Tâ Hâ
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[20:83]
[AND GOD SAID:] "Now what has caused thee, O Moses, to leave thy people behind in so great a haste?"

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* v.83 : This passage relates to the time of Moses’ ascent of Mount Sinai, mentioned in 2:51 and 7:142.
* Lit., “what has hastened thee ahead of thy people?” – implying that he should not have left them alone, without his personal guidance, at so early a stage in their freedom. In this inimitable elliptic manner the Qur’ān alludes to the psychological fact that a community which attains to political and social freedom after centuries of bondage remains for a long time subject to the demoralizing influences of its past, and cannot all at once develop a spiritual and social discipline of its own.