Sūrat Ṭāhā

Meccan (Except for verses 130 and 131, which are Medinan).

It consists of 135 verses. (Revealed after Sūrat Maryam).

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Ṭā-Hā.

We have not sent down the Qur’an upon you to cause you distress.

Except as a reminder for whoever fears [God].

A revelation from Him who created the earth and the high heavens.

{Ṭā-Hā}: Abū ʿAmr pronounced the ṭāʾ with emphasis (fakhama) due to its elevation (istiʿlāʾ). Ibn Kathīr and Ibn ʿĀmir pronounced the hāʾ with imāla (inclination) and the ṭāʾ with emphasis, following the original form. The rest pronounced both with imāla.

It is narrated from al-Ḥasan (may Allah be pleased with him) regarding Ṭā-Hā: It is interpreted as a command to "tread" (waṭʾ). The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to stand in his night prayer on one leg, so he was commanded to tread the earth with both feet. The root is ṭaʾ (tread!), where the hamza was changed into a hāʾ, or changed into an alif in yaṭʾu (as in the poetic verse: "No pasture there"). The command was built upon this, and the hāʾ is for silence (sakt). It is also possible that these are two parts of names, indicating the named entities. Allah knows best.

It is said that Ṭā-Hā in the dialect of ʿAkk means "O man!" Perhaps the ʿAkk tribe manipulated the phrase "O this man" (yā hādhā), as if they replaced the yāʾ with a ṭāʾ, saying ṭā for yā, and abbreviated hādhā to hā. The artifice is evident in the cited verse: "Indeed, stupidity, ṭā-hā (O man), is in your characters; may Allah not sanctify the morals of the cursed."

The three opinions regarding the opening letters (fawātiḥ)—which I presented at the beginning of al-Kashshāf—are what the intelligent scholars rely upon.

{We have not sent down}: If you consider Ṭā-Hā a recitation of the names of the letters as previously mentioned, then this is the beginning of the speech. If you consider it a name for the Sūrah, it may be a predicate (khabar) for an implied subject (mubtadaʾ), or it may be in the place of the subject, with al-Qurʾān being the predicate. It is also possible that it is an answer to an oath. It has been recited as: "We did not send down the Qurʾān upon you."

{To cause you distress}: That is, to tire yourself out through excessive grief for them and their disbelief, and your sorrow that they might not believe. It is like His saying: "Perhaps you would kill yourself with grief." Shaqāʾ (distress) comes in the meaning of fatigue. From this is the proverb: "More distressed than a trainer of a young camel." The meaning is: You are only responsible for conveying and reminding; it is not written upon you that they must believe, provided you have not fallen short in delivering the message and the good counsel.

It is said that Abū Jahl and al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith said to him: "You are wretched (shaqī) because you abandoned the religion of your forefathers." This was intended to refute that, asserting that the religion of Islam and this Qurʾān are the means to attain every victory and the cause for reaching every happiness, while what the disbelievers are in is the very essence of wretchedness.

It is narrated that the Prophet (peace be upon him) prayed at night until his feet swelled. Gabriel (peace be upon him) said to him: "Be gentle with yourself, for your soul has a right upon you." That is: We did not send it down for you to exhaust yourself with worship and taste severe hardship. You were only sent with the tolerant Ḥanīfiyyah.

Both li-tashqā (to cause distress) and tadhkirah (a reminder) are causes (ʿillah) for the action. However, the first required the lām because it is not for the agent of the causative verb, thus missing the condition for the accusative case (naṣb) as a direct object. The second was permitted to have the lām removed and be in the accusative because it met the conditions.

If you ask: Is it permissible to say, "We did not send down the Qurʾān for you to be distressed," like His saying: "Lest your deeds become worthless"? I say: Yes, but that is an incidental accusative. As for the accusative in tadhkirah, it is like the one in "I hit Zayd," because it is one of the five objects that are foundations and rules for others.

If you ask: Is it permissible for tadhkirah to be a substitute (badal) for the place of li-tashqā? I say: No, because the categories differ. Rather, it is an accusative of interrupted exception (istithnāʾ munqaṭiʿ), where illā means lākin (but). It is also possible that the meaning is: We sent down the Qurʾān for you to bear the hardships of conveying, debating the tyrants among the enemies of Islam, fighting them, and other types of burdens of prophethood. We did not send down this tiring, difficult thing except to be a reminder. In this view, tadhkirah can be a state (ḥāl) or an object of purpose (mafʿūl lahu).

{For him who fears}: For him whose affair leads to fear, and for whom Allah knows that he will exchange disbelief for faith and hardness for fear.

Regarding the accusative of {tanzīlan} (a revelation), there are several views:

1. It is a substitute for tadhkirah if it is a state (ḥāl), not if it is an object of purpose (because a thing cannot be the cause of itself).
2. It is in the accusative by an implied nazzala (He sent down).
3. It is in the accusative by anzalnā (We sent down), because the meaning of "We did not send it down except as a reminder" is "We sent it down as a reminder."
4. It is in the accusative for praise and specification.
5. It is in the accusative by yakhshā (he fears) as its object. That is: Allah sent it down as a reminder for him who fears the revelation of Allah. This is a good meaning and a clear parsing. It has also been recited as tanzīlun in the nominative as a predicate for an implied subject.

What follows tanzīlan up to His saying: {To Him belong the most beautiful names} is an exaltation and glorification of the status of the "Sent Down" (the Qurʾān), by attributing it to the One whose actions and attributes are these. It is either a connection to tanzīlan itself, or it is an implied description.

If you ask: What is the benefit of shifting from the first-person pronoun to the third-person? I say: There are several, including the habit of iftinān (artistic variation) in speech and the beauty and awe it provides. Also, these attributes are only listed with the third-person pronoun. Furthermore, He first said "We sent down," glorifying by attributing it to the pronoun of the One who is obeyed, then followed it with the One characterized by the attributes of greatness and glorification, thus doubling the majesty. It is also possible that anzalnā is a narration of the speech of Gabriel and the angels descending with him. Describing the heavens as "the Most High" is an indication of the greatness of the power of the One who creates the likes of them in their height and distance.

{The Most Merciful [who is] above the Throne established. To Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is on the earth and what is between them and what is under the soil.}