Hizb 51

Ha, Meem.

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

We did not create the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them except with consummate wisdom and for a specified term. Yet the faithless are disregardful of what they are warned.

Say, ‘Tell me about those you invoke besides Allah. Show me what [part] of the earth have they created. Do they have any share in the heavens? Bring me a scripture [revealed] before this, or some vestige of [divine] knowledge, if you are truthful.’

Who is more astray than him who invokes besides Allah such [entities] as would not respond to him until the Day of Resurrection, and who are oblivious of their invocation?

When mankind are mustered [on Judgement’s Day] they will be their enemies, and they will disavow their worship.

When Our manifest signs are recited to them, the faithless say of the truth when it comes to them: ‘This is plain magic.’

Or they say, ‘He has fabricated it.’ Say, ‘Should I have fabricated it, you would not avail me anything against Allah. He best knows what you gossip concerning it. He suffices as a witness between me and you, and He is the All-forgiving, the All-merciful.’

Say, ‘I am not a novelty among the apostles, nor do I know what will be done with me, or with you. I just follow whatever is revealed to me, and I am just a manifest warner.’

Say, ‘Tell me, if it is from Allah and you disbelieve in it, and a witness from the Children of Israel has testified to its like and believed [in it], while you are disdainful [of it]?’ Indeed Allah does not guide the wrongdoing lot.

The faithless say about the faithful, ‘Had it been [anything] good, they would not have taken the lead over us toward [accepting] it.’ And since they could not find the way to it, they will say, ‘It is an ancient lie.’

Yet before it the Book of Moses was a guide and mercy, and this is a Book in the Arabic language, which confirms it, [sent] to warn the wrongdoers, and is a [bearer of] good news for the virtuous.

Those who say, ‘Our Lord is Allah,’ and then remain steadfast, they will have no fear, nor will they grieve.

They shall be the inhabitants of paradise, remaining in it [forever]—a reward for what they used to do.

We have enjoined man to be kind to his parents. His mother has carried him in travail, and bore him in travail, and his gestation and weaning take thirty months. When he comes of age and reaches forty years, he says, ‘My Lord! Inspire me to give thanks for Your blessing with which You have blessed me and my parents, and that I may do righteous deeds which please You, and invest my descendants with righteousness. Indeed I have turned to you in penitence, and I am one of the Muslims.’

Such are the ones from whom We accept the best of what they do, and overlook their misdeeds, [who will be] among the inhabitants of paradise—a true promise which they had been given.

As for him who says to his parents, ‘Fie on you! Do you promise me that I shall be raised [from the dead] when generations have passed away before me?’ And they invoke Allah’s help [and say]: ‘Woe to you! Believe! Indeed Allah’s promise is true.’ But he says, ‘These are nothing but myths of the ancients.’

Such are the ones against whom the word has become due, along with the nations of jinn and humans that have passed away before them. They were the losers.

For everyone there are degrees [of merit] pertaining to what he has done: He will recompense them fully for their works, and they will not be wronged.

The day when the faithless are exposed to the Fire, [they will be told,] ‘You have exhausted your good things in the life of the world and enjoyed them. So today you will be requited with a humiliating punishment for your acting arrogantly in the earth unduly, and because you used to transgress.’

And mention [Hud] the brother of ‘Ad, when he warned his people at Ahqaf—and warners have passed away before and after him—saying, ‘Do not worship anyone but Allah. Indeed I fear for you the punishment of a tremendous day.’

They said, ‘Have you come to turn us away from our gods? Then bring us what you threaten us with, if you are truthful.

He said, ‘The knowledge [of when that threat will be carried out] is with Allah alone. I communicate to you what I have been sent with. But I see that you are a senseless lot.’

When they saw it as a cloud advancing toward their valleys, they said, ‘This cloud brings us rain.’ ‘No, it is what you sought to hasten: a hurricane carrying a painful punishment,

destroying everything by its Lord’s command.’ So they became such that nothing could be seen except their dwellings. Thus do We requite the guilty lot.

Certainly We had granted them power in respects that We have not granted you, and We had vested them with hearing and sight and hearts. But neither their hearing availed them in any way nor did their sight, nor their hearts when they used to impugn the signs of Allah. So they were besieged by what they used to deride.

Certainly We have destroyed the towns that were around you, and We have variously paraphrased the signs so that they may come back.

