Hizb 48

O my people! [Think,] what makes me invite you to deliverance, while you invite me toward the Fire?

You invite me to defy Allah and to ascribe to Him partners of which I have no knowledge, while I call you to the All-mighty, the All-forgiver.

Undoubtedly, that to which you invite me has no invitation in the world nor in the Hereafter, and indeed our return will be to Allah, and indeed it is the transgressors who will be inmates of the Fire.

Soon you will remember what I tell you, and I entrust my affair to Allah. Indeed Allah watches His servants.’

Then Allah saved him from their evil schemes, while a terrible punishment besieged Pharaoh’s clan:

the Fire, to which they are exposed morning and evening. On the day when the Hour sets in, Pharaoh’s clan will enter the severest punishment.

When they argue in the Fire, the oppressed will say to the oppressors, ‘We used to follow you; will you avail us against any portion of the Fire?’

The oppressors will say, ‘We are all in it [together]; Allah has judged between [His] servants.’

Those who are in the Fire will say to the keepers of hell, ‘Invoke your Lord to lighten for us [at least] a day’s punishment.’

They will say, ‘Had not your apostles brought you manifest proofs?’ They will say, ‘Yes.’ They will say, ‘Then invoke [Him] yourselves.’ But the invocations of the faithless only go awry.

Indeed We shall help Our apostles and those who have faith in the life of the world and on the day when the witnesses rise up,

the day when the excuses of the wrongdoers will not benefit them, the curse will lie on them, and for them will be the ills of the [ultimate] abode.

Certainly We gave guidance to Moses and We gave the Children of Israel the Book as a legacy,

as guidance and admonition for those who possess intellect.

So be patient! Allah’s promise is indeed true. Plead [Allah] for forgiveness of your sin, and celebrate the praise of your Lord morning and evening.

Indeed those who dispute the signs of Allah without any authority that may have come to them—there is [an ambition for] greatness in their breasts, which they will never attain. So seek the protection of Allah; indeed, He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing.

The creation of the heavens and the earth is surely more prodigious than the creation of mankind, but most people do not know.

The blind one and the seer are not equal, neither are the evildoers and those who have faith and do righteous deeds. Little is the admonition that you take!

Indeed the Hour is bound to come; there is no doubt in it. But most people do not believe.

Your Lord has said, ‘Call Me, and I will hear you!’ Indeed those who are disdainful of My worship will enter hell in utter humiliation.

It is Allah who made the night for you, that you may rest in it, and the day to provide visibility. Indeed Allah is gracious to mankind, but most people do not give thanks.

That is Allah, your Lord, the creator of all things, there is no god except Him. Then where do you stray?

Those who were used to impugning the signs of Allah are thus made to go astray.

It is Allah who made for you the earth an abode and the sky a canopy. He formed you and perfected your forms, and provided you with all the good things. That is Allah, your Lord! Blessed is Allah, Lord of all the worlds!

He is the Living One, there is no god except Him. So supplicate Him, putting exclusive faith in Him. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.

Say, ‘I have been forbidden to worship those whom you invoke besides Allah, as manifest proofs have come to me from my Lord, and I have been commanded to submit to the Lord of all the worlds.’

It is He who created you from dust, then from a drop of [seminal] fluid, then from a clinging mass, then He brings you forth as infants, then [He nurtures you] so that you may come of age, and then that you may become aged—though there are some of you who die earlier—and complete a specified term, and so that you may exercise your reason.

It is He who gives life and brings death. When He decides on a matter, He just says to it, ‘Be!’ and it is.

Have you not regarded those who dispute the signs of Allah, where they are being led away [from Allah’s way]?

—Those who deny the Book and what we have sent with Our apostles. Soon they will know

when they are dragged [with] iron collars and chains around their necks

into scalding waters and then set aflame in the Fire.

Then they will be told, ‘Where are they whom you used to worship as deities

besides Allah?’ They will say, ‘They have forsaken us. No, we did not invoke anything before.’ That is how Allah leads the faithless astray.

‘That [punishment] is because you used to boast unduly on the earth and because you used to strut.

Enter the gates of hell, to remain in it [forever].’ Evil is the [final] abode of the arrogant.

So be patient! Allah’s promise is indeed true. Whether We show you a part of what We promise them, or take you away [before that], [in any case] they will be brought back to Us.

Certainly We have sent apostles before you. Of them are those We have recounted to you, and of them are those We have not recounted to you. An apostle may not bring any sign except by Allah’s permission. Hence, when Allah’s edict comes, judgment is made with justice, and it is thence that the falsifiers become losers.

It is Allah who created the cattle for you that you may ride some of them, and some of them you eat;

and there are [numerous] uses in them for you, and that over them you may satisfy any need that is in your breasts, and you are carried on them and on ships.

He shows you His signs. So which of the signs of Allah do you deny?

Have they not travelled over the land so that they may observe how was the fate of those who were before them? They were more numerous than them and were greater [than them] in power and with respect to the effects [they left] in the land. But what they used to earn did not avail them.

When their apostles brought them manifest proofs, they boasted about the knowledge they possessed, but they were besieged by what they used to deride.

Then, when they sighted Our punishment, they said, ‘We believe in Allah alone, and disavow what we used to take as His partners.’

But their faith was of no benefit to them when they sighted Our punishment—Allah’s precedent, which has passed among His servants, and it is thence that the faithless will be losers.

Ha, Meem.

A [gradually] sent down [revelation] from the All-beneficent, the All-merciful,

[this is] a Book whose signs have been elaborated for a people who have knowledge, an Arabic Quran,

a bearer of good news and a warner. But most of them turn away [from it], [and] so they do not listen.

