42 We sent messengers before you [Prophet] to many communities and afflicted their people with suffering and hardships, so that they could learn humility. 43 If only they had learned humility when suffering came from Us! But no, their hearts became hard and Satan made their foul deeds alluring to them. 44 So, when they had forgotten the warning they had received, We opened the gates to everything for them. Then, as they reveled in what they had been given, We struck them suddenly and they were dumbfounded. 45 The evildoers were wiped out: praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds!
46 Say [Prophet], ‘Think: if God were to take away your hearing and your sight and seal up your hearts, what god other than He could restore them?’ See how We explain Our revelations in various ways, yet still they turn away. 47 Say, ‘Think: if the punishment of God should come to you, by surprise or openly, would anyone but the evildoers be destroyed?’ 48 We send messengers only to give good news and to warn, so for those who believe and do good deeds there will be no fear, nor will they grieve. 49 As for those who rejected Our signs, torment will afflict them as a result of their defiance. 50 Say, ‘I do not have the treasures of God, nor do I know the unseen, nor do I tell you that I am an angel. I only follow what is revealed to me.’ Say, ‘Is a blind person like one who can see? Why will you not reflect?’
God Knows Everything
51 Use the Quran to warn those who fear being gathered before their Lord– they will have no one but Him to protect them and no one to intercede– so that they may beware. 52 Do not drive away those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking nothing but His Face. [a] You are in no way accountable for them, nor they for you; if you drove the believers away, [b] you would become one of the evildoers. 53 We have made some of them a test for others, to make the disbelievers say, ‘Is it these men that God has favored among us?’ Does God not know best who are the grateful ones?
54 When those who believe in Our revelations come to you [Prophet], say, ‘Peace be upon you. Your Lord has taken it on Himself to be merciful: if any of you has foolishly done a bad deed, and afterwards repented and mended his ways, God is most forgiving and most merciful.’ 55 In this way We explain the revelations, so that the way for sinners may be made clear. [c] 56 Say, ‘I am forbidden to worship those you call on other than God.’ Say, ‘I will not follow your vain desires, for if I did, I would stray from the path and cease to be rightly guided.’ 57 Say, ‘I stand on clear proof from my Lord, though you deny it. What you seek to hasten is not within my power. Judgement is for God alone: He tells the truth, and He is the best of judges.’ 58 Say, ‘If what you seek to hasten were within my power, the matter would be settled between you and me, but God knows best who does wrong.’ 59 He has the keys to the unseen: no one knows them but Him. He knows all that is in the land and sea. No leaf falls without His knowledge, nor is there a single grain in the darkness of the earth, or anything, fresh or withered, that is not written in a clear Record. 60 It is He who calls your souls back by night, knowing what you have done by day, then raises you up again in the daytime until your fixed term is fulfilled. It is to Him that you will return in the end, and He will tell you what you have done.
Worship God and Be Grateful
61 He is the Supreme Master over His subjects. He sends out recorders to watch over you until, when death overtakes any of you, those sent by Us take his soul– they never fail in their duty. 62 Then they will all be returned to God, their true Lord. The Judgement truly belongs to Him, and He is the swiftest of reckoners.
63 Say [Prophet], ‘Who is it that saves you from the dark depths of land and sea when you humbly and secretly call to Him [and say], “If He rescues us from this, We shall truly be thankful”?’ 64 Say, ‘God rescues you from this and every distress; yet still you worship others beside Him.’ 65 Say, ‘He has power to send punishment on you from above or from under your very feet, or to divide you into discordant factions and make some taste the violence of others.’ See how We explain Our revelation in various ways, so that they may understand, 66 yet your people still reject it even though it is the truth. Say, ‘I have not been put in charge of you. 67 Every prophecy has its fixed time to be fulfilled: you will come to realize this.’
68 When you come across people who speak with scorn about Our revelations, turn away from them until they move on to another topic. If Satan should make you forget, then, when you have remembered, do not sit with those who are doing wrong. 69 The righteous are not in any way held accountable for the wrongdoers; their only duty is to remind them, so that they may be mindful of God. 70 Leave to themselves those who take their religion for a mere game and distraction and are deceived by the life of this world, but continue to remind them with the [Quran], lest any soul be damned by what it has done– it will have no one to protect it from God and no one to intercede; whatever ransom it may offer will not be accepted. Such are those who are damned by their own actions: they will have boiling water to drink and a painful punishment, because they used to defy [God].
Idols Are of No Benefit
71 Say, ‘Instead of God, are we to call on what neither profits nor harms us? [Are we to] turn on our heels after God has guided us, like someone bewildered, having been tempted by devils into a desert ravine, [d] though his companions call him to guidance [saying], “Come to us”?’ Say, ‘God’s guidance is the true guidance. We are commanded to devote ourselves to the Lord of the Worlds, 72 to establish regular prayers and be mindful of Him.’ It is to Him that you will all be gathered. 73 It is He who created the heavens and the earth for a true purpose. On the Day when He says, ‘Be,’ it will be: His word is the truth. All control on the Day the Trumpet is blown belongs to Him. He knows the seen and the unseen: He is the All Wise, the All Aware.
Footnotes
a. ‘His pleasure/approval’, or ‘to see His face’ (see ‘The Face, Divine and Human in the Qur'an’, in Abdel Haleem, Understanding the Qur'an, 107–22); see also 92: 19–21.
b. Cf. 80: 1. The Prophet was torn between his efforts to win over the nobles to save them, and the humble believers, whom the nobles wanted him to get rid of, claiming that they only congregated around him to gain prestige or material benefits. The Prophet here is told that he should not worry about them and so become a wrongdoer by driving away true believers.
c. Another interpretation of this verse is that the way of the sinners is hereby made distinct from the way of the righteous.
d. This interpretation of the literal ‘in the land’ is preferred by Razi.
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.