20:35  "You do indeed see us."

20:36  Allah said, "Your petition stands granted, O Moses!"

20:37  "And We did confer a favour on thee another time."

20:38  "When We revealed to your mother that which was revealed."

20:39  "That she should put him into a chest, and then put the chest onto the river. Then the river should throw him on the shore. There, one, who is an enemy to Me and enemy to him, should pick him up. And I made you lovable so that you might be brought up under My watchful eye."

20:40  "When your sister went and said, `May I lead you to one who will feed him?' Thus We returned you to your mother so that she should be comforted and not grieved. And you killed a man, and then We delivered you from that worry. And We tried you variously. Then you stayed for years among the people of Madyan. Then you came here as ordained, O Moses!"

20:41  "And I have made you for Myself."

20:42  "Now go, you and your brother, with My signs and be not remiss in remembering Me!"

20:43  "Go both of you to Pharaoh! He has indeed committed transgression."

20:44  "And speak to him gently. Maybe he takes heed or refrains from further evil."

20:45  Both said, "O our Lord! We do indeed fear that he may take no heed of us or that he may commit some transgression."

20:46  Allah said, "Fear not! I, Myself, am indeed with you both; I hear and I see."

20:47  "So go you both to him and say, `We two are, indeed, Messengers of your Lord. Send the Children of Israel with us and torment them not! Verily, we have brought to you a sign from your Lord. And peace on him who follows the guidance!

20:48  `It has indeed been revealed to us that punishment will come upon him who rejects and turns away.'"

20:49  Pharaoh asked, "And who is the Lord of you two, O Moses?"

20:50  Moses said, "Our Lord is He Who gave everything its creation, and then guided it."

20:51  Pharaoh asked, "Then what about the earlier generations?"

20:52  Moses said, "The knowledge thereof is in a record with my Lord. My Lord errs not, nor does He forget."

20:53  The Lord Who made the earth for you a flattened expanse and laid for you therein paths. And He sent down water from the sky. Then thereby We have brought out diverse herbs/plants in pairs

20:54  Eat and tend your cattle. There are indeed signs in this for those who are prudent

20:55  From it (earth) We created you and into it We shall send you back and from it will We raise you a second time

20:56  And verily We showed him Our signs, all of them, but he rejected and turned arrogant

20:57  Pharaoh said, "Have you come to drive us out of our land by your magic, O Moses?"

20:58  "We shall certainly then bring to you similar magic. Let us then, between us and you, have an appointment at a mutually convenient place, which we should neither of us fail to keep."

20:59  Moses said, "Let your appointment be on the day of the Festival and let the people be gathered together in the morning."

20:60  So Pharaoh withdrew, devised his plan of action, and then came

20:61  Moses said to them, "Woe to you! Do not fabricate a lie against Allah, lest He should destroy you by a punishment. And he, who fabricates, does indeed fail."

20:62  And the magicians debated among themselves their response to Moses, but kept the discourse secret

20:63  They said (among themselves), "Indeed, these two are just magicians. They wish to turn you out of your land by their magic and to deprive you of your best traditions."

20:64  "So do combine your plan, and then come in line. And he that is superior will certainly win this day."

20:65  They said (aloud), "O Moses! Will you do your act, or shall we be the first to do it?"

20:66  He said, "No! You do it." And lo! Their ropes and their sticks appeared to him (Moses), by their magic, as if they were moving

20:67  So Moses felt a fear rising within him

20:68  WE said, "Fear not, you shall indeed have the upper hand."

20:69  "And cast down that which is in your right hand. It shall devour what they have contrived. They have contrived only what a magician could plan. And the magician shall not succeed wherever he may have come from."

20:70  And the magicians were obliged to fall prostrate! They said, "We believe in the Lord of Aaron and Moses."

20:71  Pharaoh said, "You believed in him before I gave you leave. He ought to have been your superior who taught you magic. I will then certainly cut off your hands and your feet from opposite sides, and I will certainly crucify you on the trunks of the palm trees. And certainly you will come to know which of us is the more severe and the more persistent in punishing."

