20:1  Taa, Haa

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

20:3  But only as a reminder to those who fear

20:4  A revelation from Him Who created the earth and the heavens on high

20:5  God, the Merciful Benefactor, is firmly established on the throne

20:6  To Him belongs what is in the heavens and on earth, and all between them, and all beneath the ground

20:7  Whether you speak the word aloud or not, indeed He knows what is secret and what is even more hidden

20:8  God, there is no god but He, to Him belong the most beautiful names

20:9  Has the story of Moses reached you

20:10  Behold, he saw a fire. So he said to his family, “Stay here, I perceive a fire, perhaps I can bring a torch from it, or find some guidance at the fire.

20:11  But when he came to the fire, a voice was heard, “O Moses

20:12  “Indeed I am your Guardian Evolver, so remove your shoes. You are in the sacred valley Tuwa

20:13  “I have chosen you. Listen then to the inspiration

20:14  “Indeed I am God. There is no god but Me. So serve Me, and establish prayer to remember me

20:15  “Indeed the Hour is coming. My design is to keep it hidden in order for every soul to receive its reward by the amount of its endeavor

20:16  “Therefore do not let believers follow their lusts, avoid them, or you will perish.

20:17  “And what is that in your right hand, O Moses?

20:18  He said, “It is my staff. On it I lean, and with it I beat down fodder for my flocks, and in it I find other uses.

20:19  God said, “Throw it O Moses,

20:20  He threw it, and behold, it was a snake active in motion

20:21  God said, “Seize it and fear not. We will return it at once to its previous state.

20:22  “Now draw your hand close to your side. It will come out white, without harm, as another sign

20:23  “In order that We may reveal to you our greater signs

20:24  “Go to Pharaoh, for he has indeed transgressed all bounds.

20:25  Moses said, “O my Lord, expand my breast

20:26  “Ease my task for me

20:27  “And remove the impediment from my speech

20:28  “So that they may understand what I say

20:29  “And give me a minister from my family

20:30  “Aaron, my brother

20:31  “Add to my strength through him

20:32  “And have him share my task

20:33  “That we may praise You much

20:34  “And remember You much

20:35  “For You are He Who is regardful of us.

20:36  God said, “Granted is your prayer, O Moses.

20:37  “And indeed We conferred a favor on you another time

20:38  “Behold, We sent to your mother, by inspiration, this message

20:39  “ ‘Place him into the basket, then place him into the river. The river will cast him up on the bank, and he will be taken up by one who is an enemy to Me and an enemy to him’. But I cast love over you from Me, in order that you may be reared under Mine eye

20:40  “Behold, your sister going forth and saying, ‘Can I show you one who can nurse and rear the child?’ So We brought you back to your mother that her eyes might be cooled and she would not grieve. Then you killed a man, but We saved you from trouble, and We tried you in various ways. Then you stayed a number of years with the people of Midian. Then you came near as ordained, O Moses

20:41  “And I have prepared you for Myself.

20:42  “Go you and your brother with My signs, and slacken not, either of you, in keeping Me in remembrance

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

20:44  “But speak to him gently. Perhaps he may take warning because of his admiration.

20:45  They said, “Our Lord, We fear that he will hasten with contempt against us, or that he will transgress all bounds.

20:46  He said, “Fear not, for I am with you, and I hear and see everything

20:47  “So go both of you to him and say, ‘Indeed we are messengers sent by your Guardian Evolver. Therefore, allow the Children of Israel to exit with us, and do not stop them. Indeed with a sign we come from your Guardian Evolver, and peace to all who follow guidance

20:48  “Indeed it has been revealed to us that the penalty awaits those who reject and turn away.

20:49  He said, “Who then, O Moses, is the Lord of you two?

20:50  He said, “Our Lord is He Who gave to each thing its form and nature, and further, gave it purpose.

20:51  He said, “What then happened to previous generations?

20:52  He replied, “The knowledge of that is with my Lord, duly recorded. My Lord never errs, nor forgets

20:53  “He Who has made for you the earth, like a carpet spread out, has enabled you to go about therein by roads and channels, and has sent down water from the sky.” With it We have produced diverse pairs of plants, each distinct from the others

20:54  Eat for yourselves, and pasture your livestock. Indeed in this are signs for people endued with understanding

20:55  From the earth We created you, and into it We will return you, and from it We will bring you out once again

20:56  And We showed Pharaoh all of Our signs, but he rejected them

20:57  He said, “Have you come to drive us out of our land with your illusions, O Moses

20:58  “But we can surely produce illusions to match yours. So set a meeting between us and you which we will not fail to keep, neither we nor you, in a place where both will have equal chances.

