ṭā hā

We have not sent down upon thee the Qur’an that thou be wretched,

But only as a reminder to him who fears —

A revelation from Him who created the earth and the high heavens.

The Almighty established Himself upon the Throne;

To Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is in the earth, and what is between them, and what is under the soil.

And if thou be public in speech, then He knows the secret and what is more hidden.

God, there is no god save He; to Him belong the best names.

And has there come to thee the story of Moses?

When he saw a fire, and said to his people: “Stay here; I perceive a fire. I might bring you therefrom a firebrand, or find at the fire guidance.”

And when he came to it, he was called: “O Moses:

“I am thy Lord; so remove thou thy sandals; thou art in the sacred valley of Ṭuwa.

“And I have chosen thee, so hearken thou to what is revealed:

“I am God. There is no god save I, so serve thou Me; and uphold thou the duty for My remembrance:

“The Hour is coming — I almost conceal it — that every soul might be rewarded for that for which it strives;

“And let not turn thee away from it him who believes not in it but follows his vain desire, or thou wilt perish.

“And what is that in thy right hand, O Moses?”

Said he: “It is my staff. I lean on it, and beat down therewith leaves for my sheep; and I have therefor other uses.”

He said: “Cast thou it down, O Moses.”

And he cast it down, and then was it a serpent moving.

He said: “Take thou it, and fear thou not; We will return it to its former state.

“And draw thou thy hand into thy bosom: it will come forth white, without evil, as another proof,

“That We might show thee some of Our greater proofs.

“Go thou to Pharaoh. He has transgressed.”

Said he: “My Lord: expand Thou for me my breast,

“And ease Thou for me my affair,

“And loosen Thou the knot from my tongue,

“That they might understand my speech.

“And appoint Thou for me an assistant from my family:

“Aaron, my brother;

“Strengthen Thou by him my strength,

“And make Thou him share in my affair,

“That we might glorify Thee much,

“And remember Thee much.

“Thou dost see us.”

He said: “Thou hast been granted thy request, O Moses.

“And We bestowed favour upon thee another time,

“When We instructed thy mother with what was instructed:

“‘Hurl thou him into the chest, and hurl thou it into the water; the water will cast him upon the shore. An enemy to Me and an enemy to him will take him.’ And I cast upon thee love from Me, and that thou be wrought under My eye

“When thy sister went and said: ‘Shall I direct you to one who will take care of him?’ So We returned thee to thy mother, that her eye might be comforted and grieve not. And thou didst kill a soul; and We delivered thee from distress, and subjected thee to means of denial by a trial. And thou didst tarry years among the people of Madyan; then camest thou as ordained, O Moses.

“And I chose thee for Myself;

“Go thou and thy brother with My proofs — and flag not in My remembrance —

“Go to Pharaoh. He has transgressed.

“And speak to him a gentle word, that he might take heed, or fear.”

They said: “Our Lord: we fear lest he hasten against us, or that he will transgress.”

He said: “Fear not; I am with you, hearing and seeing.

“So go to him, and say: ‘We are the messengers of thy Lord, so send thou the children of Israel with us, and punish thou them not. We have come to thee with a proof from thy Lord; and peace be upon him who follows the guidance!

“‘It has been revealed to us that the punishment is upon him who denies and turns away.’”

Said he: “And who is your Lord, O Moses?”

He said: “Our Lord is He who gave everything its creation, then guided.”

Said he: “And what is the case of the former generations?”

He said: “The knowledge thereof is with my Lord in a writ; my Lord neither errs, nor forgets.”

(Who made the earth for you as a bed, and inserted roads for you therein; and sent down from the sky water, and thereby have We brought forth diverse kinds of plants:

“Eat, and pasture your cattle.” In that are proofs for possessors of intelligence.

Therefrom did We create you, and thereto will We return you, and therefrom will We bring you forth another time.)

And We showed him all Our proofs, but he denied and refused.

Said he: “Hast thou come to turn us out of our land by thy sorcery, O Moses?

“Then will we bring thee sorcery the like thereof; so make thou an appointment between us and thee, which neither we nor thou shall fail to keep — an equal place.”

