Hizb 53

He said, ‘O messengers, what is now your errand?’

They said, ‘We have been sent toward a guilty people,

that We may rain upon them stones of clay,

sent for the transgressors from your Lord.

So We picked out those who were in it of the faithful,

but We did not find there other than one house of Muslims,

and We have left therein a sign for those who fear a painful punishment.’

And in Moses [too there is a sign] when We sent him to Pharaoh with a manifest authority.

But he turned away assured of his might, and said, ‘A magician or a crazy man!’

So We seized him and his hosts, and cast them into the sea, while he was blameworthy.

And in ‘Ad when We unleashed upon them a barren wind.

It left nothing that it came upon without making it like decayed bones.

And in Thamud, when they were told, ‘Enjoy for a while.’

Then they defied the command of their Lord; so the thunderbolt seized them as they looked on.

So they were neither able to rise up, nor to come to one another’s aid.

And the people of Noah aforetime. Indeed, they were a transgressing lot.

We have built the heaven with might, and indeed it is We who are its expanders.

And We have spread out the earth, so how excellent spreaders We have been!

In all things We have created pairs so that you may take admonition.

‘So flee toward Allah. Indeed, I am from Him a manifest warner to you.

Do not set up another god besides Allah. Indeed I am from Him a manifest warner to you.’

So it was that there did not come any apostle to those who were before them but they said, ‘A magician,’ or ‘A crazy man!’

Did they enjoin this upon one another?! Rather, they were a rebellious lot.

So turn away from them, as you will not be blameworthy.

And admonish, for admonition indeed benefits the faithful.

I did not create the jinn and the humans except that they may worship Me.

I desire no provision from them, nor do I desire that they should feed Me.

Indeed it is Allah who is the All-provider, Powerful and All-strong.

Indeed the lot of those who do wrong [now] will be like the lot of their [earlier] counterparts. So let them not ask Me to hasten on [that fate].

Woe to the faithless for the day they are promised!

By the Mount [Sinai],

by the Book inscribed

on an unrolled parchment;

by the House greatly frequented;

by the vault raised high,

by the surging sea:

indeed your Lord’s punishment will surely befall.

There is none who can avert it.

On the day when the sky whirls violently,

and the mountains move with an awful motion:

woe to the deniers on that day

—those who play around in vain talk,

the day when they will be shoved forcibly toward the fire of hell, [and told:]

‘This is the Fire which you used to deny!

Is this, then, [also] magic, or is it you who do not perceive?

Enter it, and it will be the same for you whether you are patient or impatient. You are only being requited for what you used to do.’

Indeed the Godwary will be amid gardens and bliss,

rejoicing because of what their Lord has given them, and that their Lord has saved them from the punishment of hell.

[They will be told:] ‘Enjoy your food and drink, [as a reward] for what you used to do.’

They will be reclining on arrayed couches, and We will wed them to big-eyed houris.

The faithful and their descendants who followed them in faith—We will make their descendants join them, and We will not stint anything from [the reward of] their deeds. Every person is hostage to what he has earned.

We will provide them with fruits and meat, such as they desire.

There they will pass from hand to hand a cup wherein there will be neither any vain talk nor sinful speech.

They will be waited upon by their youths, as if they were guarded pearls.

They will turn to one another, questioning each other.

They will say, ‘Indeed, aforetime, we used to be apprehensive about our families.

But Allah showed us favour and He saved us from the punishment of the [infernal] miasma.

We used to supplicate Him aforetime. Indeed He is the All-benign, the All-merciful.’

So admonish. By your Lord’s blessing, you are not a soothsayer, nor mad.

Do they say, ‘[He is] a poet, for whom we await a fatal accident’?

Say, ‘Wait! I too am waiting along with you.’

Is it their intellect which prompts them to [say] this, or are they a rebellious lot?

Do they say, ‘He has improvised it [himself]?’ Rather, they have no faith!

Let them bring a discourse like it, if they are truthful.

Were they created from nothing? Or are they [their own] creators?

