1All praise be to God, Originator
of the heavens and the earth, Maker
of the angels, messengers with wings,
two, three, or four pairs.
He adds to His creation what He will;
He has Power over all things.
2Whatever mercy God bestows
on humankind, none can withhold;
and what He withholds,
none can disburse,
for He is Almighty, All Wise.
3Humankind, call to mind
God’s favor to you—
is there a creator besides God
who provides for you
from the heavens or the earth?
There is no god but Him—
so how can you be deluded?
4And if they deny you,
messengers before you
were likewise denied.
All matters fall back to God
for resolution.
5People, God’s promise is true,
so never let the life of this world
deceive you, nor let the deceiver
deceive you about God.
6Satan is your enemy,
so treat him as one.
He calls his supporters—
though only to be inmates
of the blazing fire.
7Those who disbelieve
shall face severe torment;
but those who believe
and do good deeds shall see
forgiveness and a rich reward.
SECTION 2
8What of the person whose bad deed
seems alluring, good to them?
God leaves to stray whom He will
and He guides whom He will.
Prophet, don’t weigh down your soul
with remorse for them,
for God Knows all that they do.
9It is God Who sends the winds
to stir up the clouds, and
We drive them to dead land
to bring life to the earth after its death.
The resurrection will be just like this.
10Whoever seeks honor—[know that]
all honor belongs to God. To Him
rises up all the good that is spoken°
and He raises up each good deed.
But those who scheme evil things
shall face severe torment
and their schemes shall perish.
11God created you from dust,
then a drop of sperm, then made you
into pairs. No female conceives
or gives birth without His knowing.
No life is lengthened or shortened
that is not recorded in the Book.
All this is easy for God.
12The two seas are not alike,
one fresh, sweet, pleasing to drink,
the other brinish and bitter.
Yet from each you eat fresh meat,
and retrieve gems to wear;
and you see ships streaming
through the seas, that you might seek
His bounty—and be grateful.
13He fades night into day
and day into night, and subdues
sun and moon, each sailing
in its own orbit for a fixed term.
This is God, your Lord, to Whom
belongs all dominion. And the gods
on whom you call besides Him
control nothing—not even
the membrane of a date seed.
14If you call them,
they don’t hear your call,
and if they heard it,
they would not answer you.
On the day of resurrection,
they’ll deny your association
of them with God;
and none can better inform you
than the One who is All Aware.
SECTION 3
15Humankind, it is you who need God,
but God is He Who needs no one,
He alone is Praiseworthy.
16If He wishes, He can efface you,
and bring in a new creation—
17and that would not be hard for God.
18No soul can bear another’s burden°
and if a soul with a heavy burden
should call on another to bear its load,
none of its burden can be taken,
even by one who is close in blood.
You can only warn those
who fear their Lord, though unseen,°
and are steadfast in prayer.
Those who purify themselves
do so for their own soul—
the final journey is to God.
19The blind and the seeing
are not alike;
20nor are the depths
of darkness and the light;
21nor are the cool shade
and the heat of the sun;
22nor alike are the living and the dead.
God can make whom He will hear,
but you cannot make
those in their graves hear.
23You are here merely to warn.
24We have sent you with the truth,
to give joyous news and to warn—
no nation was without warning.°
25If they deny you,
earlier peoples did the same—
messengers came to them
with clear signs, scriptures,
and an illuminating Book.
26In the end, I seized the disbelievers—
how dreadful was my reprimand!
SECTION 4
27Don’t you see how God
sends down rain from the sky,
with which We raise fruit
in varying colors?
And the mountains bear tracts
of red and white,
in varied hues, and deep black.
28Likewise, people, wild beasts,
and livestock are in varying colors.
Only those of His servants
with knowledge truly fear God—
God is Almighty, Forgiving.
29Those who recite the Book of God,
are steadfast in prayer, and spend in charity
from what we give them, secretly and openly—
can hope for a commerce that will never fail.
30For He will reward them in full
and give even more from His grace;
He is Forgiving, Appreciating.
31What was revealed to you
from the Book was truth,
confirming what came before it;
God is All Aware,
Seeing everything about His servants.
32We gave the Book as a legacy
to Our servants whom We favored.
Some of them wrong their own souls,
some are moderate, and others
by God’s leave are foremost
in good deeds—the greatest grace.
33They shall enter eternal gardens,
adorned there with bracelets of gold,
and pearls, in robes of silk.
34And they will say, “Praise be to God,
Who removed our sorrow.
Our Lord is Forgiving, Appreciating,”
35“Who, in His grace, settled us
in a lasting home, where no fatigue
or weariness shall fall upon us.”
36But those who disbelieve
shall know the fire of hell,
where no death is decreed for them,
nor relief from its torment.
This is how We reward
every disbeliever.
37There, they will cry out,
“Our Lord, let us out.
We’ll do good deeds—
not those we did before.”
