Hizb 50

He would say, ‘What! Even if I bring you a better guidance than what you found your fathers following?!’ They would say, ‘We indeed disbelieve in what you are sent with.’

Thereupon We took vengeance on them; so observe how was the fate of the deniers.

When Abraham said to his father and his people, ‘I repudiate what you worship,

excepting Him who originated me; indeed He will guide me.’

He made it a lasting word among his posterity so that they may come back [to the right path].

Indeed, I provided for these and their fathers until the truth and a manifest apostle came to them.

But when the truth came to them, they said, ‘This is magic, and we indeed disbelieve in it.’

And they said, ‘Why was not this Quran sent down to some great man from the two cities?’

Is it they who dispense the mercy of your Lord? It is We who have dispensed among them their livelihood in the present life, and raised some of them above others in rank, so that some may take others into service, and your Lord’s mercy is better than what they amass.

Were it not [for the danger] that mankind would be one community, We would have made for those who defy the All-beneficent, silver roofs for their houses and [silver] stairways by which they ascend,

and [silver] doors for their houses and [silver] couches on which they recline,

and ornaments of gold; yet all that would be nothing but the wares of the life of this world, and the Hereafter is for the Godwary near your Lord.

We assign a devil to be the companion of him who turns a blind eye to the remembrance of the All-beneficent.

Indeed they bar them from the way [of Allah], while they suppose that they are [rightly] guided.

When he comes to Us, he will say, ‘I wish there had been between me and you the distance between the east and the west! What an evil companion [you are]!’

‘Today that will be of no avail to you. As you did wrong, so will you share in the punishment.’

Can you, then, make the deaf hear or guide the blind and those who are in manifest error?

We will indeed take vengeance on them, whether We take you away

or show you what We have promised them, for indeed We hold them in Our power.

So hold fast to what has been revealed to you. Indeed, you are on a straight path.

Indeed it is a reminder for you and your people, and soon you will be questioned.

Ask those of Our apostles We have sent before you: Did We set up any gods to be worshipped besides the All-beneficent?

Certainly We sent Moses with Our signs to Pharaoh and his elite. He said, ‘I am indeed an apostle of the Lord of all the worlds.’

But when he brought them Our signs, they indeed laughed at them.

We did not show them a sign but it was greater than the other, and We visited on them punishment so that they might come back.

They would say, ‘O magician! Invoke your Lord for us by the covenant He has made with you [to remove this scourge]. We will indeed be guided [when it is removed].’

But when We lifted the punishment from them, behold, they would break their pledge.

And Pharaoh proclaimed to his people, saying, ‘O my people! Do not the kingdom of Egypt and these rivers that run at my feet belong to me? Do you not perceive?

Am I not better than this wretch who cannot even speak clearly?

Why no bracelets of gold have been thrown to him, nor any angels accompany him as escorts?’

Thus did he mislead his people and they obeyed him. Indeed, they were a transgressing lot.

So when they roused Our wrath, We took vengeance on them and drowned them all.

Thus We made them the vanguard and an example for posterity.

When the Son of Mary was cited as an example, behold, your people raise an outcry.

They say, ‘Are our gods better or he?’ They cite him to you only for the sake of contention. Indeed, they are a contentious lot.

He was just a servant whom We had blessed and made an exemplar for the Children of Israel.

Had We wished We would have set angels in your stead to be [your] successors on the earth.

[Say,] ‘Indeed he is a portent of the Hour; so do not doubt it and follow me. This is a straight path.

Do not let Satan bar you [from the way of Allah]. Indeed he is your manifest enemy.’

When Jesus brought those manifest proofs, he said, ‘I have certainly brought you wisdom, and [I have come] to make clear to you some of the things that you differ about. So be wary of Allah and obey me.

Indeed Allah is my Lord and your Lord; so worship Him. This is a straight path.’

But the factions differed among themselves. So woe to the wrongdoers for the punishment of a painful day.

Do they not consider that the Hour may overtake them suddenly while they are unaware?

On that day, friends will be one another’s enemies, except for the Godwary.

[They will be told,] ‘O My servants! Today you will have no fear, nor will you grieve

—those who believed in Our signs and had been Muslims.

Enter paradise, you and your spouses, rejoicing.’

They will be served around with golden dishes and goblets, and therein will be whatever the souls desire and eyes delight in. ‘You will remain in it [forever].

That is the paradise you have been given to inherit for what you used to do.

