Asad - Sura: 89. Al-Fajr - The Daybreak

  1. CONSIDER the daybreak

  2. and the ten nights! 1 

  3. Consider the multiple and the One! 2 

  4. Consider the night as it runs its course! 3 

  5. Considering all this - could there be, to anyone endowed with reason, a [more] solemn evidence of the truth? 4 

  6. ART THOU NOT aware of how thy Sustainer has dealt with [the tribe of] 'Ad, 5 

  7. [the people of] Iram the many-pillared,

  8. the like of whom has never been reared in all the land? -

  9. and with [the tribe of] Thamud, 6  who hollowed out rocks in the valley? -

  10. and with Pharaoh of the [many] tent-poles? 7 

  11. [It was they] who transgressed all bounds of equity all over their lands,

  12. and brought about great corruption therein:

  13. and therefore thy Sustainer let loose upon them a scourge of suffering:

  14. for, verily, thy Sustainer is ever on the watch!

  15. BUT AS FOR man, 8  whenever his Sustainer tries him by His generosity and by letting him enjoy a life of ease, he says, "My Sustainer has been [justly] generous towards me"; 9 

  16. whereas, whenever He tries him by straitening his means of livelihood, he says, "My Sustainer has disgraced me!" 10 

  17. But nay, nay, [O men, consider all that you do and fail to do:] you are not generous towards the orphan,

  18. and you do not urge one another to feed the needy, 11 

  19. and you devour the inheritance [of others] with devouring greed,

  20. and you love wealth with boundless love!

  21. Nay, but [how will you fare on Judgment Day,] when the earth is crushed with crushing upon crushing,

  22. and [the majesty of] thy Sustainer stands revealed, 12  as well as [the true nature of] the angels, rank upon rank?

  23. And on that Day hell will be brought [within sight]; on that Day man will remember [all that he did and failed to do]: but what will that remembrance avail him?

  24. He will say, "Oh, would that I had provided beforehand for my life [to come]!"

  25. For, none can make suffer as He will make suffer [the sinners] on that Day,

  26. and none can bind with bonds like His. 13 

  27. [But unto the righteous God will say,] "O thou human being that hast attained to inner peace!

  28. Return thou unto thy Sustainer, well-pleased [and] pleasing [Him]:

  29. enter, then, together with My [other true] servants -

  30. yea, enter thou My paradise!"

 

Sura 88Sura 90