17- THE NIGHT
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17- THE NIGHT JOURNEY [AL-ISRA’A]
Revealed at Mecca, [111 verses]
Al-Isra’a, “The Night Journey,” begins and ends with
references to the Israelites. V. 1 relates to the Prophet’s journey,
in which he was carried by night upon a heavenly steed to the
Mosque at Jerusalem, whence he was caught up through the
seven heavens to the very presence of God. The Sûrah may
be taken as belonging to the middle group of Meccan Sûrahs,
except v. 81, or, according to other commentators, vv. 76-82,
revealed at Al-Madînah.
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
? . 1 Glorified be He Who took His servant by night from
the Al-Masjid-al-Haram [at Mecca] to the al-Masjid al-Aqsa
[Far Distant Mosque] the neighbourhood whereof We have
blessed, that We might show him of Our signs! Lo! He, only
He, is the Hearer, the Seer.
2. And We gave to Moses the Scripture, and We appointed
it a guidance for the Children of Israel, saying: Take no
disposer of affairs other than Me.
3. [They were] the descendants of those whom We carried
[in the ship] along with Noah. Lo! he was a grateful slave.
4. And We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Scripture:
You verily will work corruption in the earth twice, and you
will become great tyrants.
5. So when the time for the first of the two came, We roused
against you slaves of Ours of great might who ravaged
[your] country, and it was a promise performed.
6. Then we gave you once again your turn against them, and
We aided you with wealth and children and made you more
in soldiery,
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7. [Saying]: If you do good, you do good for your own souls,
and if you do evil, it is for them [in like manner]. So, when
the time for the second [of the judgments] came [We
roused against you others of Our slaves] to ravage you,
and to enter the Mosque in Jerusalem even as they entered
it the first time, and to lay waste all that they conquered
with an utter wasting.
8. It may be that your Lord will have mercy on you, but if you
repeat [the crime] We shall repeat [the punishment], and
We have appointed Hell a prison for the disbelievers.
9. Lo! this Qur’ân guides to that which is straightest, and gives
glad tidings to the believers who do good deeds that theirs
will be a great reward.
10. And that those who believe not in the Hereafter, for them
We have prepared a painful doom.
11. Man supplicates for evil as he supplicates for good; for
man is ever hasty.
12. And we have made the night and the day two signs. Then
We erased the sign of the night, and We made the sign
of the day sight-giving, that you may seek bounty from
your Lord, and that you may know the number of the
years, and the reckoning; and everything We have set out
in detail.
13. And every man’s augury We have fastened to his own
neck, and We shall bring forth for him on the Day of
Resurrection a book which he will find wide open.
14. [And it will be said to him]: Read your Book. Your soul
suffices as reckoner against you this day.
15. Whosoever is guided, it is only for [the good of] his own
soul that he is guided, and whosoever errs, only errs
against it. No laden soul can bear another’s burden. We
never punish until We have sent a messenger.
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16. And when We would destroy a township We send
commandment to its folk who live at ease, and afterward
they commit abomination therein, and so the Word [of
doom] has effect for it, and We destroy it with complete
destruction.
17. How many generations have we destroyed since Noah!
And Allah suffices as Acquainted and Beholder of the
sins of His slaves.
18. Whoso desires that [life] which hastens away, We hasten
for him therein what We will for whom We please. And
afterward We have appointed for him Hell; he will endure
the heat thereof, condemned, rejected.
19. And whoso desires the Hereafter and strives for it with
the effort necessary, being a believer; for such, their effort
finds favour [with their Lord].
20. Each do We supply, both these and those, from the bounty
of your Lord. And the bounty of your Lord can never be
restricted.
21. See how We prefer some of them over others, and verily
the Hereafter will be greater in degrees and greater in
preference.
22. Set not up with Allah any other deity [O man] lest you sit
down reproved, forsaken.
23. Your Lord has decreed, that you worship none save Him,
and [that you show] kindness to parents. If one of them or
both of them to attain old age with you, say not “Fie” to
them nor repulse them, but speak to them a gracious word.
24. And lower to them the wing of submission through mercy,
and say: My Lord! Have mercy on them both as they did
care for me when I was little.