So why did not those [fake deities] help them whom they had taken as gods besides Allah, as a means of nearness [to Him]? Indeed, they forsook them; that was their lie and what they used to fabricate.

When We dispatched toward you a team of jinn listening to the Quran, when they were in its presence, they said, ‘Be silent!’ When it was finished, they went back to their people as warners.

They said, ‘O our people! Indeed, we have heard a Book, which has been sent down after Moses, confirming what was before it. It guides to the truth and to a straight path.

O our people! Respond to Allah’s summoner and have faith in Him. He will forgive you some of your sins and shelter you from a painful punishment.’

Those who do not respond to Allah’s summoner cannot frustrate [Allah] on the earth, and they will not find any protectors besides Him. They are in manifest error.

Do they not see that Allah, who created the heavens and the earth and [who] was not exhausted by their creation, is able to revive the dead? Yes, indeed He has power over all things.

The day when the faithless are exposed to the Fire, [He will say,] ‘Is this not a fact?’ They will say, ‘Yes, by our Lord!’ He will say, ‘So taste the punishment because of what you used to disbelieve.’

So be patient just as the resolute among the apostles were patient, and do not seek to hasten [the punishment] for them. The day when they see what they are promised, [it will be] as though they had remained [in the world] only an hour of a day. This is a proclamation. So shall anyone be destroyed except the transgressing lot?

Those who are [themselves] faithless and bar [others] from the way of Allah—He has rendered their works fruitless.

But those who have faith and do righteous deeds and believe in what has been sent down to Muhammad—and it is the truth from their Lord—He shall absolve them of their misdeeds and set right their affairs.

That is because the faithless follow falsehood, and the faithful follow the truth from their Lord. That is how Allah draws comparisons for mankind.

When you meet the faithless in battle, strike their necks. When you have thoroughly decimated them, bind the captives firmly. Thereafter either oblige them [by setting them free] or take ransom, until the war lays down its burdens. That [is Allah’s ordinance]. Had Allah wished He could have taken vengeance on them, but that He may test some of you by means of others. As for those who were slain in the way of Allah, He will not let their works go fruitless.

He will guide them and set right their affairs,

and admit them into paradise, with which He has acquainted them.

O you who have faith! If you help Allah, He will help you and make your feet steady.

As for the faithless, their lot will be to fall [into ruin], and He will render their works fruitless.

That is because they loathed what Allah has sent down, so He made their works fail.

Have they not travelled through the land so that they may observe how was the fate of those who were before them? Allah destroyed them, and a similar [fate] awaits these faithless.

That is because Allah is the protector of the faithful, and because the faithless have no protector.

Indeed Allah will admit those who have faith and do righteous deeds into gardens with streams running in them. As for the faithless, they enjoy and eat like the cattle do, and the Fire will be their [final] abode.

How many a town We have destroyed which was more powerful than your town which expelled you, and they had no helper.

Is he who stands on a manifest proof from his Lord like those to whom the evil of their conduct is made to seem decorous and who follow their desires?

A description of the paradise promised to the Godwary: therein are streams of unstaling water and streams of milk unchanging in flavour, and streams of wine delicious to the drinkers, and streams of purified honey; there will be every kind of fruit in it for them, and forgiveness from their Lord. [Are such ones] like those who abide in the Fire and are given to drink boiling water which cuts up their bowels?

There are some among them who prick up their ears at you. But when they go out from your presence, they say to those who have been given knowledge, ‘What did he say just now?’ They are the ones on whose hearts Allah has set a seal, and they follow their own desires.

As for those who are [rightly] guided, He enhances their guidance and invests them with their Godwariness.

Do they await anything except that the Hour should overtake them suddenly? Its portents have already come. When it overtakes them of what avail will the admonitions they were given?

Know that there is no god except Allah, and plead [to Allah] for forgiveness of your sin and for the faithful, men and women. Allah knows your itinerary and your [final] abode.

The faithful say, ‘If only a surah were sent down!’ But when a conclusive surah is sent down and war is mentioned in it, you see those in whose hearts is a sickness looking upon you with the look of someone fainting at death. So woe to them!

Obedience and upright speech.... So when the matter has been resolved upon [concerning going to war], if they remain true to Allah that will surely be better for them.

May it not be that if you were to wield authority you would cause corruption in the land and ill-treat your blood relations?

They are the ones whom Allah has cursed, so He made them deaf, and blinded their sight.

Do they not contemplate the Quran, or are there locks on the hearts?