20:72  The magicians said, "There is no question of our preferring you over Him Who made us, after what has come to us of clear signs. So decide whatever you want to. You can only decide about life in this world."

20:73  "We do indeed believe in our Lord. May He forgive us our sins and that magic which you forced upon us. And Allah is better and everlasting."

20:74  Whoever comes to his Lord as a sinner, for him indeed is Hell. He shall not die therein, nor shall he live

20:75  And whoever comes to Him as a believer with righteous deeds to his credit, he shall be among those who shall enjoy high ranks

20:76  Gardens of perpetuity, beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein. And this is the reward of one who purifies oneself

20:77  And We did reveal to Moses that he should "travel by night with My devotees, then make for them a dry path in the sea, without any fear of being overtaken or of any other sort."

20:78  And Pharaoh followed them with his armies. And so there came upon them from the sea that which came upon them.

20:79  And Pharaoh led his people astray and guided them not

20:80  O Children of Israel! We did verily deliver you from your enemy, and We made a covenant with you on the right side of the mountain, and We sent to you the manna and the quails.

20:81  Make use of the good things We have provided you with, and be not inordinate therein lest My wrath should become due upon you. And he, upon whom My wrath becomes due, certainly perishes

20:82  And I am indeed most forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good deeds, and then follows the right direction

20:83  "And what made you come here earlier than your people, O Moses?"

20:84  Moses said, "They are close behind me. And I hastened to You, my Lord, that You might be pleased."

20:85  Allah said, "But then We put your people on trial after you had left them behind, and the Samiri has led them astray."

20:86  Then Moses returned to his people, angry and sorrowful. He Said, "O my people! Did not your Lord give you a good promise? Did then the time for fulfillment of the promise seem too long to you? Or did you wish to incur wrath from your Lord, so you broke your promise to me

20:87  They said, "We did not break our promise to you of our own accord, but we were made to bear the burden of the ornaments of the people. So we got rid of that burden just as the Samiri did."

20:88  Then he (Samiri) brought out for them a body of a calf, from which emanated a low sound. Then he told them, "This is your god and the god of Moses. But he (Moses) has forgotten it."

20:89  Could they not see that it did not respond to them at all, and that it did have no power to do any harm or to bring any benefit to them

20:90  And certainly had Aaron told them earlier, "O my people! You are only being tried therewith. And, indeed, your Lord is the Gracious One. Follow me then and obey my order!"

20:91  They had said, "We will not abandon worshipping it until Moses returns to us."

20:92  Moses said, "O Aaron! What prevented you, when you saw them going astray

20:93  From following me? Did you then go against my instruction?"

20:94  Aaron said, "O son of my mother! Seize me not by my beard and by my head. I was indeed afraid you might say, `You have caused a rift among the children of Israel and not waited for my word.'"

20:95  Moses then asked, "What have you to say on this, O Samiri?"

20:96  He said, "I saw what they did not see. And I took a handful of traces from the messenger and flung it. And this is what my own self prompted me to do."

20:97  Moses said, "Begone! Indeed, it is ordained for you in this life to say, `Touch me not!' And indeed there is a prediction for you that shall not fail. And look at your god that you hovered around! We will certainly burn it. Then we will certainly reduce it to dust and scatter it in the sea."

20:98  None but Allah is worthy of your worship! He knows everything

20:99  Thus do We narrate to you some stories from the past. And We have verily given you the account (in the Qur'aan) from Ourselves

20:100  One who turns oneself away therefromhshall indeed bear a burden on the Day of Resurrection

20:101  Burdened they shall remain. And too bad for them the burden, On the Day of Resurrection

20:102  The Day, the trumpet is blown — the Day, We gather the sinful, blue with fear

20:103  Whispering among them, "You stayed but ten days."

20:104  We know best what they say; and the one among them, with the exemplary method of giving estimates, would say, "You stayed but a day."

20:105  And they ask you about the mountains. Say, "My Lord will pull them down to their roots."

