Tâ Hâ
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[20:1]
O MAN!

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* v.1 : According to some commentators, the letters t and h (pronounced tā hā) which introduce this sūrah belong to the group of al-muqatta‘āt – the “single [or “disjointed”] letters” – which are prefixed to a number of the Qur’anic sūrahs (see Appendix II). However, in the opinion of some of the Prophet’s Companions (e.g., ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abbās) and a number of outstanding personalities of the next generation (like Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr, Mujāhid, Qatādah, Al-Hasan al-Basrī, ‘Ikrimah, Ad-Iahhāk, Al-Kalbī, etc.), tā hā is not just a combination of two single letters but a meaningful expression of its own, signifying “O man” (synonymous with yā rajul) in both the Nabataean and Syriac branches of the Arabic language (Tabarī, Rāzī, Ibn Kathīr), as well as in the – purely Arabian – dialect of the Yemenite tribe of ‘Akk, as is evident from certain fragments of their pre-Islamic poetry (quoted by Tabarī and Zamakhsharī). Tabarī, in particular, gives his unqualified support to the rendering of tā hā as “O man.”