They say, ‘Our hearts are in veils [which shut them off] from what you invite us to, and there is a deafness in our ears, and there is a curtain between us and you. So act [as your faith requires]; we too are acting [according to our own].’

Say, ‘I am just a human like you. It has been revealed to me that your God is the One God. So worship Him single-mindedly and plead to Him for forgiveness.’ And woe to the polytheists

—those who do not pay the zakat and disbelieve in the Hereafter.

As for those who have faith and do righteous deeds, there will be an everlasting reward for them.

Say, ‘Do you really disbelieve in Him who created the earth in two days, and ascribe partners to Him? That is the Lord of all the worlds!’

He set in it firm mountains, [rising] above it, blessed it, and ordained in it, in four days, [various] means of sustenance, equally for all seekers.

Then He turned to the heaven, and it was smoke, and He said to it and to the earth, ‘Come, willingly or unwillingly!’ They said, ‘We come obediently.’

Then He set them up as seven heavens in two days, and revealed [to the angels] in each heaven its ordinance. We have adorned the lowest heaven with lamps, and guarded them. That is the ordaining of the All-mighty, the All-knowing.

But if they turn away, say, ‘I warn you of a thunderbolt, like the thunderbolt of ‘Ad and Thamud.’

When the apostles came to them, before them and in their own time, saying, ‘Worship no one except Allah!’ They said, ‘Had our Lord wished, He would have sent down angels [to us]. We indeed disbelieve in what you have been sent with.’

As for [the people of] ‘Ad, they acted arrogantly in the earth unduly, and they said, ‘Who is more powerful than us?’ Did they not see that Allah, who created them, is more powerful than them? They used to impugn Our signs;

so We unleashed upon them an icy gale during ill-fated days, in order that We might make them taste a humiliating punishment in the life of the world. Yet the punishment of the Hereafter will be surely more disgraceful, and they will not be helped.

As for [the people of] Thamud, We guided them, but they preferred blindness to guidance. So the bolt of a humiliating punishment seized them because of what they used to earn.

And We delivered those who had faith and were Godwary.

The day the enemies of Allah are marched out toward the Fire, while they are in check,

when they come to it, their hearing, their eyes and their skins will bear witness against them concerning what they used to do.

They will say to their skins, ‘Why did you bear witness against us?’ They will say, ‘We were given speech by Allah, who gave speech to all things. He created you the first time, and you are being brought back to Him.

You did not use to conceal yourselves [while perpetrating sinful acts] lest your hearing, your eyes, or your skins should bear witness against you, but you thought that Allah did not know most of what you did.

That misjudgement, which you entertained about your Lord ruined you. So you became losers.’

Should they be patient, the Fire is their abode; and should they seek to propitiate [Allah], they will not be redeemed.

We have assigned them companions who make their present [conduct] and future [state] seem decorous to them, and the word became due against them along with the nations of jinn and humans that passed away before them. They were indeed losers.

The faithless say, ‘Do not listen to this Quran and hoot it down so that you may prevail [over the Apostle].’

We will surely make the faithless taste a severe punishment, and We will surely requite them by the worst of what they used to do.

That is the requital of the enemies of Allah—the Fire! In it, they will have an everlasting abode, as a requital for their impugning Our signs.

The faithless will say, ‘Our Lord! Show us those who led us astray from among jinn and humans so that we may trample them under our feet, so that they may be among the lowermost!’

Indeed those who say, ‘Our Lord is Allah!’ and then remain steadfast, the angels descend upon them, [saying,] ‘Do not fear, nor be grieved! Receive the good news of the paradise, which you have been promised.

We are your friends in the life of this world and in the Hereafter, and you will have in it whatever your souls desire, and you will have in it whatever you ask for,

as a hospitality from One all-forgiving, all-merciful.’

Who has a better call than him who summons to Allah and acts righteously and says, ‘Indeed I am one of the Muslims’?

Good and evil [conduct] are not equal. Repel [evil] with what is best. [If you do so,] he between whom and you was enmity, will then be as though he were a sympathetic friend.

But none is granted it except those who are patient, and none is granted it except the greatly endowed.

Should an incitement from Satan prompt you [to ill feeling], seek the protection of Allah. Indeed, He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing.

Among His signs are night and day, and the sun and the moon. Do not prostrate to the sun, nor to the moon, but prostrate to Allah who created them, if it is Him that you worship.

But if they disdain [the worship of Allah], those who are near your Lord glorify Him night and day, and they are not wearied.

Among His signs, is that you see the earth desolate; but when We send down water upon it, it stirs and swells. Indeed, He who revives it will also revive the dead. Indeed, He has power over all things.

Those who abuse Our signs are not hidden from Us. Is someone who is cast in the Fire better off, or someone who arrives safely on the Day of Resurrection? Act as you wish; indeed He watches what you do.

Those who reject the Reminder when it comes to them... Indeed, it is an august Book:

falsehood cannot approach it, at present or in future, a [revelation gradually] sent down from One all-wise, all-laudable.

Nothing is said to you except what has already been said to the apostles before you. Indeed your Lord is One who forgives and also metes out a painful retribution.

Had We made it a non-Arabic Quran, they would have said, ‘Why have not its signs been articulated?’ ‘What! A non-Arabian [scripture] and an Arabian [prophet]!?’ Say, ‘It is guidance and healing for those who have faith. As for those who are faithless, there is a deafness in their ears and it is lost to their sight: [to them it is as if] they were called from a distant place.’

Certainly We gave Moses the Book, but differences arose about it; and were it not for a prior decree of your Lord, judgement would have been made between them, for they are in grave doubt concerning it.

Whoever acts righteously, it is for [the benefit of] his own soul, and whoever does evil, it is to its detriment, and your Lord is not tyrannical to His servants.