20:106  And reduce it to a smooth, levelled plain

20:107  You shall not see therein any ups and downs

20:108  That Day they shall follow the caller, and they shall have no alternative but to follow him. And the voices shall be low in deference to the Gracious One and you shall not hear but a soft murmur

20:109  That day no intercession shall benefit anyone except from him whom the Gracious One permits and whose word of intercession He approves

20:110  HE knows what they are aware of, and what they are not aware of, and what is beyond the sphere of their knowledge

20:111  And the faces shall be bent down before the Living, Everlasting One. And he who bears the burden of wrongdoing is certainly doomed

20:112  And he who does some good work and is also a believer, he shall have no fear of injustice or of usurpation

20:113  And so have We sent it down as a Qur'aan in Arabic, and have detailed therein some of the things that are going to happen in the future so that they may fear Allah and take heed or that it may serve them as a Reminder of things that have gone by

20:114  And exalted is Allah, the true Sovereign! And make no haste with reciting the Quran before its revelation to you is completed. And say, "O my Lord! Increase my knowledge."

20:115  And We had verily given a commandment to Adam in the past, but he forgot! And We did not find in him the trait of resoluteness

20:116  And when We asked the angels to prostrate before Adam, prostrated they all except for Iblees. He (Iblees) refused!

20:117  And We said, "O Adam! This is an enemy to you and to your wife; so let him not drive you both out from the garden and thus make you miserable."

20:118  "It is indeed ordained for you that you shall not be hungry therein nor be naked."

20:119  "And that you shall not be thirsty therein nor shall you feel hot."

20:120  Then the Satan seduced him, saying, "O Adam! Shall I show you the tree of immortality and a kingdom that shall not decay?"

20:121  And they both succumbed to the satanic seduction, and then their sexuality got opened to them, and they both began to cover themselves with leaves of the garden. And Adam disobeyed his Lord and thus deviated from the right path

20:122  Then his Lord chose him, so He accepted his repentance and guided him

20:123  Allah said, "Down you both (Adam & Satan) go, together, in reciprocal enmity. And whenever Guidance comes to you from Me, then all those who follow My Guidance shall not go astray or be miserable."

20:124  "And he who turns away from My Reminder shall lead a hard life. and We will raiseh him on the Day of Resurrection, blind."

20:125  He will say, "My Lord! Why have You raised me blind? And I was certainly one able to see!"

20:126  Allah will say, "Just as Our Verses/signs came to you but you neglected them, so shall you be neglected this day."

20:127  And thus do We recompense him who is negligent and believes not in the Verses/signs of his Lord. And certainly the punishment in the Hereafter is severe and abiding

20:128  Do they not take a lesson from the fact that We had destroyed many a generation before theirs, in whose dwelling-places they now move about? Indeed, there are signs in this for those who are prudent

20:129  And had it not been that the Word had already gone forth from your Lord and an appointed term fixed, the same fate (of destruction in this world) that the earlier generations met with, would certainly be theirs (the generation addressed to in this Verse) too

20:130  Exercise patience then over what they say. And glorify your Lord with His praise before the rising of the sun and before its going down. And glorify Him, during the night and during parts of the day, so that you get peace of mind. ,

20:131  And covet not that — which We have provided some couples among them with — of the glitter of this worldly life, whereby We try them. And what the Lord provides you with is better and lasting

20:132  And enjoin prayer on your followers, and be regular and steadfast thereon. We do not ask you for any provision; We give it to you. And in the end it is those who fear Allah, and abide by His instructions, that get all the good things to enjoy

20:133  And they say, "Why does he not bring to us a sign from his Lord?" Has not there come to them a clear exposition of what the earlier scriptures contain

20:134  And had We destroyed them with punishment before this, they would certainly have said, "O our Lord! Why did You not send us a Messenger? For, we should then have followed Your Verses/signs before we met disgrace and shame."

20:135  Say, "Everyone is waiting, so you too wait! You will soon come to know who is following the right path and who is guided."