# Sura  20 - Ta. Ha.

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> SURA XX (20) - TA. HA.    (Mecca - 135 Verses)                  (LV - p. 94)  
>  
>        In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
>  
>        Ta. Ha.  Not to sadden thee have we sent down this Koran to thee,
>  
>        But as a warning for him who feareth;
>  
>        It is a missive from Him who hath made the earth and the lofty heavens!
>  
>        The God of Mercy sitteth on his throne:
>  
>        His, whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and
> whatsoever is between them both, and whatsoever is beneath the humid soil!
>  
>        Thou needest not raise thy voice:  for He knoweth the secret whisper,
> and the yet more hidden.
>  
>        God!  There is no God but He!  Most excellent His titles!
>  
>        Hath the history of Moses reached thee?
>  
>        When he saw a fire, and said to his family, "Tarry ye here, for I
> perceive a fire:
>  
> 20:10  Haply I may bring you a brand from it, or find at the fire a guide."
>  
>        And when he came to it, he was called to, "O Moses!
>  
>        Verily, I am thy Lord:  therefore pull off they shoes:  for thou art in
> the holy valley of Towa.
>  
>        And I have chosen thee:  hearken then to what shall be revealed.
>  
>        Verily, I am God:  there is no God but me:  therefore worship me, and
> observe prayer for a remembrance of me.
>  
>        Verily the hour is coming: - I all but manifest it -
>  
>        That every soul may be recompensed for its labours.
>  
>        Nor let him who believeth not therein and followeth his lust, turn thee
> aside from this truth, and thou perish.
>  
>        Now, what is that in thy right hand, O Moses?"
>  
>        Said he, "It is my staff on which I lean, and with which I beat down
> leaves for my sheep, and I have other uses for it."
>  
> 20:20  He said, "Cast it down, O Moses!"
>  
>        So he cast it down, and lo! it became a serpent that ran along.
>  
>        He said, "Lay hold on it, and fear not:  to its former state will we
> restore it."
>  
>        "Now play thy right hand to thy arm-pit:  it shall come forth white, but
> unhurt: - another sign! -
>  
>        That we may shew thee the greatest of our signs.
>  
>        Go to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds."
>  
>        He said, "O my Lord! enlarge my breast for me,
>  
>        And make my work easy for me,
>  
>        And loose the knot of my tongue,
>  
>        That they may understand my speech.
>  
> 20:30  And give me a counsellor from among my family,
>  
>        Aaron my brother;
>  
>        By him gird up my loins,
>  
>        And make him a colleague in my work,
>  
>        That we may praise thee oft and oft remember thee,
>  
>        For thou regardest us."
>  
>        He said, "O Moses, thou hast obtained thy suit:
>  
>        Already, at another time, have we showed thee favour,
>  
>        When we spake unto thy mother what was spoken:
>  
>        'Cast him into the ark: then cast him on the sea [the river], and the
> sea shall throw him on the shore:  and an enemy to me and an enemy to him shall
> take him up.'  And I myself have made thee an object of love,
>  
> 20:40  That thou mightest be reared in mine eye.
>  
>        When thy sister went and said, 'Shall I shew you one who will nurse
> him?' Then We returned thee to thy mother that her eye might be cheered, and
> that she might not grieve.  And when thou slewest a person, We delivered thee
> from trouble, and We tried thee with other trial.
>  
>        For years didst thou stay among the people of Midian; then camest thou
> hither by my decree, O Moses:
>  
>        And I have chosen thee for Myself.
>  
>        Go thou and thy brother with my signs and be not slack to remember me.
>  
>        Go ye to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds:
>  
>        But speak ye to him with gentle speech; haply he will reflect or fear."
>  
>        They said, "O our Lord! truly we fear lest he break forth against us, or
> act with exceeding injustice."
>  
>        He said, "Fear ye not, for I am with you both.  I will hearken and I
> will behold.
