a town,
We command its wealthy citizens
to obey; but they stubbornly disobey,
so sentence is passed upon them—
and We destroy them utterly.
17How many generations
did We destroy after Noah?
For your Lord is fully Aware
and Sees the sins of His servants.
18Whoever desires this fleeting life,
We hasten whatever We will in it
for them—for whomever We wish;
in the end, We commit them
to hell, in which they will burn,
disgraced, rejected.
19As for those who desire
the hereafter and duly strive for it
as believers—they are the ones
whose striving will be commended.
20To each of these,
We extend the gift of your Lord,
a gift unbounded—
21see, how We have favored
some over others. Yet the hereafter
is higher in rank,
and higher also in favor.
22Do not set up another god
besides the One God, or you will
be left disgraced, forsaken.
SECTION 3
23Your Lord has decreed
that you worship Him Alone,
and that you be kind to parents.
Whether one or both of them
reach old age with you, do not say,
“For shame!” to them, or spurn them,
but speak to them with kind words.
24And lower over them both
the wing of humility, with mercy,°
and say, “My Lord, show mercy
to them, as they nurtured me
when I was young.”
25Your Lord knows best
what is in your hearts.
If you are righteous,
He is Ever Forgiving of those
who turn to Him.
26And render to relatives
their due, as well as to the needy
and the traveler; and do not
spend wastefully.
27Spendthrifts are brothers
of Satan;° and Satan
is ever ungrateful to his Lord.
28If you must turn from [beggars],
hoping, by your Lord’s mercy,
[to help them later], at least
speak to them a gentle word.
29Don’t let your hand be bound
[tightfisted] to your neck; nor
extend it fully, else you might end up
blameworthy, impoverished.
30Your Lord extends or restricts
provision for whom He will.
He is Ever Aware, Observant
of His servants.°
SECTION 4
31And do not kill your children
through fear of poverty. We provide
for them as We do for you.
Killing them is a great sin.
32Nor venture near adultery
for it is an indecency,
an evil way.
33And do not take life, which
God has made sacred, except
for a rightful cause.
We have authorized the heir
of anyone killed wrongfully
[to exact retribution], but they should
not be excessive in taking life,
for they are already aided.°
34Nor venture near
an orphan’s property
except with the best intent,
until they reach maturity.
And fulfill every pledge,
for every pledge
will be scrutinized.
35Give full measure when you
measure; weigh with a true balance:
that is better and fairer in the end.
36And do not follow blindly
things you have no knowledge of—
your hearing, sight, and heart
shall all be questioned.
37Do not walk brazenly on the earth,
for you cannot pierce [its depth]
nor reach the height of mountains.
38All of this is evil,
odious to your Lord.
39This is some of the wisdom
your Lord has revealed to you;
do not set up any other god with God,
or you will be cast into hell,
rebuked, rejected.
40Idolaters, has your Lord
chosen for you sons, and
taken for Himself daughters
among the angels?°
What you utter is monstrous.
SECTION 5
41We have offered explanation
in this Quran, that they might heed,
but it makes them turn further away.
42Say, “If there were other gods
with Him, as they claim,
they would surely have sought
a way to [overcome]
the Owner of the throne.”
43May He be glorified and exalted
far above what they proclaim!
44He is glorified
by the seven heavens and the earth,
and all within them,
for there is nothing
that does not glorify Him with praise,
though you may not grasp
their mode of glorifying—
He is Forbearing, Forgiving.
45When you recite the Quran,
We place an unseen veil
between you and those who
don’t believe in the hereafter.
46And We have placed shrouds over
their hearts, lest they understand it,
and deafness in their ears.
And when you talk of your Lord
as the only God, in the Quran,
they turn their backs, averse.
47We know best
what the wrongdoers hear
when they hear you,
and the wrongdoers say in private,
“You follow nothing
but a man bewitched.”
48See what similes they coin
about you! But they are astray,
and cannot find the right way.
49And they ask,
“When we are bones and dust,
will we really be raised up
as a new creation?”
50Answer, “Yes—even
if you were stones or iron,
51“or anything else in creation
that your hearts imagine to be even
harder to bring back to life.”°
They will ask,
“Who will bring us back?”
Answer, “He Who created you
the first time.”
They will shake their heads at you,
asking, “And when will that be?”
Answer, “Perhaps soon,
52“on a day when He calls you—
you will answer by praising Him,
and you will imagine
that you stayed [on the earth]
for only a short while.”
SECTION 6
53Tell My servants to speak only
the most exemplary words.°
Satan brews discord among them—
always a sworn enemy of humankind.
54Your Lord knows you best—
if He will, He will show you mercy,
and if He will, He will punish you.
We have not sent you, Prophet,
as their custodian.
55And your Lord knows best
all that is in the heavens and earth.
He favored some prophets
over others—to David
We gave the Psalms.
56Say, “Call upon those you claim
to be gods besides Him—
they have no power
to remove your misfortunes
or to avert them.”
57Those on whom they call
themselves seek a way to their
Lord; which of them is closer?
