20:1  Ta Ha.

20:2  We did not send down the Qur´an to you to make you miserable,

20:3  but only as a reminder for those who have fear,

20:4  a Revelation from Him who created the earth and the high heavens,

20:5  the All-Merciful, established firmly upon the Throne.

20:6  Everything in the heavens and everything on the earth and everything in between them and everything under the ground belongs to Him.

20:7  Though you speak out loud, He knows your secrets and what is even more concealed.

20:8  Allah, there is no god but Him. The Most Beautiful Names are His.

20:9  Has the story of Musa not reached you?

20:10  When he saw a fire and said to his family, ´Wait here. I can make out a fire. Maybe I will bring you a brand from it, or will find guidance there.´

20:11  Then when he reached it, a voice called out, ´Musa!

20:12  I am your Lord. Take off your sandals. You are in the holy valley of Tuwa.

20:13  I have chosen you, so listen well to what is revealed.

20:14  I am Allah. There is no god but Me, so worship Me and establish salat to remember Me.

20:15  The Hour is coming but I have concealed it so that every self can be repaid for its efforts.

20:16  Do not let those who have no iman in it and follow their whims and desires debar you from it or you will be destroyed.

20:17  What is that in your right hand, Musa?´

20:18  He said, ´It is my staff. I lean on it and beat down leaves for my sheep with it and have other uses for it.´

20:19  He said, ´Throw it down, Musa.´

20:20  He threw it down and suddenly it was a slithering snake.

20:21  He said, ´Take hold of it and have no fear. We will return it to its original form.

20:22  Put your hand under your arm and press it to your side. It will emerge pure white yet quite unharmed, another Sign.

20:23  In this way We show you some of Our greatest Signs.

20:24  Go to Pharaoh. He has overstepped the bounds.´

20:25  He said, ´O Lord, expand my breast for me

20:26  and make my task easy for me.

20:27  Loosen the knot in my tongue

20:28  so that they will understand my words.

20:29  Assign me a helper from my family,

20:30  my brother Harun.

20:31  Strengthen my back by him

20:32  and let him share in my task,

20:33  so that we can glorify You much

20:34  and remember You much,

20:35  for You are watching us.´

20:36  He said, ´Your request has been granted, Musa.

20:37  We were gracious to you another time

20:38  when We revealed to your mother:

20:39  "Place him into the box and throw it into the sea and the sea will wash it up on the shore, where an enemy of Mine and his will pick it up." I showered you with love from Me so that you would be brought up under My supervision.

20:40  When your sister went and said, "Shall I direct you to someone who will take care of him?" that was how We returned you to your mother so that she might delight her eyes and not be grieved. You killed a man and We rescued you from trouble and tested you with many trials. You stayed some years among the people of Madyan. Then you arrived at the pre-ordained time, Musa!

20:41  I have chosen you for Myself.

20:42  Go, you and your brother, with My Signs and do not slacken in remembering Me.

20:43  Go to Pharaoh; he has overstepped the bounds.

20:44  But speak to him with gentle words so that hopefully he will pay heed or show some fear.´

20:45  They said, ´Our Lord, we are afraid that he might persecute us or overstep the bounds.´

20:46  He said, ´Have no fear. I will be with you, All-Hearing and All-Seeing.

20:47  Go to him and say, "We are your Lord´s Messengers so send the tribe of Israel away with us and do not punish them. We have brought you a Sign from your Lord. Peace be upon those who follow the guidance.

20:48  It has been revealed to us that punishment is for him who denies the truth and turns away."´

20:49  Pharaoh said, ´Who then is your Lord, Musa?´

20:50  He said, ´Our Lord is He who gives each thing its created form and then guides it.´

20:51  He said, ´What about the previous generations?´

20:52  He said, ´Knowledge of them is with my Lord in a Book. My Lord does not misplace nor does He forget.´

20:53  It is He who made the earth a cradle for you and threaded pathways for you through it and sent down water from the sky by which We have brought forth various different types of plants.

20:54  Eat and pasture your cattle. Certainly there are Signs in that for people of sound intellect.

20:55  From it We created you, to it We will return you, and from it We will bring you forth a second time.

20:56  We showed him all of Our Signs, but he denied and spurned them.

20:57  He said, ´Have you come to us to expel us from our land by means of your magic, Musa?

20:58  We will bring you magic to match it. So fix a time between us and you which neither we nor you will fail to keep at a place where we can meet halfway.´

20:59  He said, ´Your time is the day of the Festival. The people should gather in the morning.´

20:60  So Pharaoh went away and concocted his scheme and then he arrived.