Indeed those who turned their backs after the guidance had become clear to them, it was Satan who had seduced them, and he had given them [far-flung] hopes.

That is because they said to those who loathed what Allah had sent down: ‘We shall obey you in some matters,’ and Allah knows their secret dealings.

But how will it be [with them] when the angels take them away, striking their faces and their backs?!

That, because they pursued what displeased Allah, and loathed His pleasure. So He has made their works fail.

Do those in whose hearts is a sickness suppose that Allah will not expose their spite?

If We wish, We will show them to you so that you recognize them by their mark. Yet you will recognize them by their tone of speech, and Allah knows your deeds.

We will surely test you until We ascertain those of you who wage jihad and those who are steadfast, and We shall appraise your record.

Indeed those who are faithless and bar from the way of Allah and defy the Apostle after guidance has become clear to them, they will not hurt Allah in the least, and He shall make their works fail.

O you who have faith! Obey Allah and obey the Apostle, and do not render your works void.

Indeed those who are faithless and bar from the way of Allah and then die faithless, Allah will never forgive them.

So do not slacken and [do not] call for peace when you have the upper hand and Allah is with you, and He will not stint [the reward of] your works.

The life of the world is just play and diversion, but if you are faithful and Godwary, He will give you your rewards, and will not ask your wealth [in return] from you.

Should He ask it from you and press you, you will be stingy, and He will expose your spite.

Ah! There you are, being invited to spend in the way of Allah; yet among you there are those who are stingy; and whoever is stingy is stingy only to himself. Allah is the All-sufficient, and you are all-needy, and if you turn away He will replace you with another people, and they will not be like you.

Indeed We have inaugurated for you a clear victory,

that Allah may forgive you what is past of your sin and what is to come, and that He may perfect His blessing upon you and guide you on a straight path,

and Allah will help you with a mighty help.

It is He who sent down composure into the hearts of the faithful that they might enhance in their faith. To Allah belong the hosts of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is all-knowing, all-wise.

That He may admit the faithful, men and women, into gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them [forever], and that He may absolve them of their misdeeds. That is a great success with Allah.

That He may punish the hypocrites, men and women, and the polytheists, men and women, who entertain a bad opinion of Allah. For them shall be an adverse turn of fortune: Allah is wrathful with them and He has cursed them, and prepared hell for them and it is an evil destination.

To Allah belong the hosts of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is all-mighty, all-wise.

Indeed We have sent you as a witness, and as a bearer of good news and warner,

that you may have faith in Allah and His Apostle, and that you may support him and revere him, and that you may glorify Him morning and evening.

Indeed those who swear allegiance to you, swear allegiance only to Allah: the hand of Allah is above their hands. Then whosoever breaks his oath, breaks it only to his own detriment, and whoever fulfills the covenant he has made with Allah, He will give him a great reward.

The Bedouins who had stayed back [from joining the Prophet in his ‘umrah journey to Makkah] will tell you, ‘Our possessions and families kept us occupied. So plead [to Allah] for our forgiveness!’ They will say with their tongues what is not in their hearts. Say, ‘Whether He desires to cause you harm or desires to bring you benefit, who can be of any avail to you against Allah[’s will]? Indeed Allah is well aware of what you do.’

Rather, you thought that the Apostle and the faithful will not ever return to their folks, and that was made to seem decorous to your hearts; you entertained evil thoughts, and you were a ruined lot.

Those who have no faith in Allah and His Apostle [should know that] We have prepared a blaze for the faithless.

To Allah belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth: He forgives whomever He wishes, and punishes whomever He wishes, and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.

[In the near future] when you will set out to capture booty, those who stayed behind [in this journey] will say, : ‘Let us follow you.’ They desire to change the word of Allah. Say, ‘You will never follow us! Allah has said thus beforehand.’ Then they will say, ‘You are envious of us.’ Indeed, they do not understand but a little.

Say to the Bedouins who stayed behind, ‘[Later on] you will be called against a people of a great might: they will either embrace Islam, or you will fight them. So if you obey, Allah will give you a good reward; but if you turn away like you turned away before, He will punish you with a painful punishment.’

There is no blame on the blind, nor is there any blame on the lame, nor is there blame on the sick [if they are unable to go out with the troops to face the enemies]; and whoever obeys Allah and His Apostle, He will admit him into gardens with streams running in them, and whoever refuses to comply, He will punish him with a painful punishment.