They hope for His mercy,
and fear His punishment—
your Lord’s punishment
is always to be feared.
58There is no [evil] town
that We shall not destroy
before the day of resurrection
or punish severely—this
is inscribed in the Book.
59Nothing constrains Us
from sending signs except that
former peoples denied them.
We gave the people of Thamud°
a she-camel as a visible token,
but they wronged her.
We send signs only to warn.
60Prophet, remember when
We told you that your Lord
Encompasses humankind,
We granted you the vision
We showed you° only as a trial
for people, like the cursed tree
mentioned in the Quran.°
We warn them, yet this only
increases their transgression.
SECTION 7
61And when We said to the angels,
“Bow down before Adam,”
they bowed down except Iblis,
who said, “Shall I bow to one
whom you made of clay?”
62He added, “Do You see this one
that you have honored above me?
If you grant me reprieve
until the day of resurrection,
I will hold sway over all but a few
of his descendants.”
63God said, “Go out!
If any of them follow you,
hell shall be your reward
[and theirs]—an ample reward.
64“Rouse those you can
with your voice, assault them
with your cavalry and infantry,
share in their wealth and children,
and make promises to them.
But Satan promises them
only delusion.”
65You have no power over my servants—
your Lord suffices as their custodian.
66It is your Lord Who lets your ships
sail smoothly upon the sea
that you might seek His bounty—
He is Ever Merciful to you.
67When you meet distress at sea,
the gods you call on besides Him°
abandon you. But when He delivers you
to land, you turn away.
Humankind is ever ungrateful.
68Can you feel sure that He
won’t make the earth swallow you
when back on land,
or send a hailstorm against you,
so that you find yourselves
with none to protect you?
69Or can you be sure that He
won’t drive you back out to sea
again, and send a hurricane
against you, a gale storm
to drown you for your
ingratitude? Then you would find
none to help you against Us.
70We have honored the children
of Adam; We have carried them
over land and sea, and provided them
with good things, and favored them
over many others We have created.
SECTION 8
71On the day We call together
all human beings, with their leaders,
those who are given their book
in their right hand will read it
[with joy], and will not be wronged
by as much as the hair on a date seed.
72But those who were blind
in this world will be blind
in the hereafter, and even further
astray from the path.
73Unbelievers almost tempted you
away from Our revelation to you,
hoping that you might
invent something else about Us°—
they would then have
embraced you as a friend.
74Had We not strengthened
your resolve, you might have
inclined to them a little.
75We would then have made you
taste a double torment—in this life,
and after death. You would then find
none to help you against Us.
76Though they were about
to uproot you from the land,
to expel you from it,°
they would not then have been able
to stay there after you
for more than a short while.
77[This was Our] way°
with the messengers We sent
before you, and you will find
no change in Our way.
SECTION 9
78You should perform prayer
from the declining of the sun
until the darkening of night,
and recite the Quran at dawn—
a recitation ever witnessed
[by the angels].°
79And in the night, arise to pray,
further, of your own accord,
that your Lord might raise you
to a station of praise.°
80Say, “My Lord,
let me enter by a gate of truth
and leave by a gate of truth°—
grant me Your own
supportive authority.”°
81Also proclaim, “Truth has come
and falsehood has perished—
falsehood will always perish.”
82We reveal in the Quran
what is a healing and a mercy
to believers; yet for wrongdoers,
it merely increases their loss.
83When We grant favor
to humankind, they turn
proudly away, drawing aside;
yet when evil befalls them,
they slide into despair.
84Say, “Each person acts
according to their own disposition;
but your Lord knows best
who is rightly guided.°
SECTION 10
85They ask you about the spirit.
Say, “The spirit comes
by command of my Lord°—
only a small portion
of knowledge is granted you.”
86If we wished, We could take away
what We have revealed to you;
you would then find in this issue
no protector against Us,°
87without your Lord’s mercy—
His favor to you is great.
88Say, “Even if all humankind
and all jinn gathered together
to produce the like of this Quran,
they could not do so, however much
they helped one another.”
89And We have explained
to humankind in this Quran
every kind of parable,
yet most of them refuse
to be anything but ungrateful.
90They say, “We will
never believe you, unless
you make for us a spring
flowing out from the earth,
91“or you have a garden,
with date palms and grapes,
and cause rivers
to burst forth within it,
92“or you cause the sky
to fall in fragments upon us,
—as you have claimed°—
or you bring before us
God and the angels,°
93“or you have a house adorned
with gold, or ascend to the sky—
but we’ll never believe you ascended
unless you bring down to us a book
that we might read.”
Say, “Glory be to my Lord.
Am I not merely
a mortal, a messenger?”
SECTION 11
94When guidance came to people,
nothing stopped them from believing
except their saying, “Has God sent
a mere mortal as a messenger?”
95Say, “If the earth were full of
angels walking nonchalantly about,
We would have sent an angel to them
as a messenger from heaven.”
96Say, “God suffices as
a Witness between me and you;
He is