20. Sura Taha
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
20: 15. "Verily the Hour is coming --
C2545. The first need is to mend our lives and worship and serve Allah, as in the last verse.
The next is to realise the meaning of the Hereafter, when every soul will get the meed of its conduct in this life.
...أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا لِتُجْزَى كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا تَسْعَى ﴿١٥﴾
My design is to keep it hidden -- for every soul to receive its reward by the measure of its endeavour.
C2546. Ukhfi may mean either "keep it hidden", or "make it manifest",
and the Commentators have taken, some one meaning and some the other.
- If the first is taken, it means that the exact hour or day when the Judgment comes is hidden from man;
- if the second, it means that the fact of the Judgment to come is made known, that man may remember and take warning.
I think that both meanings are implied. (R).
فَلاَ يَصُدَّنَّكَ
عَنْهَا مَنْ
لاَ يُؤْمِنُ
بِهَا وَاتَّبَعَ
هَوَاهُ...
20: 16. "Therefore let not such as believe not therein but follow their own lusts,
...فَتَرْدَى ﴿١٦﴾
divert thee therefrom, lest thou perish!"
C2547. Moses had yet to meet the formidable opposition of the arrogant, Pharaoh and his proud Egyptians, and latter, the rebellion of his own people. In receiving his commission, he is warned of both dangers. This relates to man's own soul:
when once the light reaches him, let him hold fast to it lest he perish.
He will be beset with dangers of all kinds around him, the worst will be the danger of unbelieving people who seem to thrive on their selfishness and in following their own vain desires! (R).
وَمَا
تِلْكَ بِيَمِينِكَ
يَا مُوسَى ﴿١٧﴾
20: 17. "And what is that in thy right hand, O Moses?"
20: 18. He said,
"It is my rod: on it I lean;
C2548. Now comes the miracle of the rod.
First of all, the attention of Moses himself is drawn to it, and he thinks of the ordinary uses to which he puts it in his daily life. (R).
...أَتَوَكَّأُ عَلَيْهَا وَأَهُشُّ بِهَا عَلَى غَنَمِي...
with it I beat down fodder for my flocks;
...وَلِيَ فِيهَا مَآرِبُ أُخْرَى ﴿١٨﴾
and in it I find other uses."
قَالَ
أَلْقِهَا يَا
مُوسَى ﴿١٩﴾
20: 19. (Allah) said, "Throw it, O Moses!"
Asad’s Version:
20:115
AND, INDEED, long ago did We impose Our commandment on Adam; 102 but he forgot it, and We found no firmness of purpose in him.
20:116
For [thus it was:] when We told the angels, "Prostrate yourselves before Adam!" - they all prostrated themselves, save Iblis, who refused [to do it]; 103
(20:117) and thereupon We said: "O Adam! Verily, this is a foe unto thee and thy wife: so let him not drive the two of you out of this garden and render thee unhappy. 104
(20:118) Behold, it is provided for thee that thou shalt not hunger here or feel naked, 105
(20:119) and that thou shalt not thirst here or suffer from the heat of the sun."
[[Asad’s note -102 The relevant divine commandment - or, rather, warning - is spelled out in verse 117. The present passage connects with the statement in verse 99, "Thus do We relate unto thee some of the stories of what happened in the past", and is meant to show that negligence of spiritual truths is one of the recurrent characteristics of the human race (Razi), which is symbolized here - as in many other
places in the Qur'an - by Adam. ]]
[[Ali’s note - 2640 The spiritual fall of two individual souls, Pharaoh and the Samiri, having been referred to, the one through overweening arrogance, and the other through a spirit of mischief and false harking back to the past, our attention is now called to the prototype of Evil (satan) who tempted Adam, the original Man, and to the fact that though man was clearly warned that satan is his enemy and will only effect his ruin, he showed so little firmness that he succumbed to it at once at the first opportunity. (20.115) ]]