25. Your Lord is Best Aware of what is in your minds. If you
are righteous, then lo! He was ever Forgiving to those
who turn [to Him].
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26. Give the kinsman his due, and the needy, and the wayfarer,
and spend not [your wealth] wastefully.
27. Lo! the squanderers were ever brothers of the devils, and
the devil was ever an ingrate to his Lord.
28. But if you turn away from them, seeking mercy from your
Lord, for which you hope, then speak to them a gentle
word.
29. And let not your hand be chained to your neck nor open
it with a complete opening, lest you sit down blamed,
insolvent.
30. Lo! your Lord enlarges the provision for whom He wills,
and straitens [it for whom He wills]. Lo, He was ever
Knower, Seer of His slaves.
31. Kill not your children, fearing a fall to poverty, We shall
provide for them and for you. Lo! the killing of them is
great sin.
32. And come not near to adultery. Lo! it is an abomination
and an evil way.
33. And kill not the soul which Allah has forbidden save with
right. Whoso is killed wrongfully, We have given power to
his heir, but let him not commit excess in killing. Lo! he
will be helped.
34. Come not near the wealth of the orphan save with that
which is better till he comes to strength; and keep the
covenant. Lo! of the covenant it will be asked.
35. Fill the measure when you measure, and weigh with a
straight balance; that is better, and better in the end.
36. [O man], follow not that whereof you have no knowledge.
Lo! the hearing and the sight and the heart– of each of
those you will be asked.
37. And walk not in the earth exultantly. Lo! you will never tear
the earth, nor will you reach the height of the mountains.
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38. All that– its evil is hateful in the sight of your Lord.
39. This is [part] of that wisdom wherewith your Lord has
revealed to you [O Muhammad]. And set not up with
Allah any other deity, lest you be cast into Hell, blamed,
abandoned.
40. Has your Lord then distinguished you [O men of Mecca]
by giving you sons, and has chosen for Himself females
from among the angels? Lo! verily you speak a grave word!
41. We verily have displayed [Our warnings] in this Qur’ân
that they may take heed, but it increases them in nothing
save aversion.
42. Say [O Muhammad, to the disbelievers]: If there were
other deities along with Him, as they say, then had they
sought a way against the Lord of the Throne.
43. Glorified is He, and High Exalted above what they say!
44. The seven heavens and the earth and all that is therein
praise Him, and there is not a thing but exalts his praise;
but you understand not their praise. Lo! He is ever
Forbearing, Forgiving.
45. And when you recite the Qur’ân We place between you,
and those who believe not in the Hereafter a hidden
barrier;
46. And We place upon their hearts veils lest they should
understand it, and in their ears a deafness; and when you
make mention of your Lord alone in the Qur’ân, they
turn their backs in aversion.
47. We are Best Aware of what they wish to hear when they
give ear to you and when they take secret counsel, when
the wrong-doers say: You follow but a man bewitched.
48. See what similitudes they coin for you, and thus are all
astray, and cannot find a way!
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49. And they say: When we are bones and fragments, shall we,
indeed, be resurrected as a new creation?
50. Say: Be you stones or iron
51. Or some created thing that is yet greater in your breasts!
Then they will say: Who shall bring us back [to life]. Say: He
who created you at the first. Then they will shake their heads
at you, and say: When will it be? Say: It will perhaps be soon;
52. A day when He will call you and you will answer with His
praise, and you will think that you have tarried but a little
while.
53. Tell My bondmen to speak that which is kindlier. Lo! the
Satan sows discord among them. Lo! the Satan is for man
an open foe.
54. Your Lord is Best Aware of you. If He wills, He will have
mercy on you, or if He wills, He will punish you. We have
not sent you [O Muhammad] as a guardian over them.
55. And your Lord is Best Aware of all who are in the heavens
and the earth. And we preferred some of the prophets
above others, and to David We gave the Psalms.
56. Say: Invoke those whom you assume [to be gods] besides
Him, yet they have no power to rid you of misfortune or
[for its] transfer to someone else.