>  
>        Go ye then to him and say, 'Verily we are Sent ones of thy Lord; send
> therefore the children of Israel with us and vex them not:  now are we come to
> thee with signs from thy Lord, and, Peace shall be on him who followeth the
> right guidance.
>  
> 20:50  For now hath it been revealed to us, that chastisement shall be on him
> who chargeth with falsehood, and turneth him away.'"
>  
>        And he said, "Who is your Lord, O Moses?"
>  
>        He said, "Our Lord is He who hath given to everything its form and then
> guideth it aright."
>  
>        "But what," said he, "was the state of generations past?"
>  
>        He said, "The knowledge thereof is with my Lord in the Book of his
> decrees.  My Lord erreth not, nor forgetteth.
>  
>        He hath spread the earth as a bed, and hath traced out paths for you
> therein, and hath sent down rain from Heaven, and by it we bring forth the
> kinds of various herbs:
>  
>        - 'Eat ye, and feed your cattle.'  Of a truth in this are signs unto men
> endued with understanding.
>  
>        From it have we created you, and into it will we return you, and out of
> it will we bring you forth a second time."
>  
>        And we shewed him all our signs:  but he treated them as falsehoods, and
> refused to believe.
>  
>        He said, "hast thou come, O Moses, to drive us from our land by thine
> enchantments?
>  
> 20:60  Therefore will we assuredly confront thee with like enchantments:  so
> appoint a meeting between us and you - we will not fail it, we, and do not thou
> - in a place alike for both."
>  
>        He said, "On the feast day be your meeting, and in broad daylight let
> the people be assembled."
>  
>        And Pharaoh turned away, and collected his craftsmen and came.
>  
>        Said Moses to them, "Woe to you! devise not a lie against God:
>  
>        For then will he destroy you by a punishment.  They who have lied have
> ever perished."
>  
>        And the magicians discussed their plan, and spake apart in secret:
>  
>        They said, "These two are surely sorcerers:  fain would they drive you
> from your land by their sorceries, and lead away in their paths your chiefest
> men:
>  
>        So muster your craft:  then come in order:  well this day shall it be
> for him, who shall gain the upper hand."
>  
>        They said, "O Moses, wilt thou first cast down thy rod, or shall we be
> the first who cast?
>  
>        He said, "yes, cast ye down first."  And lo! by their enchantment their
> cords and rods seemed to him as if they ran.
>  
> 20:70  And Moses conceived a secret fear within him.
>  
>        We said, "Fear not, for thou shalt be the uppermost:
>  
>        Cast forth then what is in thy right hand:  it shall swallow up what
> they have produced:  they have only produced the deceit of an enchanter:  and
> come where he may, ill shall an enchanter fare."
>  
>        And the magicians fell down and worshipped.  They said, "We Believe in
> the Lord of Aaron and of Moses."
>  
>        Said Pharaoh, "Believe ye on him ere I give you leave?  He, in sooth, is
> your Master who hath taught you magic.  I will therefore cut off your hands and
> your feet on opposite sides, and I will crucify you on trunks of the palm, and
> assuredly shall ye learn which of us is severest in punishing, and who is the
> more abiding."
>  
>        They said, "We will not have more regard to thee than to the clear
> tokens which have come to us, or than to Him who hath made us:  doom the doom
> thou wilt:  Thou canst only doom as to this present life:  of a truth we have
> believed on our Lord that he may pardon us our sins and the sorcery to which
> thou hast forced us, for God is better, and more abiding than thou.
>  
>        As for him who shall come before his Lord laden with crime - for him
> verily is Hell: he shall not die in it and he shall not live.
>  
>        But he who shall come before Him, a believer, with righteous works, -
> these! the loftiest grades await them:
>  
>        Gardens of Eden, beneath whose trees the rivers flow:  therein shall
> they abide for ever.  This, the reward of him who hath been pure."