20:61  Musa said to them, ´Woe to you! Do not fabricate lies against Allah or He will annihilate you with His punishment. Fabricators of lies are bound to fail.´

20:62  They argued among themselves about the matter and had a secret conference.

20:63  They said, ´These two magicians desire by their magic to expel you from your land and abolish your most excellent way of life,

20:64  so decide on your scheme and then arrive together in force. He who gains the upper hand today will definitely prosper.´

20:65  They said, ´Musa, will you throw or shall we be the first to throw?´

20:66  He said, ´No, you throw!´ And suddenly their ropes and staffs appeared to him, by their magic, to be slithering about.

20:67  Musa experienced in himself a feeling of alarm.

20:68  We said, ´Have no fear. You will have the upper hand.

20:69  Throw down what is in your right hand. It will swallow up their handiwork. Their handiwork is just a magician´s trick. Magicians do not prosper wherever they go.´

20:70  The magicians threw themselves down in prostration. They said, ´We have iman in the Lord of Harun and Musa.´

20:71  Pharaoh said, ´Do you have iman in him before I have authorised you? He is your chief, the one who taught you magic. I will cut off your hands and feet alternately and have you crucified on palm trunks. Then you will know for certain which of us has the harsher and longer lasting punishment.´

20:72  They said, ´We will never prefer you to the Clear Signs which have come to us nor to Him who brought us into being. Decide on any judgment you like. Your jurisdiction only covers the life of the dunya.

20:73  We have had iman in our Lord so that He may forgive us for our mistakes and for the magic which you forced us to perform. Allah is better and longer lasting.´

20:74  As for those who come to their Lord as evildoers, they will have Hell where they will neither die nor stay alive.

20:75  But as for those who come to Him as muminun, having done right actions, they will have the highest ranks:

20:76  Gardens of Eden with rivers flowing under them, remaining in them timelessly, for ever. That is the reward of those who purify themselves.

20:77  We revealed to Musa, ´Travel with My slaves by night. Strike a dry path for them through the sea. Have no fear of being overtaken and do not be afraid.´

20:78  Pharaoh pursued them with his troops and the sea overwhelmed them utterly.

20:79  Pharoah misguided his people. He was no guide.

20:80  Tribe of Israel! We rescued you from your enemy and made an appointment with you on the right hand side of the Mount and sent down manna and quails for you.

20:81  Eat of the good things We have provided for you but do not go to excess in it or My anger will be unleashed on you. Anyone who has My anger unleashed on him has plunged to his ruin.

20:82  But I am Ever-Forgiving to anyone who makes tawba and has iman and acts rightly and then is guided.

20:83  ´Why have you hurried on ahead of your people, Musa?´

20:84  He said, ´They are following in my tracks. I have hurried on ahead to you, My Lord, to gain Your good pleasure.´

20:85  He said, ´We tried your people after you left and the Samiri has misguided them.´

20:86  Musa returned to his people in anger and great sorrow. He said, ´My people, did not your Lord make you a handsome promise? Did the fulfilment of the contract seem too long to you or did you want to unleash your Lord´s anger upon yourselves, so you broke your promise to me?´

20:87  They said, ´We did not break our promise to you of our own volition. But we were weighed down with the heavy loads of the people´s jewelry and we threw them in, for that is what the Samari did.´

20:88  Then he produced a calf for them, a physical form which made a lowing sound. So they said, ´This is your god — and Musa´s god as well, but he forgot.´

20:89  Could they not see that it did not reply to them and that it possessed no power to either harm or benefit them?

20:90  Harun had earlier said to them, ´My people! It is just a trial for you. Your Lord is the All-Merciful, so follow me and obey my command!´

20:91  They said, ´We will not stop devoting ourselves to it until Musa returns to us.´

20:92  He said, ´What prevented you following me, Harun, when you saw that they had gone astray?

20:93  Did you too, then, disobey my command?´

20:94  He said, ´Son of my mother! Do not seize me by the beard or by the hair. I was afraid that you would say, "You have caused division in the tribe of Israel and taken no notice to anything I said."´

20:95  He said, ´What do you think you were doing, Samiri?´

20:96  He said, ´I saw what they did not see. So I gathered up a handful from the Messenger´s footprints and threw it in. That is what my inner self urged me to do.´

20:97  He said, ´Go! In the this world you will have to say, "Untouchable!" And you have an appointment which you will not fail to keep. Look at your god to which you devoted so much time. We will burn it up and then scatter it as dust into the sea.