57. Those to whom they invoke seek the way of approach to
their Lord, which of them shall be the nearest; they hope
for His mercy and they fear His doom. Lo! the doom of
your Lord is to be shunned.
58. There is not a township but We shall destroy it before the
Day of Resurrection, or punish it with severe punishment.
That is set forth in the Book [of Our decrees].
59. And nothing hinders Us from sending signs save that the
folk of old denied them. And We gave Thamûd the shePART
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camel -as a visible sign- but they did wrong in respect of
her. We send not signs save to warn.
60. And [remember Muhammad] when We told you: Lo! your
Lord encompasses mankind, and We appointed the vision
which We showed you as an ordeal for mankind, and
[likewise] the Accursed Tree in the Qur’ân. We warn them,
but it increases them in nothing save gross transgression.
61. And when We said to the angels: Fall down prostrate
before Adam and they fell prostrate all save Ibis, he
said: Shall I fall prostrate before that which You have
created of clay?
62. He said: See You this [creature] whom You have honoured
above me, if You give me grace until the Day of Resurrection
I verily will seize his offspring, save but a few.
63. He said: Go, and whosoever of them follows you– Lo!
Hell will be your payment, ample recompense.
64. And excite any of them whom you can with your voice,
and assault them with your horses and foot soldiers,
and become a partner in their wealth and children, and
promise them. Satan promises them only to deceive.
65. Lo! My [faithful] bondmen– over them you have no power,
and your Lord suffices as [their] guardian.
66. [O mankind], your Lord is He Who drives for you the ship
upon the sea that you may seek of His bounty. Lo! He
was ever Merciful toward you.
67. And when harm touches you upon the sea, all to whom
you invoke [for succour] fail save Him [alone], but when
He brings you safe to land, you turn away, for man was
ever thankless.
68. Feel you then secure that He will not cause a part of the
land to swallow you, or send a sand-storm, upon you, and
then you will find that you have no protector?
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69. Or feel you secure that He will not return you to that
[plight] a second time, and send against you a hurricane
of wind and drown you for your disbelief, and then you
will not find therein that you have any avenger against Us?
70. Verily We have honoured the children of Adam. We carry
them on the land and the sea, and have made provision of
good things for them, and have preferred them above many
of those whom We created with a marked preference.
71. On the day when We shall summon all men with their
record, whoso is given his book in his right hand– such
will read their books and they will not be wronged a shred.
72. Whoso is blind here [in this life] will be blind in the
Hereafter, and yet further from the way.
73. And they indeed strove hard to beguile you [Muhammad]
away from that wherewith We have revealed to you, that
you should invent other than it against Us; and then would
they have taken you as a friend.[1]
74. And if We had not made you wholly firm you might
almost have inclined to them a little.
75. Then had We made you taste a double [punishment] of
living and a double [punishment] of dying, then had you
found no helper against Us.
76. And they indeed wished to scare you from the land that
they might drive you forth from thence, and then they
would have stayed [there] but a little after you.
77. [Such was Our] way in the case of those whom We sent
before you of Our messengers [to mankind], and you will
not find any change in Our way.
78. Establish prayer at the going down of the sun until the
dark of night, and [the recital of] the Qur’ân at dawn. Lo!
[the recital of] the Qur’ân at dawn is ever witnessed.
[1] If, as the Jalâleyn declare, vv. 76-82 were revealed at Al-Madînah the
reference here is to the plotting of the Jews and Hypocrites.
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79. And some part of the night pray with it, as additional
worship for you, that your Lord will raise you to a praised
station.
80. And say: My Lord! Cause me to enter a sound entrance and
to go out with a sound exit. And give me from Yourself a
supporting authority.
81. And say: Truth has come and falsehood has vanished
away. Lo! falsehood is ever bound to vanish.[1]
82. And We send down of the Qur’ân that which is a healing
and a mercy for believers though it increases the wrongdoers
in nothing save ruin.
83. And when We bestow favour upon man, he turns away
and is averse; and when evil touches him he is in despair.
84. Say: Each one does according to his rule of conduct, and
your Lord is Best Aware of who is best guided in way.
85. They are asking you concerning the soul. Say: The soul is
the affair of my Lord, and of knowledge you have been
given but little.
