20 Sura Taha
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
قَالَ
فَمَا بَالُ
الْقُرُونِ
الْأُولَى ﴿٥١﴾
20: 51. (Pharaoh) said: "What then is the condition of previous generations?"
C2574. 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.
قَالَ
عِلْمُهَا عِندَ
رَبِّي فِي
كِتَابٍ...
20: 52. He replied:
"The knowledge of that is with my Lord, duly recorded:
C2575. Moses did not fall into the trap. He remembered the injunction given to him to speak mildly (20:44). 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 fertilizes the whole soil of Egypt, and feeds men and animals.'
...لَّا يَضِلُّ رَبِّي وَلَا يَنسَى ﴿٥٢﴾
my Lord never errs, nor forgets --
Other versions:
20:51
Said [Pharaoh]: "And what of all the past generations?" 32
20:52 [Ta’ha, Mecca 45]
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36. Surah Ya Sin (O Thou Human Being) Mecca 41
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
إِنَّا نَحْنُ
نُحْيِي الْمَوْتَى ...
36:12. Verily We shall give life to the dead,
C3954. All this is possible, because there is the assurance of a Hereafter, in which Allah will be all-in-all, and evil will no longer bestride the world, as the term of its respite wit] have expired.
... وَنَكْتُبُ مَا قَدَّمُوا وَآثَارَهُمْ...
and We record that which they sent before and that which they leave behind,
C3955. Our deeds, good and bad, go to Allah before us. They will of course be brought to our account; but our account will also be swelled by the example we left behind us and the consequences of our deeds, that will come into play or continue to operate after our earthly life has ceased.
Our moral and spiritual responsibility is therefore much wider than as affects our own person.
... وَكُلَّ شَيْءٍ أحْصَيْنَاهُ فِي إِمَامٍ مُبِينٍ ﴿١٢﴾
and of all things have We taken account in a clear Book (of evidence).
All our account will be exactly preserved as in a book of record [immamim Mubin]
Asad’s Version:
36:12 Verily, We shall indeed bring the dead back to life; and We shall record whatever [deeds] they have sent ahead, and the traces [of good and evil] which they have left behind: for of all things do We take account in a record clear.