Did they create the heavens and the earth? Rather, they have no certainty!

Do they possess the treasuries of your Lord? Or do they control [them]?

Do they have a ladder [leading up to heaven] whereby they eavesdrop? If so, let their eavesdropper produce a manifest authority.

Does He have daughters while you have sons?

Do you ask them for a reward, so that they are [wary of] being weighed down with debt?

Do they have [access to] the Unseen, which they write down?

Do they seek to outmaneuver [Allah]? But it is the faithless who are the outmaneuvered ones!

Do they have any god other than Allah? Clear is Allah of any partners that they may ascribe [to Him]!

Were they to see a fragment falling from the sky, they would say, ‘A cumulous cloud.’

So leave them until they encounter the day when they will be thunderstruck,

the day when their guile will not avail them in any way, nor will they be helped.

Indeed there is a punishment besides that for those who do wrong, but most of them do not know.

So submit patiently to the judgement of your Lord, for indeed you fare before Our eyes. And celebrate the praise of your Lord when you rise [at dawn],

and also glorify Him during the night and at the receding of the stars.

By the star when it sets:

your companion has neither gone astray, nor amiss.

Nor does he speak out of [his own] desire:

it is just a revelation that is revealed [to him],

taught him by one of great powers,

possessed of sound judgement. He settled,

while he was on the highest horizon.

Then he drew nearer and nearer

until he was within two bows’ length or even nearer,

whereat He revealed to His servant whatever He revealed.

The heart did not deny what it saw.

Will you then dispute with him about what he saw?!

Certainly he saw it yet another time,

by the Lote Tree of the Ultimate Boundary,

near which is the Garden of the Abode,

when there covered the Lote Tree what covered it.

His gaze did not swerve, nor did it overstep the bounds.

Certainly he saw some of the greatest signs of his Lord.

Have you considered Lat and ‘Uzza?

and Manat, the third one?

Are you to have males and He females?

That, then, will be an unfair division!

These are but names, which you have coined—you and your fathers—for which Allah has not sent down any authority. They follow nothing but conjectures and the desires of the [lower] soul, while there has already come to them the guidance from their Lord.

Shall man have whatever he yearns for?

Yet to Allah belong this world and the Hereafter.

How many an angel there is in the heavens whose intercession is of not any avail, except after Allah permits whomever He wishes and approves of!

Indeed those who do not believe in the Hereafter give female names to the angels.

They do not have any knowledge of that. They follow nothing but conjectures, and conjecture is no substitute for the truth.

So avoid those who turn away from Our remembrance and desire nothing but the life of the world.

That is the ultimate reach of their knowledge. Indeed your Lord knows best those who stray from His way, and He knows best those who are [rightly] guided.

To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth, that He may requite those who do evil for what they have done, and reward those who do good with the best [of rewards].

Those who avoid major sins and indecencies, apart from [minor and occasional] lapses. Indeed your Lord is expansive in [His] forgiveness. He knows you best since [the time] He produced you from the earth and since you were foetuses in the bellies of your mothers. So do not flaunt your piety: He knows best those who are Godwary.

Did you see him who turned away,

gave a little and held off?

Does he have the knowledge of the Unseen so that he sees?

Has he not been informed of what is in the scriptures of Moses,

and of Abraham, who fulfilled [his summons]:

that no bearer shall bear another’s burden,

that nothing belongs to man except what he strives for,

and that he will soon be shown his endeavour,

then he will be rewarded for it with the fullest reward;

that the terminus is toward your Lord,

that it is He who makes [men] laugh, and weep,

that it is He who brings death and gives life,

that it is He who created the mates, the male and the female,

from a drop of [seminal] fluid when emitted;

that with Him lies the second genesis,

that it is He who enriches and grants possessions,

that it is He who is the Lord of Sirius;

that it is He who destroyed the former ‘Ad,

and Thamud, sparing none [of them];

and the people of Noah before that; indeed they were more unjust and rebellious;

and He overthrew the town that was overturned,

covering it with what covered it.