86. And if We willed We could take away that which We have
revealed to you, then would you find no guardian for you
against Us in respect thereof.
87. [It is nothing] save mercy from your Lord. Lo! His kindness
to you was ever great.[2]
88. Say: Verily, though mankind and the jinn should assemble
to produce the like of this Qur’ân, they could not produce
the like thereof though they were helpers one of another.
[1] These words were recited by the Prophet when he witnessed the
destruction of the idols round the Ka’bah after the conquest of
Mecca.
[2] Vv. 85, 86 and 87 are said to have been revealed in answer to the third
question which some Jewish rabbis prompted the idolaters to ask, the
first two questions being answered in the following Surah.
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89. And verily We have displayed for mankind in this Qur’ân
all kinds of similitudes, but most of mankind refuse
anything save disbelief.
90. And they say: We will not believe in you till you cause a
spring to gush forth from the earth for us;
91. Or you have a garden of date-palms and grapes, and cause
rivers to gush forth therein abundantly;
92. Or you cause the heaven to fall upon us in fragments, as
you have claimed, or bring Allah and the angels before us;
93. Or you have a house of gold; or you ascend up into heaven,
and even then we will not believe in your ascension till
you bring down for us a book that we can read. Say [O
Muhammad]: My Lord be Glorified! Am I anything save
a mortal messenger?
94. And nothing prevented the people from believing when
the guidance came to them save that they said: Has Allah
sent a mortal as [His] messenger?
95. Say: If there were in the earth angels walking secure,
We had sent down for them from heaven an angel as
messenger.
96. Say: Allah suffices for a witness between me and you Lo!
He is Knower, Seer of His slaves.
97. And he whom Allah guides, he is the rightly guided; while,
as for him whom He sends astray, for them you will find
no protectors besides Him, and We shall gather them on
the Day of Resurrection on their faces, blind, dumb and
deaf; their refuge will be Hell; whenever it abates, We
increase the flame for them.
98. That is their recompense because they disbelieved Our
verses and said: When we are bones and fragments shall
we, indeed, be resurrected as a new creation?
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99. Have they not seen that Allah Who created the heavens
and the earth is Able to create the like of them, and has
appointed for them an end whereof there is no doubt?
But the wrong-doers refuse anything save disbelief.
100. Say [to them]: If you possessed the treasures of the
mercy of my Lord, you would surely hold them back for
fear of spending, for man was ever stingy.
101. And verily We gave to Moses nine evident signs, [of
Allah’s Sovereignty]. Do but ask the Children of Israel
when he came to them, then Pharaoh said to him: Lo! I
deem you one bewitched, O Moses.
102. He said: In truth you know that none sent down these
[signs] save the Lord of the heavens and the earth as
proofs, and lo! [for my part] I deem you lost, O Pharaoh.
103. And he wished to scare them from the land, but We
drowned him and those with him, all together.
104. And We said to the Children of Israel after him: Dwell in
the land; but when the promise of the Hereafter comes
to pass we shall bring you as a crowd gathered out of
various nations.[1]
105. With truth We have sent it down, and with truth has it
descended. And We have not sent you [O Muhammad]
save a bearer of good tidings and a warner.
106. And [it is] a Qur’ân that We have separated, that you
may recite it to mankind at intervals, and We have sent it
down by [successive] revelation.
107. Say: Believe therein or believe not, lo! those who were
given knowledge before it, when it is read to them, fall
down prostrate on their faces, adoring,
108. Saying: Glory to our Lord! Verily the promise of our
Lord must be fulfilled.
[1] A reference to the dispersal of the Jews as the consequence of their
own deeds after God had established them in the land.
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109. They fall down on their faces, weeping, and it [the
Qur’ân] increases humility in them.
110. Say [to mankind]: Invoke Allah, or invoke the Beneficent,
[1] to whichever you invoke [it is the same]. His are the
most beautiful names. And you [Muhammad], be not
loud-voiced in your prayer nor yet silent therein, but
seek a way between.
111. And say: Praise be to Allah, Who has not taken to Himself
a son, and Who has no partner in the Sovereignty, nor
has He any protector through dependence. And magnify
Him with all magnificence.