He said: “Your appointment is the day of the festival; and let the people be gathered at midday.”

And Pharaoh turned away, and gathered his plan; then he came.

Moses said to them: “Woe to you! Invent not a lie against God lest He utterly destroy you with a punishment; and he has failed who invents.”

And they disputed about their affair among themselves, and kept secret their private conversation.

(They said: “These are two sorcerers who want to turn you out of your land by their sorcery, and take away your exemplary tradition.

“So resolve upon your plan, then come with one accord; and he has succeeded who prevails this day.”)

They said: “O Moses: either thou wilt cast, or we will be the first who cast.”

He said: “Nay, you cast.” And then their ropes and their staffs seemed to him, by their sorcery, to be moving,

And Moses conceived a fear within him.

We said: “Fear thou not; thou art the uppermost.

“And cast thou what is in thy right hand; it will swallow up what they have wrought. They have wrought but the plan of a sorcerer, and the sorcerer will not be successful, no matter where he goes.”

And the sorcerers cast themselves down in submission. They said: “We have believed in the Lord of Aaron and Moses.”

Said he: “You have believed him before I gave you leave. He is your chief who taught you sorcery; then will I will cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and crucify you on the trunks of date-palms; and you will know which of us is severer in punishment and more enduring.”

They said: “We will not prefer thee over what has come to us of clear signs, or Him who created us. So decide thou what thou wilt decide; thou canst but decide this worldly life.

“We have believed in our Lord, that He might forgive us our offences, and what thou didst compel us to of sorcery; and God is better and more enduring.”

(Whoso comes to his Lord as a lawbreaker, for him is Gehenna; he will neither die therein nor live.

And whoso comes to Him as a believer, having done righteous deeds, those have the high degrees:

Gardens of perpetual abode, beneath which rivers flow, they abiding eternally therein. And that is the reward of him who purifies himself.)

And We instructed Moses: “Travel thou by night with My servants; and strike thou for them a dry path in the sea, neither fearing overtaking nor being afraid.”

And Pharaoh followed them with his forces, and there covered them of the sea what covered them.

And Pharaoh led his people astray, and did not guide.

O children of Israel: We delivered you from your enemy; and We made an appointment with you on the right side of the mount; and We sent down upon you manna and quails:

“Eat of the good things that We have provided you, and transgress not therein lest My wrath descend upon you; and he upon whom My wrath descends has fallen.”

And I am all-forgiving towards him who repents and believes and works righteousness; then is he guided.

“And what made thee hasten from thy people, O Moses?”

Said he: “They were close, in my footsteps, so I hastened to Thee, my Lord, that Thou be pleased.”

He said: “We have subjected thy people to means of denial in thy absence, and the Sāmiriyy has led them astray.”

So Moses returned to his people, wrathful and grieved. He said: “O my people: did not your Lord promise you a fair promise? Was the covenant long in coming for you, or did you wish that wrath from your Lord should descend upon you, so failed in your promise to me?”

They said: “We failed not to keep our promise to thee of our own accord, but we were given to bear burdens of the adornment of the people — so we hurled them. (And thus the Sāmiriyy cast,

And he brought forth for them a calf as a body that lowed; and they said: “This is your god, and the god of Moses, but he forgot.”

Did they then not see that it returned no word to them, nor possessed for them harm or benefit!

And Aaron had said to them before: “O my people: you are but subjected to means of denial thereby, and your Lord is the Almighty; so follow me, and obey my command.”

They said: “We will not cease to be devoted to it until Moses returns to us.”)

He said: “O Aaron: what prevented thee, when thou sawest them going astray,

“From following me? Didst thou then disobey my command?”

Said he: “O son of my mother: seize thou me not by my beard, nor by my head! I feared lest thou say: ‘Thou hast caused division among the children of Israel, and hast not observed my word.’”

He said: “And what is thy case, O Sāmiriyy?”

Said he: “I saw what they saw not; so I took a handful from the track of the Messenger, and did throw it; and thus my soul enticed me.”