20:59  Moses said, “Your appointment is at the day of the festival, and let the people be assembled in the morning.

20:60  So Pharaoh left. He hatched his scheme, and then came back

20:61  Moses said to him, woe to you. Do not tell a lie against God, lest He destroy you by chastisement. A forger must suffer penalty.

20:62  So they disputed, one with another, over their affair, but they kept their talks secret

20:63  They said, “These two are certainly illusionists. Their object is to drive you out from your land with their illusions, and to do away with your most cherished institutions

20:64  “Therefore concoct your plan, and then assemble in ranks. He wins today who gains the upper hand.

20:65  They said, “O Moses, would you rather that you throw first, or that we be the first to throw?

20:66  He said, “No please, throw first.” Then behold, their ropes and their staffs. And it seemed to him on account of their illusions that they began to move

20:67  Then Moses sensed fear in himself

20:68  We said, “Fear not, for you have indeed the upper hand

20:69  “Present that which is in your right hand. Quickly it will swallow up that which they had faked. What they had faked is but an illusionist’s trick and the illusionist thrives not, no matter where he goes.

20:70  So the illusionists were humbled. They said, “We believe in the Lord of Aaron and Moses.

20:71  He said, “Believe in Him before I give you permission? Surely this must be your leader, who has taught you illusions. Indeed I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have you crucified on trunks of palm trees. So you will know for certain which of us can give more severe and more lasting punishment.

20:72  They said, “Never will we consider you more than the clear signs that have come to us, or more than Him Who created us. So do whatever you want to do, for you can only influence in the life of the present

20:73  “For us, we have believed in our Lord. May He forgive us our faults, and the illusions to which you compelled us to do, for God is Best and Ever Lasting.

20:74  Indeed he who returns to his Lord as a wrong-doer, for him is hell. Therein will he neither die nor live

20:75  But those who come to Him as believers who have worked righteous deeds, for them are ranks exalted

20:76  Gardens of eternity, beneath which rivers flow. They will dwell therein forever. Such is the reward of those who refine themselves

20:77  We sent this inspiration to Moses, “Travel by night with My servants, and split a dry path for them through the sea, without fear of being overtaken and without any other fear.

20:78  Then Pharaoh pursued them with his forces, but the waters completely overwhelmed them and covered them up

20:79  Pharaoh led his people astray instead of leading them aright

20:80  O you Children of Israel, We delivered you from your enemy, and We made a covenant with you on the right side of the mount, and We sent down to you manna and quail

20:81  Saying, “Eat of the good things We have provided for your sustenance, but commit no excess therein, lest My punishment should justly descend on you, and those on whom My punishment descends, will indeed perish

20:82  “But without doubt, I am He Who forgives again and again, those who repent, believe, and do right, they receive guidance.

20:83  “What made you hasten in advance of your people, O Moses?

20:84  He replied, “Behold, they are close on my footsteps. I hastened to you, O my Lord, to please you.

20:85  God said, “We have tested your people in your absence. Samiri has led them astray.

20:86  So Moses returned to his people frustrated and sorrowful. He said, “O my people, did your Lord not make an attractive promise to you? Did the promise seem to you too far off? Or did you desire that punishment should descend from your Lord on you, so you broke your promise to me?

20:87  They said, “We did not break the promise to you of our own volition, but we were made to carry the weight of the ornaments of the people, and we threw them, because that was what Samiri suggested

20:88  “Then he brought out before them the image of a calf. It seemed mysterious, so they said, ‘this is your god, and the god of Moses, but he has forgotten.’

20:89  Could they not see that it could not return a word to them, and that it had no power either to harm them or to do them good

20:90  Aaron had already before this said to them, “O my people, you are being tested by this, for indeed your Lord is God, the Merciful Benefactor, so follow me and follow my advice.

20:91  They said, “We will not abandon this community, but we will devote ourselves to it until Moses returns to us.

20:92  Moses said, “O Aaron, what kept you back, when you saw them going wrong

20:93  “From following me? Why did you not follow my advice?

20:94  Aaron replied, “O son of my mother, grab me not by my beard or by my hair. Truly I feared that you would say, ‘You have caused a division among the Children of Israel, and you did not respect my word.’

20:95  Moses said, “What then is your story, O Samiri?

20:96  He replied, “I saw what they saw not. So I grabbed a handful from the footprint of the messenger and threw it. This is what my soul suggested to me.