18- THE CAVE [AL-KAHF]
Revealed at Mecca, [110 verses]
Al-Kahf, “The Cave” takes its name from the story of
the youths who took refuge from persecution in a cave (vv.
10-27) and were preserved there as if asleep for a long period
a story which is generally identified by Western writers (e.g.
Gibbon) with the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.
But a strong tradition in the Muslim world asserts that this
story and that of Dhû’l Qarneyn (“The Two-Horned One”), vv.
83-98, possibly also that of Moses and the angel, vv. 60-82,
were revealed to the Prophet to enable him to answer the
questions which the Jewish scholars of Yathrib had instructed
the idolaters to ask him, as a test of Prophethood.
The questions were three: “Ask him,” said the Rabbis, “of
some youths who were of old, what was their fate, for they
[1] The idolaters had a peculiar objection to the name Ar-Rahmân,
“The Beneficent,” in the Qur’an. They said: “We do not know this
Rahmân.” Some of them thought that Ar-Rahmân was a man living
in Yamâmah.
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have a strange story; and ask him of a much-travelled man
who reached the sunrise regions of the earth and the sunset
regions thereof, what was his history; and ask him of the
Spirit, what it is.”
The tormentors of the Prophet, who had been to Yathrib
to get hints from the Jews, on their return to Mecca put these
questions to the Prophet, after having told the people that
it was to be a crucial test. The Prophet said that he would
surely answer them upon the morrow, without adding “if
God wills,” as though he could command God’s revelation.
As a reproof for that omission, the wished-for revelation was
withheld from him for some days, and when it came included
the rebuke contained in verse 24.[1] There is no reason
whatever to doubt the truth of the tradition which connects
this chapter with three questions set by Jewish rabbis, and
the answers must have been considered satisfying, or at least
silencing, or the Jews would certainly have made fun of them
when they were taunting the Prophet daily after his flight to
Yathrib (Al-Madînah) . That being so, it would seem rash to
identify the story with that of the Christian Seven Sleepers; it
must belong, as the story of the “Two-Horned One” actually
does belong, to rabbinical lore. The third of the questions
is answered in Sûrah 17, vv. 85 ff. It belongs to the middle
group of Meccan Sûrahs.
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
1. Praise be to Allah Who has sent down the Book upon His
slave, and has not placed therein any crookedness,
2. [But has made it] straight, to give warning of severe punishment
from Him, and to bring to the believers who do good deeds
the glad tidings that theirs will be a fair reward.
3. Wherein they will abide for ever;
[1] Ibn Hishîm (Cairo edition), Part I, pp. 102, 103.
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4. And to warn those who say: Allah has taken a son,
5. [A thing] whereof they have no knowledge, nor [had]
their fathers. Dreadful is the word that comes out of their
mouths. They speak nothing but a lie.
6. Yet it may be, if they believe not in this statement, that
you [Muhammad] will kill yourself with grief over their
footsteps.
7. Lo! We have made all that is in the earth as an ornament
thereof that We may try them: which of them is best in deed.
8. And lo! We shall make all that is thereon a barren ground.
9. Or you have deemed that the people of the Cave and the
Inscription were a wonder among Our signs?
10. When the young men fled for refuge to the Cave and said:
Our Lord! Give us mercy from Yourself and prepare for
us from our affair right guidance.
11. Then We cast [a cover of sleep] over their ears in the Cave
for a number of years.
12. And afterward We raised them up that We might know
which of the two parties would best calculate the time
that they had tarried.
13. We narrate to you their story with truth. Lo! they were
young men who believed in their Lord, and We increased
them in guidance.
14. And We made firm their hearts when they stood forth and
said: Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth.
We will never invoke besides Him any deity, for then we
would have certainly spoken an excessive enormity.
15. These, our people, have taken [other] gods besides
Him though they bring no clear authority to them.
And who does greater wrong than he who invents a lie
concerning Allah?
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16. And when you withdraw from them and that which they
worship except Allah, then seek refuge in the Cave; your
Lord will spread for you of His mercy and will prepare
for you from your affair facility.