There are abundant fruits for you in it, from which you will eat.’

Indeed the guilty will remain [forever] in the punishment of hell.

It will not be lightened for them, and they will be despondent in it.

We did not wrong them, but they themselves were wrongdoers.

They will call out, ‘O Malik! Let your Lord finish us off!’ He will say, ‘Indeed you will stay on.’

‘We certainly brought you the truth, but most of you were averse to the truth.’

Have they settled on some [devious] plan? Indeed, We too are settling [on Our plans].

Do they suppose that We do not hear their secret thoughts and their secret talks? Yes indeed [We do]! And with them are Our messengers, writing down [everything].

Say, ‘If the All-beneficent had offspring, I would have been the first to worship [him].’

Clear is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, the Lord of the Throne, of whatever they allege [concerning Him]!

So leave them to gossip and play until they encounter the day they are promised.

It is He who is God in the sky, and God on the earth, and He is the All-Wise, the All-Knowing.

Blessed is He to whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them, and with Him is the knowledge of the Hour, and to Him you will be brought back.

Those whom they invoke besides Him have no power of intercession, except those who are witness to the truth and who know [for whom to intercede].

If you ask them, ‘Who created them?’ they will surely say, ‘Allah.’ Then where do they stray?

And his plaint: ‘My Lord! Indeed these are a people who will not have faith!’

So disregard them, and say, ‘Peace!’ Soon they will know.

Ha, Meem.

By the Manifest Book!

We sent it down on a blessed night, and We have been warning [mankind].

Every definitive matter is resolved on it,

as an ordinance from Us. We have been sending [apostles]

as a mercy from your Lord—indeed He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing—

the Lord of the heavens and the earth, and whatever is between them, should you have conviction.

There is no god except Him: He gives life and brings death, your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers.

But they play around in doubt.

So watch out for the day when the sky brings on a manifest smoke,

enveloping the people. [They will cry out:] ‘This is a painful punishment.

Our Lord! Remove this punishment from us. Indeed we have believed!’

What will the admonition avail them, when a manifest apostle had already come to them,

but they turned away from him, and said, ‘A tutored madman?’

Indeed We will withdraw the punishment a little; but you will revert [to your earlier ways].

The day We shall strike with the most terrible striking, We will indeed take vengeance [on them].

Certainly We tried the people of Pharaoh before them, when a noble apostle came to them,

[saying,] ‘Give over the servants of Allah to me; indeed I am a trusted apostle [sent] to you.

Do not defy Allah. Indeed I bring you a manifest authority.

I seek the protection of my Lord and your Lord, lest you should stone me.

And if you do not believe me, keep out of my way.’

Then he invoked his Lord, [saying,] ‘These are indeed a guilty lot.’

[Allah told him,] ‘Set out by night with My servants; for you will be pursued.

Leave behind the sea unmoving; for they will be a drowned host.’

How many gardens and springs did they leave behind!

Fields and splendid places,

and the affluence wherein they rejoiced!

So it was; and We bequeathed them to another people.

So neither the sky wept for them, nor the earth; nor were they granted any respite.

Certainly We delivered the Children of Israel from the humiliating torment

of Pharaoh. Indeed, he was a tyrant among the transgressors.

Certainly We chose them knowingly above all the nations,

and We gave them some signs in which there was a manifest test.

These ones say,

‘It will be only our first death, and we shall not be resurrected.

Bring our fathers back [to life], if you are truthful.’

Are they better, or the people of Tubba‘, and those who were before them? We destroyed them; indeed, they were guilty.

We did not create the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them for play.

We did not create them except with consummate wisdom; but most of them do not know.

Indeed the Day of Judgement is the tryst for them all,

the day when a friend will not avail a friend in any way, nor will they be helped,

except for him on whom Allah has mercy. Indeed He is the All-mighty, the All-merciful.

Indeed the tree of Zaqqum

will be the food of the sinful.

Like molten copper it will boil in their bellies,

seething like boiling water.

[The keepers of hell will be told,] ‘Seize him and drag him to the middle of hell,

then pour over his head boiling water as punishment,

[and tell them,] “Taste this! Indeed you are the [self-styled] mighty and noble!

This is what you used to doubt!’

Indeed the Godwary will be in a safe place,

amid gardens and springs,

dressed in fine silk and brocade, sitting face to face.

So shall it be, and We shall wed them to black-eyed houris.

Secure [from any kind of harm,] there they will call for every kind of fruit [they wish].

