Surah Al-Qasas: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

(Ta. Sin. Mim.) Divine truths are made plainly known to you in words formed from letters that anyone among you who listens or reads will understand.

O Prophet! As counsel and a lesson for those who reflect on the reason for their creation and wish to live in keeping with it, We will tell you some of the stories of what took place between Moses and Pharaoh.

Long ago in Egypt, Pharaoh tyrannically divided the people into classes and, to reduce some of them to utter weakness and powerlessness, he was killing their sons and sparing their women; for he was a most cruel man who spread corruption.

But We wished, by Our grace and mercy, to deliver from tyranny these people who were oppressed and made weak on earth, so that they might inherit Pharaoh’s land as an honorable community and hold power, and bring upon Pharaoh’s armies and Haman what they feared. To bring this about, We revealed to Moses’ mother: “Nurse him for a while, and if you fear that something will happen to him, then leave him to the waters of the river; do not be afraid or grieve, for We will surely return him to you and make him one of Our messengers.”

At last someone from Pharaoh’s household found the baby floating down the river, and, not knowing that in the end he would become an enemy and a source of grief for them, they took the baby in; neither Pharaoh, nor Haman, nor their soldiers could possibly know the truth of the matter. We had willed it to be so.

Pharaoh’s wife said, “This child may be a joy and a delight for us; do not kill him; perhaps he may be of use to us one day, or we may even adopt him as a son.” Of course, she too could not know where it would all end.

Meanwhile Moses’ mother, her heart aching for her child, could barely get through that night until morning; had We not strengthened her heart so that she would trust Our promise, she would almost have gone to them and said, “This is my child.”

His mother had told Moses’ sister to follow the baby she had left in the water, and she followed him without letting anyone notice.

And from the very first day We made Moses refuse the milk of the wet nurses brought to him; meanwhile his sister came to Pharaoh’s family and said, “I can show you a family who will take on the care of this baby on your behalf.”

So We reunited Moses with his mother, that she might be comforted and not grieve, and that she might see and know that Allah’s promise is always fulfilled; but most people do not believe that Allah’s promise will surely be fulfilled.

Then, when Moses reached adulthood and maturity, We granted him a strong power of judgment to tell right from wrong. Thus do We reward those who are eager to obey Allah.

One day, at an hour when most people were resting in their homes and the streets were deserted, Moses went down into the city and saw two men fighting, one from his own people and the other from the native people who were their enemies; the man from his own people asked Moses for help. Thereupon Moses struck the man from the other side with his fist and caused his death; and then, as soon as he had pulled himself together, he said, “Alas, what have I done? I gave way to Satan’s provocation and fell into his trap. Satan is an open enemy who leads people astray.”

Then he prayed, “My Lord, by doing such a thing I have wronged myself; please forgive me.” And Allah forgave him, for Allah is most merciful and forgiving toward those who repent and turn to what is right.

Then Moses gave his word: “O my Lord! For the sake of all the blessings You have granted me, I will never again take the side of the guilty.”

Next morning, as Moses was watching all around him in the city with fearful eyes, he suddenly saw that the man who had asked for his help the day before was calling on him for help again today. Moses turned to him and said, “You are truly an unruly troublemaker who has gone off the rails; keep away from me.” And when he then stepped in to break up the fight and tried to hold back the man from the other side, that man said to Moses, “Do you want to kill me too, as you killed a man only yesterday, O Moses? Your aim is not to break up the fight but to become a tyrant over the land.”

Just then a man came running from the far end of the city and said to Moses, “O Moses! The chiefs of the land have gathered and are conferring about killing you; leave this city at once. Believe me, I am one who wishes you well.”

Thereupon Moses left the city in fear, keeping watch all around him, and praying as he went, “My Lord, save me from this wrongdoing people.”

With these feelings Moses turned toward Midian, saying to himself, “I hope my Lord will guide me to the right way.”

At last, when he reached a place in Midian where there were wells, he came upon a group of people watering their animals there; a little beyond them two women were waiting beside their animals for their turn to water them. Moses went up to them and said, “How can I help you?” and they said: “We are waiting for these shepherds to water their animals and move off; being women, we cannot stand too close; and our father is very old, so he cannot come with us.”

Moses watered those women’s animals and then withdrew into the shade and prayed, saying, “My Lord, how greatly I need every good thing You will bestow on me.”