17. And you might have seen the sun when it rose move away
from their cave to the right, and when it set go past them
on the left, and they were in the cleft thereof. That was
[one] of the signs of Allah. He whom Allah guides, he
indeed is rightly guided, and he whom He sends astray,
for him you will not find a protecting guide.
18. And you would have deemed them waking though they
were asleep, and we caused them to turn over to the right
and the left, and their dog stretching out his forelegs on
the entrance. If you had observed them closely you had
assuredly turned away from them in flight, and had been
filled with terror of them.
19. And in like manner We awakened them that they might
question one another. A speaker from among them said:
How long have you tarried? They said: We have tarried a
day or some part of a day, [Others] said: Your Lord best
knows what you have tarried. Now send one of you with
this your silver coin to the city, and let him see what food
is purest there and bring you a supply thereof. Let him be
courteous and let no man know of you.
20. For they, if they should come to know of you, will stone
you or turn you back to their religion; then you will never
prosper.
21. And in like manner We disclosed them [to the people
of the city] that they might know that the promise of
Allah is true, and that, as for the Hour, there is no doubt
concerning it. When [the people of the city] disputed of
their case among themselves, they said: Build over them a
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building; their Lord knows best concerning them. Those
who won their point said: We verily shall build a place of
worship over them.
22. [Some] will say: They were three, their dog the fourth,
and [some] say: Five, their dog the sixth, guessing at the
unseen; and [some] say: Seven, and their dog the eighth.
Say [O Muhammad]: My Lord is Best Aware of their
number. None knows them save a few. So argue not
concerning them except with an obvious argument, and
ask not any of them to pronounce concerning them.
23. And say not of anything: Lo! I shall do that tomorrow,
24. Except if Allah wills. And remember your Lord when you
forget, and say: It may be that my Lord guides me to a
nearer way of truth than this to right conduct.
25. And [it is said] they tarried in their Cave three hundred
years and add nine.
26. Say: Allah is Best Aware how long they tarried. His is the
Unseen of the heavens and the earth. How clear of sight
is He and keen of hearing! They have no protector besides
Him, and He makes none to share in His command.
27. And recite that which has been revealed to you of the
Book of your Lord. There is none who can change His
words, and you will find no refuge besides Him.
28. Restrain yourself along with those who invoke their Lord
at morning and evening, seeking His Countenance; and
let not your eyes overlook them, desiring the adornments
of the life of the world; and obey not him whose heart We
have made heedless of Our remembrance, who follows
his own lust and whose affair has been abandoned.
29. Say: [It is] the truth from the Lord of you [all]. Then
whosoever wills, let him believe, and whosoever wills,
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let him disbelieve. Lo! We have prepared for disbelievers
Fire. Its walls enclose them. If they call for relief, they
will be relieved with water like murky oil which scalds the
faces. Calamitous the drink and ill the resting-place!
30. Lo! as for those who have believed and done righteous
deeds– Lo! We allow not the reward of one whose work
is goodly to be lost.
31. As for such, theirs will be Gardens of Eden [perpetual
residence], wherein rivers flow beneath them; therein they
will be given armlets of gold and will wear green robes
of finest silk and gold embroidery, reclining upon thrones
therein. Blest the reward, and fair the resting-place!
32. And coin for them a similitude: Two men, to one of
whom We had assigned two gardens of grapes, and
We had surrounded both with date-palms and had put
between them [fields of] crops.
33. Each of the two gardens gave its fruit and withheld nothing
thereof. And We caused a river to gush forth therein.
34. And he had fruit. And he said to his companion, when
he spoke with him: I am more than you in wealth, and
stronger in respect of men.
35. And he went into his garden, while he [thus] wronged
himself. He said: I think not that all this will ever perish.
36. I think not that the Hour will ever come, and if indeed
I am brought back to my Lord I surely shall find better
than this as a return.
37. And his companion, when he [thus] spoke with him,
exclaimed: Do you disbelieve in Him Who created you
of dust, then of a drop [of sperm], and then fashioned
you a man?
38. But He is Allah, my Lord, and I do not associate with my
Lord anyone.
