20. Taha (92 – 123)

⁹²Moses said, ‘When you realized they had gone astray, what prevented you, Aaron, ⁹³from coming after me? How could you disobey my orders?’ ⁹⁴He said, ‘Son of my mother—let go of my beard and my hair!—I was afraid you would say, “You have caused division among the children of Israel and have not heeded what I said.” ‘ ⁹⁵Moses said, ‘And what was the matter with you, Samiri?’ ⁹⁶He replied, ‘I saw something they did not; I took in some of the teachings of the Messenger but tossed them aside:^a Literally ‘I took a handful from the trail of the messenger and flung it. . .’. my soul prompted me to do what I did.’⁹⁷Moses said, ‘Get away from here! Your lot in this life is to say, “Do not touch me,”^b Another interpretation is that the Samiri will become a social outcast. but you have an appointment from which there is no escape. Look at your god which you have kept on worshipping—we shall grind it down^c Harraqa in classical usage has the meaning ‘grind’, as used here, rather than ‘burn’. and scatter it into the sea. ⁹⁸[People], your true god is the One God—there is no god but Him—whose knowledge embraces everything.’

⁹⁹In this way We relate to you [Prophet] stories of what happened before. We have given you a Qurʾan from Us. ¹⁰⁰ Whoever turns away from it will bear on the Day of Resurrection a heavy burden¹⁰¹and will remain under it. What a terrible burden to carry on that Day! ¹⁰²When the trumpet is sounded and We gather the sinful, sightless,^d Zurq from azraq, which means, among other things, ‘blind’. Cf. verses 124–6. ¹⁰³they will murmur to one another, ‘You stayed only ten days [on earth]’—¹⁰⁴We know best what they say—but the more perceptive of them will say, ‘Your stay [on earth] was only a single day.’

¹⁰⁵They ask you [Prophet] about the mountains: say, ‘[On that Day] my Lord will blast them into dust ¹⁰⁶and leave a flat plain, ¹⁰⁷with no peak or trough to be seen. ¹⁰⁸On that Day, people will follow the summoner from whom there is no escape; every voice will be hushed for the Lord of Mercy; only whispers will be heard. ¹⁰⁹On that Day, intercession will be useless except from those to whom the Lord of Mercy has granted permission and whose words He approves—¹¹⁰He knows what is before and behind them, though they do not comprehend Him—¹¹¹and [all] faces^a This can also mean ‘their faces’. will be humbled before the Living, Ever Watchful One. Those burdened with evil deeds will despair, ¹¹²but whoever has done righteous deeds and believed need have no fear of injustice or deprivation.’ ¹¹³We have sent the Qurʾan down in the Arabic tongue and given all kinds of warnings in it, so that they may beware or take heed—¹¹⁴exalted be God, the one who is truly in control.

[Prophet], do not rush to recite before the revelation is fully complete^b Muhammad, when repeating to Gabriel each revelation, after the angel delivered it, sometimes in his eagerness started repeating even before Gabriel had finished revealing. See also 75: 16–19. but say, ‘Lord, increase me in knowledge!’ ¹¹⁵We also commanded Adam before you, but he forgot and We found him lacking in constancy. ¹¹⁶When We said to the angels, ‘Bow down before Adam,’ they did. But Iblis refused, ¹¹⁷so We said, ‘Adam, this is your enemy, yours and your wife's: do not let him drive you out of the garden and make you miserable. ¹¹⁸In the garden you will never go hungry, feel naked, ¹¹⁹be thirsty, or suffer the heat of the sun.’ ¹²⁰But Satan whispered to Adam, saying, ‘Adam, shall I show you the tree of immortality and power that never decays?’ ¹²¹and they both ate from it. They became conscious of their nakedness and began to cover themselves with leaves from the garden. Adam disobeyed his Lord and was led astray—¹²²later his Lord brought him close, accepted his repentance, and guided him—¹²³God said, ‘Get out of the garden as each other's enemy.’^c Both parties, cf. 2: 36 and note.