Hedjr

[LVII.]

MECCA—99 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

ELIF. LAM. RA.² These are the signs of the Book, and of a lucid recital [Koran].

Many a time will the infidels wish that they had been Muslims.

Let them feast and enjoy themselves, and let hope beguile them: but they shall know the truth at last.

We never destroyed a city whose term was not perfixed:³

No people can forestall or retard its destiny.

They say: “O thou to whom the warning hath been sent down, thou art surely possessed by a djinn:

Wouldst thou not have come to us with the angels, if thou wert of those who assert the truth?”

—We will not send down the angels without due cause.⁴ The Infidels would not in that case have been respited.

Verily, We have sent down the warning, and verily, We will be its guardian;

And already have We sent Apostles, before thee, among the sects of the ancients;

But never came Apostles to them whom they did not deride.

In like manner will We put it into the hearts of the sinners of Mecca to do the same:

They will not believe on him though the example of those of old hath gone before.

Even were We to open above them a gate in Heaven, yet all the while they were mounting up to it,

They would surely say: It is only that our eyes are drunken: nay, we are a people enchanted.

We have set the signs of the zodiac⁵ in the Heavens, and adorned and decked them forth for the beholders,

And We guard them from every stoned⁶ Satan,

Save such as steal a hearing:⁷ and him doth a visible flame pursue.

And the Earth have We spread forth, and thrown thereon the mountains, and caused everything to spring forth in it in balanced measure:

And We have provided therein sustenance for you, and for the creatures which not ye sustain:

And no one thing is there, but with Us are its storehouses; and We send it not down but in settled measure:

And We send forth the fertilising winds, and cause the rain to come down from the heaven, and give you to drink of it; and it is not ye who are its storers:

And We cause to live and We cause to die,⁸ and We are the heir of all things:

We know those of you who flourish first and We know those who come later:

And truly thy Lord will gather them together again, for He is Wise, Knowing.