20. Ta-Ha (Ta-Ha) |
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Maududi's Introduction |
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This Surah takes its name from its "first word "Ta Ha". This name, like
the names of many other Surahs, is merely symbolic.
The period of its revelation is the same as of Surah Maryam. It is just
possible that it was sent down during the Migration to Habash or just
after it. Anyhow, it is certain that this Surah was revealed before
Hadrat Umar embraced Islam.
According to a well known and authentic
tradition when Hadrat Umar set out to kill the Holy Prophet, he met a
certain person, who said, "Before you do anything else, you should
know that your own sister and brother-in-law have embraced Islam"
Hearing this, he directly went to the house of his sister. There he
found his sister, Fatimah, and his brother-in-law, Said bin Zaid,
learning the contents of a scroll from Khabbab bin Art. When Fatimah saw
him coming she hid the scroll at once, but Hadrat Umar had heard the
recital, so he began to interrogate them about it. Then he began to
thrash his brother-in-law, and wounded his sister, who tried to
protect him. At last both of them confessed, "We have become Muslims;
you may do whatever you like." As Hadrat Umar was moved to see blood
running down from her head, he said, "Show me the thing you were
reading." The sister asked him to promise on oath that he would not
tear it, and added, "You cannot touch it unless you have a bath."
Accordingly, Hadrat Umar took his bath and when he began to read the
scroll, which contained this Surah, he spontaneously spoke out, "What
an excellent thing!" At this Hadrat Khabbab, who had hidden himself at
the sound of his footsteps, came out of his hiding and said, "By God,
I have high expectations that Allah will get great service from you to
propagate the Message of His Prophet, for just yesterday I heard the
Holy Prophet praying to Allah, 'My Lord, make Abul Hakam bin Hisham
(Abu Jahl) or Umar bin Khattab a supporter of Islam. So O Umar, turn
to Allah, turn to Allah." These words proved to be so persuasive that
he at once accompanied Hadrat Khabbab and went to the Holy Prophet to
embrace Islam. This happened a short time after the Migration to
Habash.
This Surah begins with the enunciation of the object of the Revelation
of the Qur'an to this effect:"O Muhammad, this Quran has not been sent
down to you to put you unnecessarily to some great affliction. It does
not demand from you to perform the impossible task of imbuing the
hearts of the obdurate disbelievers with Faith. It is merely an
admonition meant to guide on to the Right Path those who fear God and
want to save themselves from His punishment. This Quran is the Word of
the Master of the earth and the heavens and God-head belongs to Him
alone:These two facts are eternal whether one believes them or not."
After this introduction, the Surah abruptly moves on to relate the
story of Prophet Moses without any apparent relevancy and without even
hinting at its applicability to the events of the period. However, if
we read between the lines, we realize that the discourse is addressed
very relevantly to the people of Makkah. But before we explain the
hidden meaning of the discourse, we must keep in view the fact that
the Arabs in general acknowledged Moses as a Prophet of God. This was
so because they had "been influenced by the large number of the Jews
around them and by" the neighboring Christian kingdoms. Now let us
state those things which are hidden between the lines of the story:
Thus, the story of Moses has been used to throw light on all those matters which were connected with the conflict between the Holy Prophet and the Quraish. Then at the end of the story, the. Quraish have been briefly admonished, as if to say, "The Quran has been sent down in your tongue for your own good. If you listen to it and follow its admonition, you will be doing so for your own good but if you reject it, you will yourselves meet with an evil end." After this the story of Prophet Adam has been related, as if to tell the Quraish, "The way you are following is the way of Satan, whereas the right way for a man is to follow his father Adam. He was beguiled by Satan, but when he realized his error, he plainly confessed it and repented and again turned back to the service of Allah and won His favour. On the other hand, if a person follows Satan and sticks to his error obdurately in spite of admonition, he does harm to himself alone like Satan." In the end, the Holy Prophet and the Muslims have been advised not to be impatient in regard to the punishment to the disbelievers, as if to say, "Allah has His Own scheme concerning them. He does not seize them at once but gives them sufficient respite. Therefore you should not grow impatient but bear the persecutions with fortitude and go on conveying the Message." In this connection, great emphasis has been laid on Salat so that it may create in the believers the virtues of patience, forbearance, contentment, resignation to the will of God and self analysis for these are greatly needed in the service of the Message of the Truth. |
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