He said: “Then go thou, for in this life it is for thee to say: ‘Outcast!’ And there is for thee an appointment thou canst not fail to keep. And look thou upon thy god to which thou remainedst devoted! We will burn it; then will we scatter it in the sea with a blast.”

Your God is but God. There is no god save He. He encompasses all things in knowledge.

Thus do We relate to thee from reports of what has gone before, and have given thee a remembrance from Us.

Whoso turns away from it, he will bear a burden on the Day of Resurrection,

They abiding eternally therein; and evil is it for them on the Day of Resurrection as a load,

The day the Trumpet is blown. And We will assemble the lawbreakers, that day, white-eyed,

Whispering among themselves: “You tarried only ten.”

We best know what they will say, when their exemplars in the path will say: “You tarried only a day.”

And they ask thee about the mountains. Say thou: “My Lord will scatter them with a blast

“And leave it a level plain.”

Thou wilt see therein neither deviation nor bend.

That day will they follow the Caller having no deviation; and voices will be stilled before the Almighty, and thou wilt hear not save a murmur.

That day no intercession will avail save one whom the Almighty has given leave and with whose word He is pleased.

He knows what is before them and what following them, and they do not encompass it in knowledge.

And faces will be humble before the Living, the Eternal. And he will have failed who carries injustice.

And whoso does righteous deeds and is a believer: he fears neither injustice nor deprivation.

And thus have We sent it down as an Arabic recitation and expounded therein warnings, that they might be in prudent fear, or it cause in them remembrance.

And exalted be God, the True King! And hasten thou not with the recitation before its revelation to thee be complete; and say thou: “My Lord: increase Thou me in knowledge.”

And We made a covenant with Adam before, but he forgot; and We found not in him determination.

And when We said to the angels: “Submit to Adam,” then they submitted. Not so Iblīs; he refused.

Then We said: “O Adam: this is an enemy to thee and to thy wife. Then let him not turn you out of the garden, that thou be wretched.

“It is for thee to be neither hungry nor naked therein,

“And that thou suffer neither thirst therein, nor the heat of the sun.”

Then the satan whispered to him, saying: “O Adam: shall I direct thee to the Tree of Eternity and a dominion that decays not?”

And they ate thereof, and their shame became clear to them; and they began to draw over them of the leaves of the garden; and Adam opposed his Lord, so he erred.

Then his Lord chose him, and turned towards him, and guided.

He said: “Get you down from it all together, an enemy to one another. And if there comes to you guidance from Me, then whoso follows My guidance, he will neither go astray, nor will he be wretched.

“But whoso turns away from My remembrance: he will have a straitened life, and We will gather him blind on the Day of Resurrection.”

He will say: “My Lord: why hast Thou raised me blind, when I was seeing?”

God will say: “Thus Our proofs came to thee, and thou didst forget them; so thus art thou this day forgotten.”

And thus do We reward him who commits excess, and believes not in the proofs of his Lord; and the punishment of the Hereafter is more severe and more enduring.

Does it not then guide them how many generations We destroyed before them in whose dwellings they walk? In that are proofs for possessors of intelligence.

And were it not for a word that preceded from thy Lord and a stated term it would have been requisite.

So be thou patient over what they say, and give thou glory with the praise of thy Lord before the rising of the sun, and before its setting. And some periods of the night give thou glory; and at the ends of the day, that thou mightest be satisfied.

And extend thou not thine eyes towards what We have granted some among them to enjoy — the flower of the life of this world — that We might subject them to means of denial therein; and the provision of thy Lord is better and more enduring.

And enjoin thou upon thy people the duty, and be thou steadfast therein. We ask thee not for provision; We provide for thee. And the final outcome is for those of prudent fear.

And they say: “Oh, that he would but bring us a proof from his Lord!” Has there not come to them clear evidence of what is in the former scriptures?

And had We destroyed them with a punishment before him, they would have said: “Our Lord: oh, that Thou hadst but sent to us a messenger, so we might have followed Thy proofs before we were humiliated and disgraced!”

Say thou: “All are waiting — so wait; and you will come to know who are the companions of the even path, and who is guided.”