>  
>        Then revealed we to Moses, "Go forth by night with my servants and
> cleave for them a dry path in the sea;
>  
> 20:80  Fear not thou to be overtaken, neither be thou afraid."
>  
>        And Pharaoh followed them with his hosts, and the whelming billows of
> the sea overwhelmed them, for Pharaoh misled his people, and did not guide
> them.
>  
>        O children of Israel! we rescued you from your foes; and We appointed a
> meeting with you on the right side of the mountain; and We caused the manna and
> the quail to descend upon you:
>  
>        "Eat," said We, "of the good things with which we have supplied you; but
> without excess, lest my wrath fall upon you; for on whom my wrath doth fall,
> he perisheth outright.
>  
>        Surely however will I forgive him who turneth to God and believeth, and
> worketh righteousness, and then yieldeth to guidance.
>  
>        But what hath hastened thee on apart from thy people, O Moses?"
>  
>        He said, "They are hard on my footsteps: but to thee, O Lord, have I
> hastened, that thou mightest be well pleased with me."
>  
>        He said, "Of a truth now have we proved thy people since thou didst
> leave them, and Samiri had led them astray."
>  
>        And Moses returned to his people, angered, sorrowful.
>  
>        He said, "O my people! did not your Lord promise you a good promise?
> Was the time of my absence long to you? or desired ye that wrath from your Lord
> should light upon you, that ye failed in your promise to me?"
>  
> 20:90  They said, "Not of our own accord have we failed in the promise to
> thee, but we were made to bring loads of the people's trinkets, and we threw
> them into the fire - and Samiri likewise cast them in, and brought forth to
> them a corporeal lowing calf:  and they said, 'This is your God and the God of
> Moses, whom he hath forgotten.'"
>  
>        What! saw they not that it returned them no answer, and could neither
> hurt nor help them?
>  
>        And Aaron had before said to them, "O my people!  by this calf are ye
> only proved:  surely your Lord is the God of Mercy:  follow me therefore and
> obey my bidding."
>  
>        They said, "We will not cease devotion to it, till Moses come back to
> us."
>  
>        He said, "O Aaron! when thou sawest that they had gone astray, what
> hindered thee from following me?  Hast thou then disobeyed my command?"
>  
>        He said, 'O Son of my mother! seize me not by my beard, nor by my head:
> indeed I feared lest thou shouldst say, 'Thou hast rent the children of Israel
> asunder, and hast not observed my orders.'"
>  
>        He said, "And what was they motive, O Samiri?" He said, "I saw what they
> saw not:  so I took a handful of dust from the track of the messenger of God,
> and flung it into the calf, for so my soul prompted me."
>  
>        He said, "Begone then:  verily thy doom even in this life shall be to
> say, 'Touch me not.' And there is a threat against thee, which thou shalt not
> escape hereafter.  Now look at thy god to which thou hast continued so devoted:
> we will surely burn it and reduce it to ashes, which we will cast into the sea.
>  
>        Your God is God, beside whom there is no God:  In his knowledge he
> embraceth all things."
>  
> 20:100 Whoso shall turn aside from it shall verily carry a burden on the day
> of Resurrection:
>  
>        Under it shall they remain:  and grievous, in the day of Resurrection,
> shall it be to them to bear.
>  
>        On that day there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and We will gather
> the wicked together on that day with leaden eyes:
>  
>        They shall say in a low voice, one to another, - "Ye tarried but ten
> days on earth."
>  
>        We are most knowing with respect to that which they will say when the
> most veracious of them will say.  "Ye have not tarried above a day."
>  
>        And they will ask thee of the mountains:  Say:  scattering my Lord will
> scatter them in dust;
>  
>        And he will leave them a level plain:  thou shalt see in it no hollows
> or jutting hills.
>  
>        On that day shall men follow their summoner - he marcheth straight on:
> and low shall be their voices before the God of Mercy,n or shalt thou heart
> aught by the light footfall.
