Surah 20 of 114 · Makkah
سُورَةُ طه
Taha Taa-Haa
135 verses · revealed in Makkah
The context
Ta-Ha is Makkan, from the early years, and its most famous association is with the conversion of Umar ibn al-Khattab. The account, well known though its chains are discussed, has him setting out to kill the Prophet ﷺ, learning that his own sister had accepted Islam, and finding a page of this surah in her house. He read it, and went instead to declare his belief.
The surah's opening explains why it could do that. It begins by telling the Prophet ﷺ that the Qur'an was not sent down to cause him distress, and then, for more than eighty verses, tells the story of Musa in more detail than anywhere else in the Book: a man who was afraid, who asked for his brother's help because he could not do it alone, and who was sent to the most powerful man on earth anyway.
The name
Ta and Ha are two of the disconnected letters that open several surahs, and the honest position, held by many of the early commentators, is that their meaning is not known with certainty. Some reports treat them as a name or an address to the Prophet ﷺ. The surah is called by them, and the Qur'an does not explain them, which is itself worth sitting with.
How it moves
- 1-8Not to cause you distressThe opening addresses the Prophet's ﷺ own exhaustion before it asks anything of him.
- 9-48The fire, and the commissionMusa sees a fire, is spoken to directly, is given the staff and the hand, and asks for his chest to be expanded, his task made easy, and his brother appointed with him.
- 49-79Before Fir'awn, and the seaThe confrontation, the magicians who prostrate and are threatened with crucifixion and do not move, and the crossing.
- 80-98The calfForty nights away and the community has made a calf. Harun's defence, and the confrontation with Samiri.
- 99-135Adam, and the closing instructionThe forgetting of Adam, the promise that whoever follows the guidance will not go astray nor suffer, and the warning about a life turned away from remembrance.
The themes
Revelation as relief, not burden
The surah states in its second verse that it was not sent down to distress him, which sets the register for everything after it.
Asking for help is part of the commission
Musa's response to the greatest assignment ever given is to ask for his chest to be expanded and for his brother, and both requests are granted without comment.
Conviction arriving in an instant
The magicians go from employees of Fir'awn to men facing execution in the space of a single prostration, and the surah lets that happen fast.
Turning away has a texture
The closing passage does not threaten a distant punishment for forgetting Allah. It describes a constricted life, here, as the consequence.
The heart of it
Recited slowly, the surah's centre is Musa's prayer at the burning bush, and it is the prayer of somebody who knows he is not adequate to what he has been given. My Lord, expand for me my chest, and ease for me my task, and untie the knot from my tongue. It is short enough to memorise in a minute and is worth having ready before anything you are afraid of.
Its closing pages do something quieter and harder. Whoever turns away from My remembrance will have a constricted life. Not a punishment scheduled for later: a description of now, which any reader who has spent a season away from prayer will recognise before they have finished the verse.
Verses worth knowing
- 20:1-2Ta-Ha. We did not send down the Qur'an to you to cause you distress. Worth reading whenever the religion has started to feel like one more thing you are failing at.
- 20:25-28Musa's prayer. Four short requests, granted in full, made by a man who had every reason to think himself the wrong choice.
- 20:46Do not fear. Indeed, I am with you both, hearing and seeing. Said to two men about to walk into the court of Fir'awn.
- 20:124Whoever turns away from My remembrance will have a depressed life. A diagnosis rather than a threat.
On reciting it
No authentic report establishes a specific merit for reciting Ta-Ha; reports naming a reward for it are graded weak. The account of Umar's conversion through a page of this surah is widely transmitted in the sirah literature and is given here as biography, not as a virtue report.
No virtue report
Read beside it
On the shelf
- 20:1-3Taha · 20:1-3
- 20:114Taha · 20:114
- 20:130Taha · 20:130
- 20:131Taha · 20:131
- 20:132Taha · 20:132
- 20:14Taha · 20:14
- 20:25-28Taha · 20:25-28
- 20:46Taha · 20:46
- 20:5-6Taha · 20:5-6
- 20:50Taha · 20:50
- 20:55Taha · 20:55
- 20:7Taha · 20:7
- 20:8Taha · 20:8
- 20:82Taha · 20:82
- 20:98Taha · 20:98
Surahs it travels with