“Did We not give you life
long enough, for those willing
to be heedful, to be warned?°
And someone did come to warn you.
So taste [the reward]—there is none
to help the wrongdoers.”
SECTION 5
38God Knows all that is unseen
in the heavens and the earth;
He Knows all that lies
in human hearts.
39It is He who made you
regents on the earth.°
The ungrateful will pay
for their ingratitude;°
it adds only to their odium
in the sight of their Lord,
and to their loss.
40Say, “Have you seen the gods
you invoke besides God?
Show me what they’ve created
on the earth.
Or, do they have a share
in the heavens?
Or, have We given them a Book,
on which they can ground
clear proofs?
No—the wrongdoers promise
one another
nothing but delusion.”
41It is God Who keeps
the heavens and earth
in their ceaseless being;
and if they should cease,
none beyond Him could stop this.
He is Forbearing, Most Forgiving.
42Swearing by God the strongest
of their oaths, they claimed that
if someone came to warn them,
they would be more rightly guided
than other nations.
Yet when someone did come,
it only increased their aversion
43because of their pride on earth
and their evil scheming.
But their scheming shall confound them.
Do they expect anything
But the fate of earlier peoples?
You will never find any change
or variation in God’s way.
44Have they not traveled
through the land and seen
the fate of those before them—
though they were more powerful?
God is not to be frustrated
by anything in the heavens
or on the earth—
He is All Knowing, All Powerful.
45If God took people to task
for the deeds they earned,
he would not leave any creature
on the face of the earth.
But He gives them respite
for a fixed term,
and when that term expires
[they will know that]
He Sees everything
about His servants.
SURA 36
Ya Sin (Ya Sin)
A middle Meccan sura, this takes its name from the initial and perplexing letters that mark it, as they do twenty-eight other suras. After the initial sura, “The Opening,” it is perhaps the most liturgically important sura in the entire Quran. With its accent on the afterlife in the last part (vv. 51–83), it provides the fitting recitation for someone who has died, and its verses are often spontaneously recited by a devout Muslim on hearing of another’s demise.
In the Name of God, the All Merciful, Ever Merciful
SECTION 1
1Ya Sin.°
2By the wise Quran,
3you, Prophet, are truly
one of the messengers
4on a straight path.
5It is a revelation sent down from
the Almighty, the Ever Merciful,
6that you might warn a people
whose forefathers had no warning,
who therefore are heedless.
7Sentence has been passed
on most of them,
for they won’t believe—
8We placed yokes
around their necks,
drawn up to their chins,
forcing up their heads,
9and We placed a barrier
before them and behind them,
and shrouded them so
they cannot see.
10It’s the same to them
whether you warn them or not—
they won’t believe.
11You can warn only those
who follow the message and fear
the All Merciful, though unseen.°
So give joyous news to them,
of forgiveness and a noble reward.
12We bring the dead back to life,
and We transcribe all the deeds
they send before them
and all they leave behind,
and We have accounted all things
in a clear record.
13Coin for them a parable,
of a people to whose town
messengers came.
SECTION 2
14When We sent two messengers°
to them, they denied them both.
So We reinforced them with a third,
and they declared,
“We have been sent
as messengers to you.”
15The people said,
“You’re merely humans like us,
and the All Merciful
has not sent anything.
You are just lying.”
16They said, “Our Lord knows
that we have been sent
as messengers to you.”
17“And our task is only
to convey [the message] clearly.”
18The people retorted,
“We think you’re an evil omen.
If you don’t desist, we’ll stone you
and subject you to painful torment.”°
19They replied, “Your evil omen
is within yourselves. [Do you say this]
because you have been reminded?
No—you people are given to excess.”
20A man came running from
the outskirts of the city, saying,
“My people, follow the messengers.
21“Follow those
who ask of you no reward,
and who are rightly guided.
22“Why should I not worship Him
Who created me? To Him
you will be returned.
23“Should I take other gods
besides Him? If the All Merciful
intended harm for me,
their intercession could not
help in any way, nor
could they save me.
24“I would clearly be wrong.
25“I believe in your Lord;
so hear me.”
26He was told, “Enter the garden.”°
He said, “If only my people knew
27“how my Lord has forgiven me
and has set me among those
held in honor.”
28We did not send down,
after him, any hosts from heaven
against his people,
nor would We deign to—
29there was but a single blast,
and they were gone.
30Alas, for My servants—
no messenger came to them
whom they did not mock.
31Don’t they see how many
generations before them We destroyed,
so none would come back to them?
32And every one, all together,
will be brought before Us.
SECTION 3
33A sign for them
is the dead earth:
We bring it to life,
and bring from it
grain which they eat.
34And We placed upon it gardens,
with palm groves and grapevines,
We made springs burst forth there,
35so they might eat of its fruit,
which their hands did not make;
will they not, then, be grateful?
36Glory be to Him Who
created in pairs
all that the earth yields,
and their own selves,
and also things of which
they are unaware.
37And a sign for