>  
>        No intercession shall avail on that day, save his whom the God of Mercy
> shall allow to intercede, and whose words he shall approve.
>  
>        He knoweth their future and their past; but in their own knowledge they
> comprehend it not: -
>  
> 20:110 And humble shall be their faces before Him that Liveth, the
> Self-subsisting: and undone he, who shall bear the burden of iniquity;
>  
>        But he who shall have done the things that are right and is a believer,
> shall fear neither wrong nor loss.
>  
>        Thus have We sent down to thee an Arabic Koran, and have set forth
> menaces therein diversely, that haply they may fear God, or that it may give
> birth to reflection in them.
>  
>        Exalted then be God, the King, the Truth!  Be not hasty in its recital
> while the revelation of it to thee is incomplete.  Say rather, "O my Lord,
> increase knowledge unto me."
>  
>        And of old We made a covenant with Adam; but he forgat it; and we found
> no firmness of purpose in him.
>  
>        And when We said to the angels, "Fall down and worship Adam," they
> worshipped all, save Eblis, who refused: and We said, "O Adam! this truly is a
> foe to thee and to thy wife.  Let him not therefore drive you out of the
> garden, and ye become wretched;
>  
>        For to thee is it granted that thou shalt not hunger therein, neither
> shalt thou be naked;
>  
>        And that thou shalt not thirst therein, neither shalt thou parch with
> heat;"
>  
>        But Satan whispered him: said he, "O Adam! shall I shew thee the tree of
> Eternity, and the Kingdom that faileth not?:"
>  
>        And they both ate thereof, and their nakedness appeared to them, and
> they began to sew of the leaves of the Garden to cover them, and Adam disobeyed
> his Lord and went astray.
>  
> 20:120 Afterwards his Lord chose him for himself, and was turned towards him,
> and guided him.
>  
>        And God said, "Get ye all down hence, the one of you a foe unto the
> other.   Hereafter shall guidance come unto you from me;
>  
>        And whoso followeth my guidance shall not err, and shall not be
> wretched:
>  
>        But whoso turneth away from my monition, his truly shall be a life of
> misery:
>  
>        And We will assemble him with others on the day of Resurrection, blind."
>  
>        He will say, "O my Lord! why hast thou assembled me with others, blind?
> whereas I was endowed with sight."
>  
>        He will answer, "Thus is it, because our signs came unto thee and thou
> didst forget them, and thus shalt thou be forgotten this day."
>  
>        Even thus will We recompense him who hath transgressed and hath not
> believed in the signs of his Lord; and assuredly the chastisement of the next
> world will be more severe and more lasting.
>  
>        Are not they, who walk the very places where they dwelt, aware how many
> generations we have destroyed before them?  Verily in this are signs to men of
> insight.
>  
>        And had not a decree of respite from thy Lord first gone forth, their
> chastisement had at once ensued.  Yet the time is fixed.
>  
> 20:130 Put up then with what they say; and celebrate the praise of thy Lord
> before the sunrise, and before its setting; and some time in the night do thou
> praise him, and in the extremes of the day, that thou haply mayest please Him.
>  
>        And strain not thine eye after what We have bestowed on divers of them -
> the braveries of this world - that we may thereby prove them.  The portion
> which thy Lord will give, is better and more lasting.
>  
>        Enjoin prayer on thy family, and persevere therein.  We ask not of thee
> to find thine own provision - we will provide for thee, and a happy issue shall
> there be to piety.
>  
>        But they say, "If he come not to us with a sign from his Lord...!"  But
> have not clear proof for the Koran come to them, in what is in the Books of
> old?
>  
>        And had We destroyed them by a chastisement before its time, they would
> surely have said, "O our Lord!  How could we believe if thou didst not send
> unto us an Apostle that we might follow thy signs ere that we were humbled and
> disgraces."
>
> — *Sura  20 - Ta. Ha.*