Nor is it the speech of a pelted devil.* Then whither do ye go? It is but a reminder to the worlds, to whomsoever of you pleases to go straight:-but ye will not please, except God, the Lord of the world, should please. THE CHAPTER OF THOSE WHO TEAR OUT In the name of the merciful and compassionate God. By those who tear out violently! And by those who gaily release1! And by those who float through the air! And the preceders who precede2! And those who manage the affair! On the day when the quaking quakes which the following one shall succeed! Hearts on that day shall tremble; eyes thereon be humbled! They say, 'Shall we be sent back to our old course?What! when we are rotten bones?' they say, 'That then were a losing return!' But it will only be one scare, and lo! they will be on the surface! 66 Has the story of Moses come to you? when his Lord addressed him in the holy valley of Tuvâ, 'Go unto Pharaoh, verily, he is outrageous; and say, Hast thou a wish to purify thyself, and that I may guide thee to thy Lord, and thou mayest fear?"" So he showed him the greatest signs; but he called him a liar and rebelled. Then he retreated hastily, and gathered, and proclaimed, and said, 'I am your Lord most High!' but God seized him with the punishment of the future life and of the former. Verily, in that is a lesson to him who fears! Are ye harder to create or the heaven that He has built? He raised its height and fashioned it; and made its night to cover it, and brought forth its noonday light; and the See note 5, Chapter of Imrân's Family. 1 Referring to the angel of death and his assistants, who tear away the souls of the wicked violently, and gently release the souls of the good. 2 The angels who precede the souls of the righteous to Paradise. The trumpet blast at the last day, which shall make the universe quake. earth after that He did stretch out. He brings forth from it its water and its pasture. And the mountains He did firmly set, a provision for you and for your cattle. And when the great predominant calamity shall come, on the day when man shall remember what he strove after, and hell shall be brought out for him who sees! And as for him who was outrageous and preferred the life of this world, verily, hell is the resort! But as for him who feared the station of his Lord, and prohibited his soul from lust, verily, Paradise is the resort! They shall ask thee about the Hour, for when it is set. Whereby canst thou mention it? Unto thy Lord its period belongs. Thou art only a warner to him who fears it. On the day they see it, it will be as though they had only tarried an evening or the noon thereof. THE CHAPTER OF THOSE SENT In the name of the merciful and compassionate God. By those sent in a series1! And by those who speed swiftly! And by the dispensers abroad! And by the separators apart! And by those who instil the reminder, as an excuse or warning! Verily, what ye are threatened with shall surely happen! And when the heavens shall be cleft! And when the mountains shall be winnowed! And when the apostles shall have a time appointed for them! For what day is the appointment made? For the day of decision! and what shall make thee know what the decision is? Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie! Have we not destroyed those of yore, and then followed them up with those of the latter day? 1 Either angels or winds, or as some interpret the passage, the verses of the Qur'ân. Thus do we with the sinners. Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie! Did we not create you from contemptible water, and place it in a sure depository unto a certain decreed term? for we are able and well able too! Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie! Have we not made for them the earth to hold the living and the dead? and set thereon firm mountains reared aloft? and given you to drink water in streams? Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie! Go off to that which ye did call a lie! Go off to the shadow of three columns, that shall not shade nor avail against the flame! Verily, it throws off sparks like towers, as though they were yellow camels! Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie! This is the day when they may not speak,-when they are not permitted to excuse themselves! Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie! This is the day of decision! We have assembled you with those of yore; if ye have any stratagem employ it now! Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie! Verily, the pious are amid shades and springs and fruit such as they love.-' Eat and drink with good digestion, for that which ye have done!' Verily, thus do we reward those who do well. Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie! 'Eat and enjoy yourselves for a little; verily, ye are sinners!' Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie! And when it is said to them bow down, they bow not down. Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie! And in what new discourse after it will they believe? THE CHAPTER OF THE RESURRECTION In the name of the merciful and compassionate God. I need not swear by the resurrection day! Nor need I swear by the self-accusing soul! Does man think that we shall not collect his bones? Able are we to arrange his finger tips! Nay, but man wishes to be wicked henceforward! he asks, When is the resurrection day? But when the sight shall be dazed, and the moon be eclipsed, and the sun and the moon be together, and man shall say upon that day, 'Where is a place to flee to?'nay, no refuge! and to thy Lord that day is the sure settlement: He will inform man on that day of what He has sent forward or delayed! Nay, man is an evidence against himself, and even if he thrusts forward his excuses-. Do not move thy tongue thereby to hasten it.' It is for us to collect it and to read it; and when we read it then follow its reading. And again it is for us to explain it. Nay, indeed, but ye love the transient life, and ye neglect the hereafter ! Faces on that day shall be bright, gazing on their Lord! And faces on that day shall be dismal! Thou wilt think that a back-breaking calamity has happened to them! Nay, but when the [soul] comes up into the throat, and it is said, Who will charm it back?' and he will think that it is his parting [hour]. And leg shall be pressed on leg; unto thy Lord on that day shall the driving be. For he did not believe3 and did not pray; but he said it was a lie, and turned his back! Then he went to his people haughtily-woe to thee, and woe to thee! again woe to thee, and woe to thee! Does man think that he shall be left to himself? Wasn't he a clot of emitted seed? Then he was congealed blood, and (God) created him, and fashioned him, and made of him pairs, male and female. Is not He able to quicken the dead? THE CHAPTER OF THE INFALLIBLE In the name of the merciful and compassionate God. The Infallible, what is the Infallible? and what should make thee know what the Infallible is? 1 I. e. the revelation. The words are addressed to Mohammed by the angel Gabriel. 2 I. e. in the death struggle. Or did not give in charity. Thamûd and 'Ad called the Striking Day a lie; but as for Thamûd they perished by the shock; and as for 'Ad they perished with the violent cold blast of wind, which He subjected against them for seven nights and eight days consecutively. Thou mightest see the people therein prostrate as though they were palm stumps thrown down, and canst thou see any of them left? And Pharaoh and those before him of the overturned cities' committed sins, and they rebelled against the apostle of their Lord, and He seized them with an excessive punishment. Verily, we, when the water surged, bore you on it in a sailing ship, to make it a memorial for you, and that the retentive ear might hold it. And when the trumpet shall be blown with one blast, and the earth shall be borne away, and the mountains too, and both be crushed with one crushing; on that day shall the inevitable happen; and the heaven on that day shall be cleft asunder, for on that day shall it wane! and the angels upon the sides thereof; and above them on that day shall eight bear the throne of thy Lord! On the day when ye shall be set forth no hidden thing of yours shall be concealed. And as for him who is given his book in his right hand, he shall say, 'Here! take and read my book. Verily, I thought that I should meet my reckoning'; and he shall be in a pleasing life, in a lofty garden, whose fruits are nigh to cull-Eat ye and drink with good digestion, for what ye did aforetime in the days that have gone by!' But as for him who is given his book in his left hand he shall say, 'O, would that I had not received my book! I did not know what my account would be. O, would that it' had been an end of me! my wealth availed me not! my authority has perished from me!' 'Take him and fetter him, then in hell broil him! then into a chain whose length is seventy cubits force him! verily, he believed not in the mighty God, nor was he particular to feed the poor: therefore he has not here to-day any warm friend, nor any food except foul ichor, which none save sinners shall eat!' 1 Sodom and Gomorrah. 2 I. e. death. |