Alif Lam Ra. These are the verses of the Wise Book.
Is it astonishing to people that We revealed to a man from among them: "Warn the people and give good news to those who believe that they have a sure footing with their Lord"? The disbelievers said, "This is clearly a magician."
Your Lord is God, who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then rose over the Throne, directing all affairs. No intercessor can plead except after His permission. That is God, your Lord, so worship Him. Will you not reflect?
To Him is your return, all of you. God's promise is true. He originates creation, then repeats it, so that He may reward those who believe and do good deeds with justice. As for those who disbelieve, they will have a drink of scalding water and a painful punishment for their denial.
He is the One who made the sun a radiance and the moon a light, and determined phases for it so that you may know the count of years and calculation. God did not create this except in truth. He makes the verses clear for people who know.
In the alternation of night and day, and in what God has created in the heavens and the earth, are signs for people who are mindful of Him.
Those who do not expect to meet Us, who are content with the life of this world and feel secure in it, and those who are heedless of Our signs.
Their refuge is the Fire because of what they used to commit.
Those who believe and do good deeds, their Lord will guide them through their faith. Rivers will flow beneath them in Gardens of Bliss.
Their call therein will be, "Glory be to You, O God," and their greeting therein will be, "Peace." The last of their call will be, "Praise be to God, Lord of all worlds."
If God were to hasten harm for people as they hasten for good, their term would already be finished. So We leave those who do not expect to meet Us wandering blindly in their transgression.
When hardship touches a person, he calls upon Us lying on his side, sitting, or standing. But when We remove his hardship from him, he passes on as if he had never called upon Us for the hardship that touched him. This is how the deeds of the excessive are made appealing to them.
We destroyed generations before you when they did wrong. Their messengers came to them with clear proofs, but they would never believe. This is how We repay the criminal people.
Then We made you successors on the earth after them, to see how you would act.
When Our clear verses are recited to them, those who do not expect to meet Us say, "Bring a Quran other than this, or change it." Say, "It is not for me to change it on my own. I only follow what is revealed to me. I fear, if I disobey my Lord, the punishment of a tremendous Day."
Say, "Had God willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. I lived among you a lifetime before it. Will you not reason?"
Who is more unjust than one who fabricates lies about God or denies His revelations? The guilty will never succeed.
They worship besides God what can neither harm them nor benefit them, and they say, "These are our intercessors with God." Say, "Are you informing God of something He does not know in the heavens or on the earth?" Glory be to Him, exalted above what they associate with Him.
Humanity was once a single community, then they differed. Had it not been for a word that preceded from your Lord, their disputes would have been settled between them.
They say, "Why has no sign been sent down to him from his Lord?" Say, "The unseen belongs only to God. So wait, I am waiting with you."
When We let people taste mercy after hardship has touched them, they immediately scheme against Our verses. Say, "God is swifter in scheming." Our messengers record everything you scheme.
He is the One who carries you across land and sea. When you are on ships, sailing with a favorable wind, rejoicing in it, a violent storm overtakes them, waves surge at them from every direction, and they think they are surrounded. They call upon God, sincere in their devotion to Him: "If You save us from this, we will surely be among the grateful."
But when He saves them, they immediately spread corruption through the land unjustly. O people, your corruption is only against yourselves, a fleeting enjoyment of this worldly life. Then to Us is your return, and We will inform you of what you used to do.
The likeness of this worldly life is like water We send down from the sky, and the plants of the earth absorb it, from which people and livestock eat. Then when the earth takes on its full beauty and is adorned, and its people think they have mastery over it, Our command comes upon it by night or by day, and We reduce it to stubble, as if it had not flourished the day before. This is how We make the verses clear for people who reflect.
God calls to the Home of Peace and guides whom He wills to a straight path.
For those who do good is the best reward and more. No dust will cover their faces, nor any humiliation. These are the people of Paradise, dwelling there forever.
Those who commit evil deeds will be repaid with their like, and humiliation will cover them. They will have no protector from God. It will be as if their faces were veiled with patches of the darkest night. These are the people of the Fire, dwelling there forever.
On the Day We gather them all together, We will say to those who associated partners with God, "Stay in your place, you and your partners." Then We will separate them, and their partners will say, "It was not us you were worshiping."
"God is sufficient as a witness between us and you. We were completely unaware of your worship."
