Ṭāhā

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

طه

مَآ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْقُرْءَانَ لِتَشْقَي

إِلاَّ تَذْكِرَةً لِمَن يَخْشَي

تَنزِيلاً مِمَّنْ خَلَقَ الاَرْضَ وَالسَّمَاوَاتِ الْعُلَي

1. “Ta Ha”
2. “We did not send down the Qur’an to you that you distress yourself.”
3. “But only as an admonition to him who fears (Allah).”
4. “It has been sent down from Him Who created the earth and the high heavens.”

At the beginning of this Surah, again we are confronted the abbreviated letters of the Qur’an, which excite the reader’s sense of curiosity. It says:

A tradition narrated from Imam Sadiq (as) indicates that ‘Ta Ha’ is one of the names of holy Prophet (S), and it means: ‘O seeker of the truth and the leader unto it’. ‘Ta Ha’ consists of two mystic letters, so that ‘Ta’ refers to the sense of ‘seeker of Truth’ and ‘Ha’ indicates the meaning of ‘the leader unto it’. It is well known that the usage of mystic letters, and abbreviations has been very common since the old times, and they are abundantly used nowadays in particular.

The term “Ta Ha”, similar to ‘Yasin’, in the course of time, has gradually been applied as a proper name for the Prophet of Islam (S), so far that the family of the Prophet (S) is called ‘’Al-i-Ta-Ha’ (the family of Ta Ha). Also, in ‘Supplication of Nudbah’, Hadrat Mahdi (May Allah hasten his glad advent) has been rendered into ‘Yabna-Ta-Ha’. From the time of the descent of the Qur’an and its Divine revelation on, the Prophet (S) used to worship very much. He specially accomplished his worshipping in a ‘standing state’. He stood so much so that his feet often were inflated. Then the verse was revealed, telling the Prophet (S) that he should not impose upon himself so much trouble.

The verse says:

It is true that worship is the best actions, but every thing must have a limit. The Prophet (S) must not bear the task so much that his feet inflate, and his power decreases too much for preaching and Holy Struggle. In the next verse, the goal of the descent of the Qur’an is explained, as follows:

The expression /man yaxša/ (to him who fears Allah), denotes that a person does not accept the facts unless there is a kind of feeling of responsibility in him (that he fears). Then the verse pays to introduce the Lord, the One Who has sent down the Qur’an, so that, by means of knowing Him, the greatness of the Qur’an would be made manifest more. Concerning the Qur’an, it says:

In fact, this explanation is an indication to both the beginning and the end of the descent of the Qur’an, whose end is the earth and its beginning is heavens. However, the Arabic word /tanzil/ means ‘a gradual descent’. That is, the Qur’an was revealed during 23 years, in different occasions and for various incidents. This meaning does not contrast to the revelation of the Qur’an upon the holy heart of the Prophet (S) at once on the Night of Qadr.