Popular Translations
Muhammad Asad
Behold, those whom the angels gather in death while they are still sinning against themselves, [the angels] will ask, "What was wrong with you?'' They will answer: "We were too weak on earth." [The angels] will say: "Was, then, God's earth not wide enough for you to forsake the domain of evil?" For such, then, the goal is hell - and how evil a journey's end
Arthur John Arberry
And those the angels take, while still they are wronging themselves -- the angels will say, 'In what circumstances were you?' They will say, 'We were abased in the earth.' The angels will say, 'But was not God's earth wide, so that you might have emigrated in it?' Such men, their refuge shall be Gehenna -- an evil homecoming! -
Yusuf Ali (Saudi Rev. 1985)
When angels take the souls of those who die in sin against their souls, they say: "In what (plight) Were ye?" They reply: "Weak and oppressed Were we in the earth." They say: "Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to move yourselves away (From evil)?" Such men will find their abode in Hell,- What an evil refuge!
Arabic
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِینَ تَوَفَّىٰهُمُ ٱلۡمَلَـٰۤىِٕكَةُ ظَالِمِیۤ أَنفُسِهِمۡ قَالُوا۟ فِیمَ كُنتُمۡۖ قَالُوا۟ كُنَّا مُسۡتَضۡعَفِینَ فِی ٱلۡأَرۡضِۚ قَالُوۤا۟ أَلَمۡ تَكُنۡ أَرۡضُ ٱللَّهِ وَ ٰسِعَةࣰ فَتُهَاجِرُوا۟ فِیهَاۚ فَأُو۟لَـٰۤىِٕكَ مَأۡوَىٰهُمۡ جَهَنَّمُۖ وَسَاۤءَتۡ مَصِیرًا ٩٧
Transliteration (2021)
inna alladhīna tawaffāhumu l-malāikatu ẓālimī anfusihim qālū fīma kuntum qālū kunnā mus'taḍʿafīna fī l-arḍi qālū alam takun arḍu l-lahi wāsiʿatan fatuhājirū fīhā fa-ulāika mawāhum jahannamu wasāat maṣīra