Other than the first death, they will not taste death therein, and He will save them from the punishment of hell

—a grace from your Lord. That is the great success.

Indeed We have made it simple in your language, so that they may take admonition.

So wait! They [too] are waiting.

Ha, Meem.

The [gradual] sending down of the Book is from Allah, the All-mighty, All-wise.

In the heavens and the earth there are indeed signs for the faithful,

There are signs for people who have certainty in your own creation and in animals, He scatters abroad.

There are signs for people who exercise their reason in the alternation of night and day, in the provision that Allah sends down from the sky, with which He revives the earth after its death, and in the changing of the winds.

These are the signs of Allah that We recite for you in truth. So what discourse will they believe after Allah and His signs?

Woe to every sinful liar,

who hears the signs of Allah being recited to him, yet persists arrogantly as if he had not heard them. So inform him of a painful punishment.

Should he learn anything about Our signs, he takes them in derision. For such there is a humiliating punishment.

Ahead of them is hell, and neither what they have earned, nor what they had taken as guardians besides Allah will avail them in any way, and there is a great punishment for them.

This is [true] guidance, and there is a painful punishment due to defilement for those who defy the signs of their Lord.

It is Allah who disposed the sea for you[r benefit] so that the ships may sail in it by His command, that you may seek of His bounty and that you may give thanks.

He has disposed for you[r benefit] whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth; all is from Him. There are indeed signs in that for a people who reflect.

Say to the faithful to forgive those who do not expect Allah’s days, that He may [Himself] requite every people for what they used to earn.

Whoever acts righteously, it is for his own soul, and whoever does evil, it is to its own detriment, then you will be brought back to your Lord.

Certainly We gave the Children of Israel the Book, judgement and prophethood and We provided them with all the good things. We gave them an advantage over all the nations,

and We gave them manifest precepts. But they did not differ except after knowledge had come to them, out of envy among themselves. Indeed your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that about which they used to differ.

Then We set you upon a clear course of the Law; so follow it, and do not follow the desires of those who do not know.

Indeed they will not avail you in any way against Allah. Indeed the wrongdoers are allies of one another, but Allah is the ally of the Godwary.

These are eye-openers for mankind, and guidance and mercy for a people who have certainty.

Do those who have perpetrated misdeeds suppose that We shall treat them like those who have faith and do righteous deeds, their life and death being equal? Evil is the judgement that they make!

Allah created the heavens and the earth with consummate wisdom, so that every soul may be requited for what it has earned, and they will not be wronged.

Have you seen him who has taken his desire to be his god and whom Allah has led astray knowingly, set a seal upon his hearing and heart, and put a blindfold on his sight? So who will guide him after Allah [has consigned him to error]? Will you not then take admonition?

They say, ‘There is nothing but the life of this world: we live and we die, and nothing but time destroys us.’ But they do not have any knowledge of that, and they only make conjectures.

When Our manifest signs are recited to them, their only argument is to say, ‘Bring our fathers back [to life], if you are truthful.’

Say, ‘It is Allah who gives you life, then He makes you die. Then He will gather you on the Day of Resurrection, in which there is no doubt. But most people do not know.’

To Allah belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and when the Hour sets in, the falsifiers will be losers on that day.

And you will see every nation fallen on its knees. Every nation will be summoned to its book: ‘Today you will be requited for what you used to do.

This is Our book, which speaks truly against you. Indeed We used to record what you used to do.’

As for those who have faith and do righteous deeds, their Lord will admit them into His mercy. That is the manifest success!

But as for the faithless, [they will be asked,] ‘Were not My signs recited to you? But you were disdainful, and you were a guilty lot.

When it was said, ‘‘Allah’s promise is indeed true, and there is no doubt about the Hour,’’ you said, ‘‘We do not know what the Hour is. We know nothing beyond conjectures, and we do not possess any certainty.’’ ’

The evils of what they had done will appear to them, and they will be besieged by what they used to deride.

And it will be said, ‘Today We will forget you, just as you forgot the encounter of this day of yours. The Fire will be your abode, and you will not have any helpers.

That is because you took the signs of Allah in derision, and the life of the world had deceived you.’ So today, they will not be brought out of it, nor will they be asked to propitiate [Allah].

So all praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the heavens and the Lord of the earth, the Lord of all the worlds.

To Him belongs all supremacy in the heavens and the earth, and He is the All-mighty, the All-wise.