Beginning to Reflect on the Surh Ta Ha

Abdel Haleem’s summary at the beginning of the surah Ta Ha:

“A Meccan sura that both begins and ends with mention of the Quran: it was not sent to the Prophet to cause him grief but is a clear proof from his Lord. The example of Moses is given as a lengthy account in order to encourage the Prophet and show the end of the disbelievers. The destruction of earlier generations is cited as a lesson from which the disbelievers should learn. The Prophet is ordered to be patient and to persevere with his worship.”

The surah’s name comes from the letters it starts with: Ta Ha two letters of alphabet.  Some of the Quran’ surah’s start with some letters.  Abdel Haleem explains:

“Twenty-nine suras of the Quran begin with separate alphabetical letters like these, from one individual letter up to five. Various interpretations have been offered. It is sufficient to mention two here: (1) these letters indicated to the Arabs who first heard the Quran that the Quran consists of letters and words of their own language, although it was superior to any speech of their own, being of divine origin; (2) they are an exclamatory device intended to arrest the listeners’ attention, similar to the custom of starting poems with an emphatic ‘No!’ or ‘Indeed!’ Exegetes normally added, after expounding their theories, ‘God knows best.’”

Believe me, depending on one’s state of mind and trust or distrust, we see things differently and read texts and understands them differently.  When I was a disbeliever, I couldn’t connect with the text.  It seemed to me redundant and I browsed them perfunctorily.  This morning I read this text again (after numerous times before), and I couldn’t stop tears rolling on my face.  This is not an empty gesture of piety.  The message speaks to those who trust and see them as coming from God.  And I could see my own downfall and following my lowest desires when I ignored the message and was enchanted with my own limited understanding and the illusion that human sciences and arts can justify life and save us.  I don’t mean that I disregard or demean sciences and the arts.  On the contrary, I see them as well a gift of God and in this light science and the arts can guide us and cultivate our imagination and aesthetic with a meaningful and productive connection to God, or can ruin and lead us astray.  

So, I will quote a passage of this surah each time and stay with it in meditation.  The theme of “remembering”, “reminiscence”, “reminding”—is what holds me in awe, as I know well what it is to be in oblivion and forgetfulness.

“In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy

Ta Ha.  It was not to distress you [Prophet] that We sent down the Quran to you, but as a reminder for those who hold God in awe, a revelation from the One who created the earth and the high heaven, the Lord of Mercy, established on the throne. Everything in the heavens and on earth, everything between them, everything beneath the soil, belongs to Him. Whatever you may say aloud, He knows what you keep secret and what is even more hidden. God––there is no god but Him––the most excellent names belong to Him.” (20:1-7)

For those who don’t believe: there is such a thing as holding God in awe.  It is closest to us, to our chest and heart.  We forgot it.  This is our pain, we are forgetful.  However, we know well that we can’t ground ourselves—and we are inclined to forget this too or seek to ground it in some metaphysical or scientific assumption.  We don’t know why we are here.  All our theories are guess-works and the best of them guide us to God.  God is the horizon which is the most real, as the biosphere that sustains a bird singing is more real that the singing.  But we are shortsighted and like a baby in the womb take the nearest—amniotic sac, as the most real, not seeing the mother, the father, the environment around mother that are even more real and don’t see that what is seemingly the furthest is the nearest—Being and God.   And what are the most excellent names and who gave them to us?