CONSIDER the daybreak
and the ten nights! 1
Consider the multiple and the One! 2
Consider the night as it runs its course! 3
Considering all this - could there be, to anyone endowed with reason, a [more] solemn evidence of the truth? 4
ART THOU NOT aware of how thy Sustainer has dealt with [the tribe of] 'Ad, 5
[the people of] Iram the many-pillared,
the like of whom has never been reared in all the land? -
and with [the tribe of] Thamud, 6 who hollowed out rocks in the valley? -
and with Pharaoh of the [many] tent-poles? 7
[It was they] who transgressed all bounds of equity all over their lands,
and brought about great corruption therein:
and therefore thy Sustainer let loose upon them a scourge of suffering:
for, verily, thy Sustainer is ever on the watch!
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
whereas, whenever He tries him by straitening his means of livelihood, he says, "My Sustainer has disgraced me!" 10
But nay, nay, [O men, consider all that you do and fail to do:] you are not generous towards the orphan,
and you do not urge one another to feed the needy, 11
and you devour the inheritance [of others] with devouring greed,
and you love wealth with boundless love!
Nay, but [how will you fare on Judgment Day,] when the earth is crushed with crushing upon crushing,
and [the majesty of] thy Sustainer stands revealed, 12 as well as [the true nature of] the angels, rank upon rank?
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?
He will say, "Oh, would that I had provided beforehand for my life [to come]!"
For, none can make suffer as He will make suffer [the sinners] on that Day,
and none can bind with bonds like His. 13
[But unto the righteous God will say,] "O thou human being that hast attained to inner peace!
Return thou unto thy Sustainer, well-pleased [and] pleasing [Him]:
enter, then, together with My [other true] servants -
yea, enter thou My paradise!"