There every soul will experience what it did before. They will be returned to God, their true Master, and whatever they used to fabricate will vanish from them.
Say, "Who provides for you from the sky and the earth? Who controls hearing and sight? Who brings the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living? Who governs all affairs?" They will say, "God." Say, "Will you not then be mindful of Him?"
That is God, your true Lord. What is there after truth except error? How then are you turned away?
Thus the word of your Lord has been proven true against those who defiantly disobey: they will not believe.
Say, "Can any of your partners originate creation and then repeat it?" Say, "God originates creation and then repeats it. How then are you deluded?"
Say, "Can any of your partners guide to the truth?" Say, "God guides to the truth. Is the One who guides to the truth more worthy of being followed, or one who cannot find the way unless he is guided? What is wrong with you? How do you judge?"
Most of them follow nothing but assumption. Assumption is no substitute for the truth. God knows well what they do.
This Quran could not have been fabricated by anyone other than God. It is a confirmation of what came before it and a detailed explanation of the Scripture, in which there is no doubt, from the Lord of all worlds.
Or do they say, "He fabricated it"? Say, "Then produce a chapter like it and call upon whoever you can besides God, if you are truthful."
They have denied what they could not grasp in knowledge, and its full meaning has not yet reached them. Those before them denied in the same way. See what became of the wrongdoers.
Some of them believe in it, and some of them do not believe in it. Your Lord knows best who the corrupters are.
If they deny you, say, "My deeds are mine, and your deeds are yours. You are free of what I do, and I am free of what you do."
Some of them listen to you. But can you make the deaf hear, even though they do not understand?
Some of them look at you. But can you guide the blind, even though they do not see?
God does not wrong people in the least; it is people who wrong themselves.
On the Day He gathers them, it will be as if they had stayed only an hour of a day, recognizing one another. Lost are those who denied the meeting with God and were never guided.
Whether We show you some of what We promise them or take your soul, to Us is their return. Then God is witness over what they do.
Every nation has a messenger. When their messenger comes, judgment is passed between them with justice, and they are not wronged.
They say, "When will this promise come, if you are truthful?"
Say, "I have no power to harm or benefit myself except as God wills. Every nation has an appointed term. When their time comes, they cannot delay it by an hour, nor advance it."
Say, "Have you considered: if His punishment came to you by night or by day, what part of it would the guilty wish to hasten?"
Then when it strikes, will you believe in it? Now? When you used to demand it be hastened?
Then it will be said to those who wronged, "Taste the punishment of eternity. Are you being repaid for anything but what you committed?"
They ask you to tell them, "Is it true?" Say, "Yes, by my Lord, it is true, and you cannot escape."
If every soul that wronged possessed everything on earth, it would offer it as ransom. They will hide their regret when they see the punishment. Judgment will be passed between them with justice, and they will not be wronged.
To God belongs everything in the heavens and the earth. God's promise is true, but most of them do not know.
He gives life and causes death, and to Him you will be returned.
O people, there has come to you an instruction from your Lord, a healing for what is in the hearts, and guidance and mercy for the believers.
Say, "In the grace of God and in His mercy, in that let them rejoice. It is better than whatever they accumulate."
Say, "Have you considered what God has sent down to you of provision, and you have made some of it forbidden and some lawful?" Say, "Did God give you permission, or are you fabricating lies against God?"
What do those who fabricate lies against God expect on the Day of Resurrection? God is full of grace toward people, but most of them are not grateful.
You are not engaged in any matter, nor do you recite any of the Quran, nor do you perform any deed, except that We are witnesses over you when you are engaged in it. Not an atom's weight escapes your Lord on earth or in the sky, nor anything smaller than that or larger, except that it is in a clear record.
The close friends of God have no fear upon them, nor will they grieve.
Those who believed and were mindful of God.
For them is good news in the life of this world and in the Hereafter. There is no changing the words of God. That is the supreme triumph.
Let not their words grieve you. All power belongs to God. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.
To God belongs everyone in the heavens and everyone on earth. Those who invoke others besides God do not follow partners; they follow nothing but assumption, and they do nothing but guess.
He is the One who made the night for you to rest in and the day giving sight. In that are signs for people who listen.
They say, "God has taken a son." Glory be to Him! He is the Self-Sufficient. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth. You have no authority for this claim. Do you say about God what you do not know?