Shortly afterwards one of the girls whose animals he had helped to water came up, shy and bashful, and said to Moses, “My father invites you, to reward you for your help to us.” So Moses went to their home and told the girls’ father what had happened to him. He said, “Do not be afraid; you are now free of that wrongdoing people.”

Meanwhile one of the girls said, “Father, take him into your employ for a wage; I am sure he will prove the strong and trustworthy man you can hire.” The girls’ father turned to Moses and said, “If you agree to work for me for eight years, I would like to give you one of these daughters of mine in marriage; if you wish to make it ten years, the decision on that is then yours, for I do not want to press you on this. If Allah wills, you will find me an honest and decent man.”

Moses said to him, “I accept this too; so let it be agreed between us: whichever of the two terms I complete, let there be no ill feeling toward me; and let Allah be witness to what we have said,” and he set to work.

After completing the agreed term, Moses set out for Egypt, taking his family with him. When they came near Mount Sinai, he saw the glow of a fire on the slope of the mountain and said to those with him, “You wait here; I will go to the fire; perhaps I can bring back from there an ember and some news about the way,” and he headed for the place where he had seen the fire. As he drew near, in that blessed and hallowed place, a voice called to him from the direction of a tree on the right side of the valley: “O Moses! I am Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.” Then he was told to put down his staff. When Moses put down his staff and saw it turn into a snake moving swiftly, he began to run in fear without looking back; thereupon Allah said, “O Moses! Come back and do not be afraid; come near; you are safe here. Now put your hand into the front of your garment; your hand will come out of it as a source of light shining with flawless whiteness. So master your fear, pull yourself together, and put your worries behind you. These two miracles are among the signs that prove you have been sent as a prophet to Pharaoh and his people; and because they associate partners with Allah and deny the truth, they are a wrongdoing people.”

Moses said, “O my Lord! I killed one of them, and so I fear that they will kill me. My brother Aaron is more eloquent and fluent in speech; appoint him too as my support, my helper, and one who confirms me, for I also fear that they will not believe me.”

Allah said: “We will strengthen you through your brother Aaron, and We will make you both so effective and strong that they will never be able to harm you; through Our signs you and those who follow you will prevail.”

When Moses came before Pharaoh and his men and invited them, with clear verses and with the miracles given to him as proof of his prophethood, to the system of life whose limits Allah has set, the reason for their creation, Pharaoh and the rulers of his order at once said, “What he says is nothing but the contrived words of a magician, made up by a mortal like us, and the tricks of a sorcerer; nor have we heard from our forefathers anything like what Moses says that would confirm it.”

Thereupon Moses said to them, “I am a messenger sent from my Lord to make known the right path and to guide people on it. Allah is the Owner of everything in the universe, and He alone knows who will be left with what in the end. Allah alone is the true Lord and God; the wrongdoers will never escape Allah’s punishment.”

In response to what Moses said, Pharaoh turned to his own men and said: “My lords! I recognize no god for you other than myself; so it is I alone who determine your system of life, and I who make your laws.” Then he said, “O Haman! Fire up the kiln where you make bricks, bake the clay, and build me a tower of bricks so high that I may climb up to the god of Moses and meet him, though I am not one who will believe what Moses says.”

Pharaoh and his soldiers swaggered and grew arrogant with such mocking airs, and they imagined that in the end they would never come before Us. That is why We seized Pharaoh and his soldiers in a tight grip and destroyed them in the sea. Look, then, at the end of the wrongdoers who set themselves up as gods!

Pharaoh and those like him became leaders who called people to the Fire. On the Day of Resurrection they will never be helped; in the life of this world, too, We made them people remembered with a curse after them, and on the Day of Resurrection they will be among the base, the loathsome, and the disgraced.

The truth is that, after We had punished and destroyed earlier generations who persisted in associating partners with Allah and in disbelief because of this attitude of theirs, We gave Moses a source of mercy, to serve people as a guide to the right path and a book of guidance, so that they might use their reason and fulfill their responsibilities.

O Muhammad! When We were making these things known to Moses, you were not near that valley, and you knew nothing of what that people went through. We brought into being many generations between them and you, nor were you someone who lived among the people of Midian and heard and learned these things from them. It is We who chose you as a prophet and made these things known to you through Our verses.

You are the prophet sent as a mercy from your Lord, so that you may call to the truth and warn a people to whom no prophet had come for a long time. Perhaps they will reflect on the call you make in Allah’s name and follow what is right.