20:97  Moses said, “Go away, and your punishment in this life will be that you will say, ‘Untouchable’, and moreover you have a promise that will not fail. Now look at your god, of whom you have become a devoted worshipper. We will certainly melt it in a blazing fire and scatter it in the sea.

20:98  But the God of you all is the One God. There is no god but Him. Of all things He has knowledge

20:99  Thus We relate to you stories of what happened before, for We have sent you a message from Us

20:100  If any turn away from it, indeed they will bear a burden on the Day of Accountability

20:101  They will remain in this state, and terrible will be the burden on them that day

20:102  The day the trumpet will be sounded. That day, We will gather the sinful, blurry-eyed

20:103  In whispers will they consult each other, “Yet they will stay no longer than ten

20:104  We know best what they will say, when their leader best in conduct says, “You stayed not longer than a day.

20:105  They ask you concerning the mountains say, “My Lord will uproot them and scatter them as dust

20:106  “He will leave them flat

20:107  “Nothing crooked or curved will you see in their place.

20:108  On that day they will follow the caller. No crookedness concerning him either. All sounds will humble themselves in the presence of God, the Merciful Benefactor. Nothing will you hear but the sound of their feet

20:109  On that day no intercession will help, except for those for whom permission has been granted by God, the Merciful Benefactor, and whose word is acceptable to Him

20:110  He knows what is before, after, and behind them, but they will not understand it with their knowledge

20:111  All faces will be humbled before Him, the Living, the Self-Sufficient, Eternal. Hopeless indeed will be the person that carries an injustice

20:112  But he who does deeds of righteousness and has faith, will have no fear of harm or of being deprived of what he is due

20:113  So We have sent this down, an Arabic Quran, and explained therein in detail some of the warnings, in order that they may be conscious of God, or that it may cause their remembrance

20:114  High above all is God, the King, the Truth. Do not be impatient with the Quran before its communication to you is completed, but say, “O my Lord, advance me in knowledge.

20:115  We had already taken the covenant of Adam, but he forgot, and We found on his part no resolve

20:116  When We said to the angels, “Prostrate to Adam,” they prostrated themselves, but not Lucifer, he refused

20:117  Then We said, “O Adam, indeed this is an enemy to you and your mate. So do not let him get both of you out of the garden, so that you land in misery

20:118  “There is enough there for you not to go hungry nor to go naked

20:119  “Nor to suffer from thirst, nor from the Sun’s heat.

20:120  But Satan whispered wrong to him. He said, “O Adam, will I lead you to the Tree of Eternity and to a kingdom that never decays?

20:121  So they both ate of the tree, and so their nakedness appeared to them. They began to sew together, for their clothes, leaves from the garden. Thus did Adam ignore his Lord, and allow himself to be seduced

20:122  But his Lord, the Caller, chose him. He turned to him and gave him guidance

20:123  He said, “Go down all together from the garden, with enmity between yourselves, but if, as is sure, there comes to you guidance from Me, whoever follows My guidance, will not lose his way, nor fall into misery

20:124  “But whoever turns away from My message, indeed for him is a shallow life, and We will raise him up blind on the Day of Accountability.

20:125  He will say, “O my Lord, why have You raised me up blind when I had sight?

20:126  God will say, “Because when Our signs came to you, you disregarded them. So you will, this day, be disregarded.

20:127  This is how We reward him who transgresses beyond bounds and believes not in the signs of his Lord, and the penalty of the hereafter is far more terrible and more enduring

20:128  Is it not a warning to these people, the many generations before them We caused to perish, in whose buildings they tour? Indeed, in this are signs for people endued with understanding

20:129  Had it not been for a word that went forth before from your Lord, their punishment would have come, but there is a term appointed

20:130  Therefore be patient with what they say, and praise your Lord, before the rising of the Sun, and before its setting. Yes, praise for part of the hours of the night, and at the sides of the day. That you may have joy

20:131  Nor strain your eyes in longing for the things We have given for enjoyment to some of them. The splendor of the life of the present is how We challenge them. But the provision of your Lord is better and more enduring

20:132  Encourage prayer for your people, and be consistent in it. We do not ask you to provide sustenance. We provide it for you, and the result is for the conscious

20:133  They say, “Why does he not bring us a sign from his Lord?” Has guidance not come to them from all that was in the previous books of scripture

20:134  And if We had inflicted on them a penalty before this they would have said, “Our Lord, if only You had sent us a messenger, we would certainly have followed Your signs before we were humbled and put to shame.

20:135  Say, “Each one is waiting. So wait also, and soon will you know who is on the straight and even path, and who it is who has received guidance.” 135 (End of Part 16