35 We gave Moses the Book and appointed his brother Aaron to help him. 36 We said, ‘Go, both of you, to the people who have rejected Our signs.’ Later We destroyed those people utterly. 37 The people of Noah, too: when they rejected their messengers, We drowned them and made them an example to all people. We have prepared a painful torment for the evildoers, 38 as We did for the people of Ad, Thamud, and al-Rass, and many generations in between. 39 To each of them We gave warnings, and each of them We destroyed completely. 40 These disbelievers must have passed by the town that was destroyed by the terrible rain [a] ––did they not see it? Yet they do not expect to be raised from the dead. 41 Whenever they see you [Prophet] they ridicule you: ‘Is this the one God has sent as a messenger? 42 He might almost have led us astray from our gods if we had not stood so firmly by them.’ When they see the punishment, they will know who is furthest from the path. 43 Think [Prophet] of the man who has taken his own passion as a god: are you to be his guardian? 44 Do you think that most of them hear or understand? They are just like cattle– no, they are further from the path.
The Power of God
45 Do you not see how your Lord lengthens the shade? If He had willed, He could have made it stand still– We made the sun its indicator– 46 but We gradually draw it towards Us, little by little. 47 It is He who made the night a garment for you, and sleep a rest, and made the day like a resurrection. 48 It is He who sends the winds as heralds of good news before His Mercy. [b] We send down pure water from the sky, 49 so that We can revive a dead land with it, and We give it as a drink to many animals and people We have created. 50 Many times We have repeated this to people so that they might take heed, but most persist in their ingratitude. 51 If it had been Our will, We would have sent a warner to every town, 52 so do not give in to the disbelievers: strive hard against them with this Quran.
53 It is He who released the two bodies of flowing water, one sweet and fresh and the other salty and bitter, and put an insurmountable barrier between them. 54 It is He who creates human beings from fluid, then makes them kin by blood and marriage: your Lord is all powerful! 55 Yet instead of God they worship things that can neither benefit nor harm them: the disbeliever has always turned his back on his Lord. 56 We sent you only to give good news and warning. 57 Say, ‘I am not asking for any reward for it, but anyone who wishes should take a path to his Lord.’ 58 Put your trust in the Living [God] who never dies, and celebrate His praise. He knows the sins of His servants well enough: 59 it is He who created the heavens and earth and what is between them in six Days, [c] and then established Himself on the throne– He is the Lord of Mercy; He is the Best Informed. [d] 60 Yet when they are told, ‘Bow down before the Lord of Mercy,’ they say, ‘What is the Lord of Mercy? Should we bow down before anything you command?’ and they turn even further away. 61 Exalted is He who put constellations in the heavens, a radiant light, and an illuminating moon– 62 it is He who made the night and day follow each other– so anyone who wishes may be mindful or show gratitude.
Mannerisms of the Believers
63 The servants of the Lord of Mercy are those who walk humbly on the earth, and who, when the foolish address them, reply, ‘Peace’; 64 those who spend the night bowed down or standing, worshipping their Lord, 65 who plead, ‘Our Lord, turn away from us the suffering of Hell, for it is a dreadful torment to suffer! 66 It is an evil home, a foul resting place!’ 67 They are those who are neither wasteful nor niggardly when they spend, but keep to a just balance; 68 those who never invoke any other deity beside God, nor take a life, which God has made sacred, except in the pursuit of justice, nor commit adultery. (Whoever does these things will face the penalties: 69 their torment will be doubled on the Day of Resurrection, and they will remain in torment, disgraced, 70 except those who repent, believe, and do good deeds: God will change the evil deeds of such people into good ones. He is most forgiving, most merciful. 71 People who repent and do good deeds truly return to God.)
72 [The servants of the Lord of Mercy are] those who do not give false testimony, and who, when they see some frivolity, pass by with dignity; 73 who, when reminded of their Lord’s signs, do not turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to them; 74 those who pray, ‘Our Lord, give us joy in our spouses and offspring. Make us good examples to those who are aware of You’. 75 These servants will be rewarded with the highest place in Paradise for their steadfastness. There they will be met with greetings and peace. 76 There they will stay– a happy home and resting place! 77 [Prophet, tell the disbelievers], ‘What are you to my Lord without your supplication? But since you have written off the truth as lies, the inevitable will happen.’ [e]
Footnotes
a. See 15: 74, 76.
b. The rain.
c. Cf. 41: 9–12.
d. Other readings of this phrase include ‘ask someone who knows’ or ‘ask anyone how well informed He is’, but the expression fas'al, ‘ask someone’, at the beginning of the phrase is a rhetorical device suggesting the truth of the statement and need not be translated literally.
e. The punishment (cf. 4: 147).
The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)
The Qur'an / a new translation by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, copyright © 2004 Oxford World's Classics (Oxford University Press). Used by permission. All rights reserved.