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39. If only, when you entered your garden, you had said: That
which Allah wills [will come to pass]! There is no strength
save in Allah! Though you see me as less than you in
wealth and children,
40. Yet it may be that my Lord will give me better than your
garden, and will send on it a bolt from heaven, and some
morning it will be a smooth dusty ground,
41. Or some morning the water thereof will be sunken in the
earth so that you will not be able to seek it.
42. And his fruit was beset [with destruction]. Then he began
to wring his hands [in dismay] for all that he had spent
upon it, when [now] it was all ruined on its trellises, and
to say: Would that I had associated any one with my Lord!
43. And he had no group of men to help him as against Allah,
nor could he save himself.
44. In this case the authority is only for Allah, the True. He is
Best for reward, and best for consequence.
45. And coin for them the similitude of the life of the world as
water which We send down from the sky, and the vegetation
of the earth mingles with it and then becomes dry twigs
that the winds scatter. Allah is Able to do all things.
46. Wealth and children are an ornament of life of the world.
But the good deeds which endure are better in your Lord’s
sight for reward, and better in respect of [one’s] hope.
47. And [remember] the Day when We will remove the mountains
and you see the earth emerging, and We will gather them
together so as to leave not one of them behind.
48. And they will be set before your Lord in rows [and He
will say to them]: Now verily have you come to Us as We
created you at the first. But you claimed that We had set
no tryst for you.
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49. And the Book [of deeds] is placed, and you see the criminals
fearful of that which is therein, and they say: What kind
of a Book is this that leaves not a small thing nor a great
thing but has counted it! And they find all that they did
confronting them, and your Lord wrongs no-one.
50. And [remember] when We said to the angels: Fall
prostrate before Adam, and they fell prostrate, all save
Ibis. He was of the jinn, so he rebelled against his Lord’s
command. Will you choose him and his offspring for
your allies instead of Me, when they are an enemy to you?
Calamitous is the exchange for wrong-doers!
51. I made them not to witness the creation of the heavens
and the earth, nor their own creation; nor I take misleaders
for [My] helpers.
52. And [be mindful of] the Day when He will say: Call those
partners of Mine whom you claimed. Then they will
invoke them, but they will not respond to them, and We
shall set a valley of doom between them.
53. And the criminals behold the Fire and know that they are
about to fall therein, and they find no way of escape thence:
54. And verily We have displayed for mankind in this Qur’ân
all manner of similitudes, but man is more than anything
contentious.
55. And nothing hinders mankind from believing when the
guidance comes to them, and from asking for forgiveness
of their Lord, unless [it be that they wish] that the
judgment of the men of old should come upon them or
[that] they should be confronted with the Doom.
56. We send not the messengers save as bearers of glad
tidings and warners. Those who disbelieve contend with
falsehood in order to refute the Truth thereby. And they
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take Our revelations and that wherewith they are warned
as mockery.
57. And who does greater wrong than he who has been
reminded of the verses of his Lord, yet turns away from
them and forgets what his hands send forward [to the
Judgment]? Lo! on their hearts We have placed coverings
so that they understand not, and in their ears a deafness.
And though you call them to the guidance, in that case
they will never be guided.
58. And your Lord is the Forgiver, Merciful. If He were to
take them to task [now] for what they earned, He would
hasten on the doom for them; but theirs is an appointed
term from which they will find no escape,
59. And [all] those townships! We destroyed them when
they did wrong, and We appointed a fixed time for their
destruction.
60. And when Moses said to his boy-servant: I will not give up
until I reach the point where the two seas meet, though I
march on for ages.
61. And when they reached the point where the two met, they
forgot their fish, and it took its way into the sea, being free.
62. And when they had gone further, he said to his servant:
Bring us our breakfast. Verily we have found fatigue in
this our journey.
63. He said: Did you see, when we took refuge on the rock, and
I forgot the fish - and none but Satan caused me to forget
to mention it- it took its way into the sea by a marvel.
64. He said: This is that which we have been seeking they
retraced their steps again.
65. Then they found one of Our slaves, to whom We had
given mercy from Us, and had taught him from Us a
knowledge.