Surah 20. Ta-Ha

Allah reassured 'them', 'Have no fear! I am with you, hearing and seeing.

  - Mustafa Khattab

He said: "Fear not: for I am with you: I hear and see (everything).

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

So go to him and say, 'Indeed we are both messengers from your Lord, so let the Children of Israel go with us, and do not oppress them. We have come to you with a sign from your Lord. And salvation will be for whoever follows the 'right' guidance.

  - Mustafa Khattab

"So go ye both to him and say `Verily we are apostles sent by thy Lord: send forth therefore the Children of Israel with us and afflict them not: with a Sign indeed have we come from thy Lord! And peace to all who follow guidance! ^{2570 2571}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Children of Israel were subjected to all sorts of oppression and indignities. They were given hard tasks; their leaders were unjustly beaten; they were forced to make bricks without straw; and they "groaned in bondage" (Exod. v. 6-19. vi. 5).

Allah, in His infinite Mercy, always offers Peace to the most hardened sinners, even those who are warring against Him. But, as stated in the next verse, their defiance cannot go on with impunity indefinitely. The punishment must inevitably come for sin, whether the sinner is great or small.

It has indeed been revealed to us that the punishment will be upon whoever denies 'the truth' and turns away.''

  - Mustafa Khattab

" `Verily it has been revealed to us that the Penalty (awaits) those who reject and turn away.' "

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Pharaoh asked, 'Who then is the Lord of you two, O Moses?'

  - Mustafa Khattab

(When this message was delivered) (Pharaoh) said: "Who then O Moses is the Lord of you two?" ²⁵⁷²

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Notice how subtly Pharaoh rejects the implication in Moses's speech, in which Moses had referred to "thy Lord" (verse 47). Pharaoh implicitly repudiates the suggestion that the God who had sent Moses and Aaron could possibly be Pharaoh's Lord. He asks insolently, "Who is this Lord of yours, of Whom ye speak as having sent you?"

He answered, 'Our Lord is the One Who has given everything its 'distinctive' form, then guided 'it'.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

He said: "Our Lord is He Who gave to each (created) thing its form and nature and further gave (it) guidance." ²⁵⁷³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The answer of Moses is straightforward, dignified, and illuminating. He will not dispute about "my Lord" or "your Lord," the God of Israel, or the God of Egypt. He and his brother were proud to serve "our Lord," but He was the universal Lord and Cherisher, the One and Only God, Who had created all beings and all things. It was from Him that each created thing derived its form and nature, including such free-will and power as man had got. He, Pharaoh, was subject to the same condition. In order that the free-will should be rightly exercised, Allah had given guidance through His Messengers, and His Signs. Moses and Aaron stood as such Messengers, with such Signs. Will Pharaoh now understand and do right?

Pharaoh asked, 'And what about previous peoples?'

  - Mustafa Khattab

(Pharaoh) said: "What then is the condition of previous generations?" ²⁵⁷⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

But Pharaoh was not the man to accept teaching from the despised Israelite-one, too, who in his eyes was a renegade from the higher Egyptian civilisation. "If," he says in effect, "there is only one God, to Whom all things are referred, this is a new religion. What of the religion of our ancestors? Were they wrong in worshipping the Egyptian gods? And if they were wrong, are they in misery now? He wanted to trap Moses into a scathing denunciation of his ancestors, which would at once have deprived him of the sympathy or the hearing of the Egyptian crowd.

He replied, 'That knowledge is with my Lord in a Record. My Lord neither falters nor forgets 'anything'.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

He replied: "The knowledge of that is with my Lord duly recorded: my Lord never errs nor forgets ²⁵⁷⁵

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Moses did not fall into the trap. He remembered the injunction given to him to speak mildly (xx. 44). He speaks mildly, but does not in any way whittle down the truth. He said in effect: 'Allah's knowledge is perfect, as if, with men, it were a record. For men may make mistakes or may not remember, but Allah never mistakes and never forgets. But Allah is not only All-Knowing: He is also All-Good. Look around you: the whole earth is spread out like a carpet. Men go to and fro in it freely. He sends abundance of water from the skies, which comes down in Nile floods and fertilises the whole soil of Egypt, and feeds men and animals.'