Say, "Those who fabricate lies against God will not succeed."
Brief enjoyment in this world, then to Us is their return, then We will make them taste the severe punishment for their disbelief.
Recite to them the story of Noah, when he said to his people, "My people, if my presence and my reminding you of God's signs has become unbearable to you, then I place my trust in God. So gather your resolve along with your partners, and let your plan not be obscure to you. Then carry it out against me and give me no respite."
If you turn away, I have not asked you for any payment. My reward is only from God, and I have been commanded to be among those who submit.
They rejected him, so We saved him and those with him in the ark and made them successors, and We drowned those who rejected Our signs. See how those who were warned met their end.
Then after him We sent messengers to their peoples, and they came to them with clear proofs, but they would not believe in what they had rejected before. This is how We seal the hearts of the transgressors.
Then after them We sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and his chiefs with Our signs, but they grew arrogant and were a criminal people.
When the truth came to them from Us, they said, "This is clearly magic."
Moses said, "Do you say this about the truth when it has come to you? Is this magic? Magicians never succeed."
They said, "Have you come to turn us away from what we found our fathers practicing, so that the two of you may have greatness in the land? We will never believe in you."
Pharaoh said, "Bring me every skilled magician."
When the magicians came, Moses said to them, "Throw whatever you are going to throw."
When they threw, Moses said, "What you have brought is magic. God will surely nullify it. God does not set right the work of corrupters."
God establishes the truth by His words, even if the criminals hate it.
No one believed Moses except some youth from his people, out of fear that Pharaoh and their chiefs would persecute them. Pharaoh was truly a tyrant in the land, and he was truly among the transgressors.
Moses said, "O my people, if you have believed in God, then put your trust in Him, if you have truly submitted."
They said, "In God we put our trust. Our Lord, do not make us a trial for the wrongdoing people."
"And save us by Your mercy from the disbelieving people."
We revealed to Moses and his brother, "Settle your people in houses in Egypt, and make your houses places of worship, and establish prayer. And give good news to the believers."
Moses said, "Our Lord, You have given Pharaoh and his chiefs splendor and wealth in this worldly life, our Lord, only for them to lead others astray from Your path. Our Lord, obliterate their wealth and harden their hearts so they will not believe until they see the painful punishment."
He said, "Your prayer has been answered. So stay on the straight course and do not follow the path of those who do not know."
We brought the Children of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh and his soldiers pursued them in aggression and hostility. Until, when drowning overtook him, he said, "I believe that there is no god except the One in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am among those who submit."
Now? When you had disobeyed before and were among the corrupters?
Today We will preserve your body so you may be a sign for those who come after you. Yet many people are heedless of Our signs.
We settled the Children of Israel in a blessed land and provided them with good things. They did not differ until knowledge came to them. Your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning what they used to differ about.
If you are in doubt about what We have sent down to you, ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you. The truth has come to you from your Lord, so never be among the doubters.
Never be among those who denied God's verses, or you will be among the losers.
Those against whom your Lord's decree has been justified will not believe.
Even if every sign came to them, until they see the painful punishment.
If only there had been a town that believed and its faith benefited it, except the people of Jonah. When they believed, We removed from them the punishment of disgrace in worldly life and let them enjoy for a while.
Had your Lord willed, everyone on earth would have believed, all of them together. Will you then compel people until they become believers?
No soul can believe except by God's permission. He places filth upon those who do not reason.
Say, "Look at what is in the heavens and the earth." But signs and warnings do not help people who will not believe.
Are they waiting for anything but like the days of those who passed before them? Say, "Then wait, I am waiting with you."
Then We save Our messengers and those who believe. It is binding upon Us to save the believers.
Say, "O people, if you are in doubt about my religion, I do not worship those you worship besides God. Rather, I worship God who takes your souls. I have been commanded to be among the believers."
Set your face toward the religion, as a monotheist, and never be among those who associate partners with God.
Do not call upon anything besides God that cannot benefit you or harm you. If you do, you will be among the wrongdoers.
If God touches you with harm, none can remove it except Him. If He intends good for you, none can repel His grace. He grants it to whomever He wills among His servants. He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.
Say, "O people, the truth has come to you from your Lord. Whoever is guided is guided for their own soul, and whoever goes astray does so against it. I am not a guardian over you."
Follow what is revealed to you and be patient until God judges. He is the best of judges.