20:98  Your god is Allah alone, there is no god but Him. He encompasses all things in His knowledge.´

20:99  In this way We give you news of what has gone before and We have given you a reminder direct from Us.

20:100  Those who turn away from it will bear a heavy burden on the Day of Rising,

20:101  remaining in it timelessly, for ever. What an evil load they will bear on the Day of Rising!

20:102  On the Day the Trumpet is blown — and We will gather the evildoers sightless on that Day —

20:103  they will whisper secretly to one other, ´You only stayed for ten.´

20:104  We know best what they will say when the most correct of them will say, ´You only stayed a day.´

20:105  They will ask you about the mountains. Say: ´My Lord will scatter them as dust.

20:106  He will leave them as a barren, level plain

20:107  on which you will see no dip or gradient.´

20:108  On that day they will follow the Summoner who has no crookedness in him at all. Voices will be humbled before the All-Merciful and nothing but a whisper will be heard.

20:109  On that Day intercession will not be of any use except for him whom the All-Merciful has authorised and with whose speech He is well-pleased.

20:110  He knows what is in front of them and behind them. But their knowledge does not encompass Him.

20:111  Faces will be humbled to the Living, the All-Sustaining. and anyone weighed down with wrongdoing will have failed.

20:112  But anyone who does right actions, being a mumin, need fear no wrong or any belittlement.

20:113  In this way We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur´an and We have made various threats in it so that hopefully they will have taqwa or it will spur them into remembrance.

20:114  High exalted be Allah, the King, the Real! Do not rush ahead with the Qur´an before its revelation to you is complete, and say: ´My Lord, increase me in knowledge.´

20:115  We made a contract with Adam before, but he forgot. We did not find that he had a firm resolve.

20:116  When We said to the angels, ´Prostrate yourselves to Adam!´ they prostrated, with the exception of Iblis who disdained to do it.

20:117  We said, ´Adam, this is an enemy for you and your wife, so do not let him expel you from the Garden and thus make you miserable.

20:118  You will not go hungry in it or suffer from nakedness.

20:119  You will not go thirsty in it or burn in the sun.´

20:120  But Shaytan whispered to him, saying, ´Adam, shall I show you the way to the Tree of Everlasting Life and to a kingdom which will never fade away?´

20:121  So the two of them ate from it and their private parts were disclosed to them and they started stitching together the leaves of the Garden to cover themselves. Adam disobeyed his Lord and became misled.

20:122  But then his Lord chose him and turned to him and guided him.

20:123  He said, ´Go down from it, all of you, as enemies to one another! But when guidance comes to you from Me, all those who follow My guidance will not go astray and will not be miserable.

20:124  But if anyone turns away from My reminder, his life will be a dark and narrow one and on the Day of Rising We will gather him blind.´

20:125  He will say, ´My Lord, why have you gathered me blind when before I was able to see?´

20:126  He will say, ´Just as Our Signs came to you and you forgot them, in the same way you too are forgotten today.´

20:127  That is how We repay anyone who is profligate and does not have iman in the Signs of his Lord. And the punishment of the Next World is much harsher and longer lasting.

20:128  Are they not guided by the many generations We have destroyed before them, among whose dwelling places they walk about? There are Signs in that for people of sound intellect.

20:129  And were it not for a prior word from your Lord, and a specified term, it would inevitably have already taken place.

20:130  So be steadfast in the face of what they say and glorify your Lord with praise before the rising of the sun and before its setting. And glorify Him during part of the night and at both ends of the day, so that hopefully you will be pleased.

20:131  Do not direct your eyes longingly to what We have given certain of them to enjoy, the flower of the life of this world, so that We can test them by it. Your Lord´s provision is better and longer lasting.

20:132  Instruct your family to do salat, and be constant in it. We do not ask you for provision. We provide for you. And the best end result is gained by taqwa.

20:133  They say, ´If only he would bring us a Sign from his Lord!´ Have they not received the Clear Sign of what is written in the earlier texts?

20:134  If We had destroyed them with a punishment before this, they would have said, ´Our Lord, why did You not send us a Messenger, so we could follow Your Signs before we were humbled and disgraced?´

20:135  Say: ´Everyone is waiting expectantly so wait expectantly. You will soon know who are the Companions of the Right Path and who is is guided.´