We have also sent you as a prophet to your people so that those living in this swamp of shirk and disbelief may not plead as an excuse, when a calamity befalls them because of the sins their own hands have committed, “Our Lord! Had You sent us a prophet, we would have followed the messages You made known through Your verses. These calamities would not have befallen us, and we would have been among the believers.”

When the prophet came to them inviting them to the divine system and morality, they said this time, “If only Muhammad had been given miracles like those given to Moses.” Very well; but did those who associated partners with Allah not, despite seeing the miracles given to Moses earlier, persist in their denial, saying of Moses and Aaron, “These are sorcerers who deceive the eye,” and turn their backs on the call? Moreover, many of them say, “We reject both the book given to Moses and the one given to you.”

O Prophet! Say to them: “If there is a book that shows a truer way than the system of life to which you are invited by this Book sent from Allah, bring it, and I will follow it.”

If they cannot answer this challenge of yours (and they will not be able to produce anything truer), know well that they are following their own selfish, arbitrary, and empty desires.

Who could be more astray than one who abandons the right path to which Allah guides through books and prophets, and follows his own selfish desires? Allah does not force such an obstinate people, who associate partners with Him, deny the truth, and do wrong, onto His right path.

We send down Our verses section by section, one after another, so that they may be well understood, reflected on, and taken to heart, and so that awareness may grow.

Some of those to whom We gave the Book before believe in this Quran too, which confirms the truths that remain in the books they hold; and when the Quran is recited to them they say: “We follow at once the call made through this Book, for it is a message to us from our Lord. Indeed, even before the Quran reached us, we were people who wished to submit to our Lord.”

Such people will have their reward multiplied, because they turned wholeheartedly to Allah’s call and were patient, strove to repel evil with good, and spent in this way from what We gave them.

These people turn away from needless and empty talk, and when they meet those who busy themselves with it, they say to them: “We are responsible for what we do, and you are responsible for what you do; leave us alone and keep away from us; we do not wish to keep company with the ungrateful and ignorant who do not know their place.”

You surely cannot guide those you love to the right path that is the reason for their creation. Allah alone guides to the right path whoever seeks it and is worthy of it, for He alone knows who truly wants it from the heart and is worthy of it.

Some of those who associate partners with Allah say to the Prophet, “If we accept your call, we will be accused of trying to destroy our forefathers’ order, be uprooted from our homes and our land, and suffer persecution in the name of protecting the established order.”

Yet did We not make that city of theirs, built on bare rock, a place to which every kind of produce is gathered and brought as provision, and a place of safety because of the Kaaba? Do they never consider that We will do even more?

In the past We destroyed with Our punishment many peoples who grew spoiled and unruly from prosperity and luxury. Look, there are their empty homes and dwellings; after them no one settled there except the believers We saved from among them. Indeed, the true Owner of every place and everything is Allah.

Your Lord does not destroy a community until He has sent to its chief city a messenger who conveys Our verses. We destroy with Our punishment only those communities that stubbornly wish to keep up systems of shirk and disbelief.

O people! Everything you are given in the life of this world is short-lived and passing. What Allah will give in the Hereafter to those He deems worthy is better, finer, and lasting. Do you never think about this truth?

Now, can the case of one to whom We have promised a Paradise of indescribable beauty, and who will attain it when the time comes, ever be the same as the case of those to whom We gave a brief taste of the blessings of worldly life, and who then, living as people who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth, came to deserve the punishment of Hell?

On the Day of Resurrection they will be told, “Where now are those you took as gods besides Allah and associated with Him as partners?”

On That Day the leaders of those against whom the sentence of punishment has been carried out will say: “Our Lord, just as we, despite being warned and invited, took no counsel and grew ungrateful and unruly, so we caused people inclined to stray from the right path to turn away from Your call too; now, with our ties to them cut, we take refuge in You.”

Then they will all be told, “Go on, call those you took as gods besides Allah and followed.” And they will call to their aid those they had taken as gods in their worldly lives, but they will get no answer from those they call. Thereupon they will meet the punishment they deserve. Could they not have believed in the Hereafter long ago, fulfilled their responsibilities toward Allah, and so been spared this punishment?

On that day they will be asked how they responded to the messages sent to them through messengers in their worldly lives. At that moment they will find no excuse to put forward. And by then the chance to follow those messages will long since have passed.

But those among them who, while in their worldly lives, repented of their shirk and disbelief, returned to Allah’s call, and so did righteous deeds can attain salvation.