'He is the One' Who has laid out the earth for 'all of' you, and set in it pathways for you, and sends down rain from the sky, causing various types of plants to grow,

  - Mustafa Khattab

"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 have We produced divers pairs of plants each separate from the others. ^{2576 2577 2578}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Sabil means not only a road, but would include water-roads or channels, and in modern conditions, airways-in fact all means of communication.

This seems to be outside the speech of Moses, and connects itself with the following verses 54-56, as part of the Word of Allah, expanding the speech of Moses and explaining the working of Allah's Providence in nature.

Azwaj: we might translate here (as in xv. 88) by "classes" instead of "pairs"; but as sex in plants seems to be referred to elsewhere (see xiii. 3, and n. 1804), I translate "pairs".

'so' eat and graze your cattle. Surely in this are signs for people of sound judgment.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Eat (for yourselves) and pasture your cattle: verily in this are Signs for men endued with understanding.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

From the earth We created you, and into it We will return you, and from it We will bring you back again.

  - Mustafa Khattab

From the (earth) did We create you and into it shall We return you and from it shall We bring you out once again. ²⁵⁷⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The verse ought really to go into the last Section.

And We certainly showed Pharaoh all of Our signs,¹ but he denied them and refused 'to believe'.

  - Mustafa Khattab

 See footnote for 17:101.

And We showed Pharaoh all Our Signs but he did reject and refuse. ²⁵⁸⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

This is a sort of general introduction to the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh. The Signs are not only the countering of the fraudulent magic of Egypt with real miracles, but the subsequent Plagues (not mentioned here) and the Crossing of the Red Sea by Israel.

He said, 'Have you come to drive us out of our land with your magic, O Moses?

  - Mustafa Khattab

He said: "Hast thou come to drive us out of our land with thy magic O Moses? ²⁵⁸¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Egyptians accused Moses of a design to deprive them of their land, and of exercising black magic. Both charges were palpably false. What Moses wanted to do was to free his people from bondage. The Egyptians had all the power in their possession. As to magic, the Egyptians judged Moses by themselves. They accused the Prophet of Allah of doing the same, though both his outlook and the source of his strength were altogether different.

We can surely meet you with similar magic. So set for us an appointment that neither of us will fail to keep, in a central place.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

"But we can surely produce magic to match thine! So make a tryst between us and thee which we shall not fail to keep neither we nor thou in a place where both shall have even chances." ²⁵⁸²

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Suwan: literally, 'equal, even'. It has been construed to mean: (1) a place equally distant for both sides, a central place, or (2) equally convenient to both sides, or (3) an open level plain, where the people can collect with ease. All these are possible meanings, but the one I have adopted is more comprehensive, and includes the others, viz.: (4) a place where both sides shall have even chances. "a fair place," as Palmer loconically translates it.

Moses said, 'Your appointment is on the Day of the Festival, and let the people be gathered mid-morning.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

Moses said: "Your tryst is the Day of the Festival and let the people be assembled when the sun is well up." ²⁵⁸³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

A great day of a Temple Festival, when the temples and streets were decorated, and people were on holiday, free from work. Moses makes this appointment in order to collect as large a number as possible, for his first duty is to preach the Truth. And he apparently did it with some effect with some Egyptians (xx. 70, 72-76), though the Pharaoh and his high and mighty officers rejected the Truth and afterwards paid the Penality.

Pharaoh then withdrew, orchestrated his scheme, then returned.

  - Mustafa Khattab

So Pharaoh withdrew: he concerted his plan and then came (back). ²⁵⁸⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Pharaoh was apparently taken aback at Moses appointing a solemn day of public Festival, when there would be a large concourse and there would be sure to be some people not in the Court clique, who might be critical of Pharaoh's own sorcerers. But probably there was something more in their dark counsels, something unfair and wicked, to which Moses refers in his speech in the next verse.