Then which of the bounties of your Lord will you dispute?

This is a warner, [in the tradition] of the warners of old.

The Imminent [Hour] is near at hand.

There is none who may unveil it besides Allah.

Will you then wonder at this discourse,

and laugh and not weep,

while you remain heedless?!

So prostrate yourselves to Allah and worship Him!

The Hour has drawn near and the moon is split.

If they see a sign, they turn away, and say, ‘An incessant magic!’

They denied and followed their own desires, and every matter has a setting [appropriate to it].

There have already come to them reports containing admonishment,

[and representing] far-reaching wisdom; but warnings are of no avail!

So turn away from them! The day when the Caller calls to a dire thing,

they will emerge from the graves as if they were scattered locusts with a humbled look [in their eyes],

scrambling toward the summoner. The faithless will say, ‘This is a hard day!’

The people of Noah impugned before them. So they impugned Our servant and said, ‘A crazy man,’ and he was reviled.

Thereat he invoked his Lord, [saying,] ‘I have been overcome, so help [me].’

Then We opened the gates of the sky with pouring waters,

and We made the earth burst forth with springs, and the waters met for a preordained purpose.

We bore him on a vessel made of planks and nails,

which sailed [over the flood waters] in Our sight, as a retribution for him who was met with disbelief.

Certainly We have left it as a sign; so is there anyone who will be admonished?

So how were My punishment and warnings?

Certainly We have made the Quran simple for the sake of admonishment. So is there anyone who will be admonished?

[The people of] ‘Ad impugned [their apostle]. So how were My punishment and warnings?

Indeed We unleashed upon them an icy gale on an incessantly ill-fated day,

knocking down people as if they were trunks of uprooted palm trees.

So how were My punishment and warnings?!

Certainly We have made the Quran simple for the sake of admonishment. So is there anyone who will be admonished?

[The people of] Thamud denied the warnings,

and they said, ‘Are we to follow a lone human from ourselves?! Indeed then we would be in error and madness.’

‘Has the Reminder been cast upon him from among us? No, he is a self-conceited liar.’

‘Tomorrow they will know who is a self-conceited liar.

We are sending the She-camel as a trial for them; so watch them and be steadfast.

Inform them that the water is to be shared between them; each of them showing up at his turn.’

But they called their companion, and he took [a knife] and hamstrung [her].

So how were My punishment and My warnings?!

We sent against them a single Cry, and they became like the dry sticks of a corral builder.

Certainly We have made the Quran simple for the sake of admonishment. So is there anyone who will be admonished?

And the people of Lot denied the warnings.

We unleashed upon them a rain of stones, excepting the family of Lot, whom We delivered at dawn

as a blessing from Us. Thus do We reward those who give thanks.

He had already warned them of Our punishment, but they disputed the warnings.

They even solicited of him his guests, whereat We blotted out their eyes, [saying,] ‘Taste My punishment and My warnings!’

Early at dawn there visited them an abiding punishment:

‘Taste My punishment and warnings!’

Certainly We have made the Quran simple for the sake of admonishment. So is there anyone who will be admonished?

Certainly the warnings did come to Pharaoh’s clan

who denied all of Our signs. So We seized them with the seizing of One [who is] all-mighty, Omnipotent.

Are your faithless better than those? Have you [been granted] [some sort of] immunity in the scriptures?

Do they say, ‘We are a confederate league’?

The league will be routed and turn its back [to flee].

Indeed, the Hour is their tryst; and the Hour will be most calamitous and bitter.

Indeed the guilty are steeped in error and madness.

The day when they are dragged on their faces into the Fire, [it will be said to them,] ‘Taste the touch of hell!’

Indeed We have created everything in a measure,

and Our command is but a single [word], like the twinkling of an eye.

Certainly We have destroyed your likes. So is there anyone who will be admonished?

Everything they have done is in the books,

and everything big and small is committed to writing.

Indeed the Godwary will be amid gardens and streams,

in the abode of truthfulness with an omnipotent King.