The truth is that Allah creates what He wills and chooses whom He wills as His messenger; no one but He has any such right. Allah will never accept partners being associated with Him, for He is the Possessor of boundless knowledge and power, the One Exalted.

Allah, your Lord, knows what everyone conceals within and what they reveal, for it is He who created them, and there is no true god but Him; the authority to lay down rulings over His servants and to rule them belongs to Him alone, and Allah alone is worthy of praise and thanks. In the end you will all be returned to Him.

Say: “Have you ever thought: if Allah were to make the night stretch over you until the Day of Resurrection, is there any god besides Him who could bring you light? With the truth so clear and plain, will you still not heed the call made in His name?”

Say to them also: “Think about this too: if Allah were to make the day stretch over you until the Day of Resurrection, is there any god besides Allah who could bring back the night for you to rest in? Will you still not follow the call of Allah, who established this perfect order for you?”

Out of His mercy and compassion toward you, Allah brought the night and the day into being, so that you may rest at night and by day benefit from the blessings He grants. What is asked of you is to live your worldly life by the system that is your Lord’s call.

On the Day of Resurrection Allah will ask those whom He endowed with so many blessings but who chose to associate partners with Him: “Tell Me, when it was Allah who created so many blessings for you, where now are your gods, whom you followed after rejecting His call?” On that day We will bring forward, as witnesses against every community, the prophets We sent to it, and We will say to them, “Bring your proofs for refusing to accept the call of your prophets, who invited you to live by the system that is the reason for your creation.” On That Day they too will understand that Allah is the true Lord and God and that all besides Him are doomed to pass away.

Do not forget that Korah (Qarun) too was one of the people of Moses, and the keys to the treasures he had made off the backs of the people could be carried only by a band of strong men. And he grew spoiled and boastful with the power of his wealth.

When his kinsmen told Korah that he should use the power and wealth Allah had granted him as a means of testing in this world as Allah had made known, without forgetting the Hereafter, and that Allah does not love the spoiled, the ungrateful, and those who spread corruption, Korah turned to those who said this and said, “Let everyone know well that I attained this wealth through my own knowledge and skill.”

Yet before him Allah had punished and destroyed many who thought and lived as he did, and who were far stronger than he, because of their unruliness, arrogance, and rebellion against Allah.

Those whose guilt is established, and who have made shirk and disbelief their very nature, are not even asked about what they did when the punishment comes.

When Korah came out before his people in ostentation and finery, swaggering, those who reckoned with no life but the life of this world, and who were after the display and power of wealth, would say, “Oh, if only we too could be as rich as Korah! He is truly a most fortunate man.”

But those who had grasped the reason for their creation, believed that they must live in keeping with it, and strove for it would say to those who envied Korah: “Woe to you! Is it not better to do deeds that please Allah and so attain the rewards He will grant?” Only those who strive in Allah’s way with patience, braving hardships, can attain this.

In the end We made the earth swallow up that unruly, arrogant, wrongdoing Korah, together with his treasures. No one could help him against Allah, nor ever could.

Those who witnessed this, and who only yesterday had envied him and longed to be in his place, now began to say: “So it is that Allah, to test people, gives provision in abundance to whom He wills and restricts it for whom He wills. Had Allah not had mercy on us, He would have made the earth swallow us up too, for what we said; it seems the ungrateful, the arrogant, and the wrongdoers will never prosper.”

We have prepared Paradise, the home of the Hereafter, endowed with endless and boundless blessings, for those who do not swagger on earth, do not sow disorder, and do their utmost to live the system of life that is Allah’s call. The destination of those who are conscious of their responsibilities toward Allah will be Paradise, the home of lasting happiness. And whoever turns his back on the truth that is the reason for his creation and comes before Allah having been ungrateful will be punished for what he did.

Allah will bring those who follow the system of life He has made obligatory and to which He invites through the Quran back to the place they deserve, and grant them an honorable, dignified, and happy life.

Say: “My Lord surely knows who responds to this call and chooses guidance and mercy, and who chooses straying, wrongdoing, and ingratitude as a way of life.”

You did not expect this Book to be sent down to you. Your Lord, in His mercy, compassion, and tender care, has brought you to what is right through it. So never, for any reason whatsoever, take the side of those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth.

Now that Allah’s verses have been sent down to you, never let those who deny the truth keep you from following them. Otherwise shirk will taint you too. Everything will perish when its day comes, and you will all be gathered in Allah’s presence to give account. There is no true god but Allah, and the authority to lay down rulings over what He has created belongs to Allah.