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surah.translation
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Ṣād. By the Qur’an, full of admonition.
But the unbelievers are steeped in arrogance and hostility.
How many a generation have We destroyed before their time? They all cried out [for mercy], but it was too late to escape.
They deem it strange that one from among them has come to warn them. The unbelievers say: ‘This is a sorcerer telling lies.
Does he make all the gods into one God? This is indeed most strange!’
Their leaders go about saying: ‘Walk away, and hold steadfastly to your deities: this is an intended design.
Never did we hear of a claim like this in any faith of latter days! It is all an invention.
Was the message given to him alone out of all of us?’ In fact they are in doubt concerning My reminder; they have not yet tasted My punishment.
Or do they own the treasures of your Lord’s grace, the Almighty, the Munificent?
Or do they have dominion over the heavens and the earth and all that is between them? Let them, then, try to ascend by all conceivable means.
Whatever hosts, of any affiliation, may be raised will suffer defeat.
Before their time, the truth was rejected by Noah’s people, the [Ad, Pharaoh of the tent-pegs,
the Thamud, Lot’s people and the dwellers of the wooded dales: these were different groupings;
yet each one of them accused God’s messengers of lying. Therefore, My retribution fell due.
These, too, have but to wait for one single blast; and it shall not be delayed.
They say: ‘Our Lord! Hasten to us our share of punishment even before the Day of Reckoning’.
Bear with patience whatever they say, and remember Our servant David who was endowed with strength. He always turned to Us.
We caused the mountains to join him in extolling Our limitless glory in the evening and at sunrise,
and likewise the birds in flocks: they all would echo his praise.
We strengthened his kingdom; We endowed him with wisdom and decisive judgement.
Have you heard the story of the litigants who surmounted the walls of the sanctuary?
When they went in to David, he was alarmed. They said: ‘Have no fear. We are but two litigants: one of us has wronged the other; so judge between us with justice, and do not be unfair. Show us the way to rectitude.
‘This is my brother: he has ninety-nine ewes and I have only one ewe. Yet he said: “Let me take charge of her”, and has been hard on me in his speech’.
Said [David]: ‘He has certainly wronged you by demanding that your ewe be added to his ewes! Thus do many partners wrong one another, except for those who believe and do righteous deeds, but how few are they!’ Then David realised that We were only testing him. He prayed for his Lord’s forgiveness, fell down in prostration and turned to God in repentance.
We forgave him that, and in the life to come he is to be close to Us and will be well received.
David! We have made you a vicegerent on earth: judge, then, between people with justice, and do not follow vain desire, lest it leads you astray from the path of God. Those who go astray from the path of God will have a severe punishment for having ignored the Day of Reckoning.
We have not created heaven and earth and all that is between them without a purpose. That is what the unbelievers assume. Woe betide the unbelievers when they are cast in the Fire.
Are We to equate those who believe and do righteous deeds with those who spread corruption in the land? Are We to equate the God-fearing with the wicked?
This is a blessed Book which We have revealed to you so that people may ponder over its message, and that those endowed with insight may take it to heart.
To David We gave Solomon: how excellent a servant of Ours; he would always turn to Us.
When, one evening, nobly-bred, swift-footed steeds were brought before him,
he kept saying: ‘My love of good things is part of my remembering my Lord!’ until they disappeared from sight.
‘Bring them back to me!’ He then stroked their legs and their necks.
We had tried Solomon, and placed a body on his throne. He then turned to Us,
and prayed: ‘My Lord! Forgive me my sins, and bestow upon me such power as shall belong to no one after me. You are indeed the Bountiful Giver.’
We made the wind subservient to him, so that it gently sped at his command wherever he wished,
and the jinn, including every kind of builder and diver,
and others bound together in fetters.
This is Our gift; so give or withhold as you please, without account.
In the life to come he is to be close to Us and will be well received.
Remember Our servant Job who cried out to his Lord: ‘Satan has afflicted me with weariness and suffering!’
‘Strike [the ground] with your foot! Here is cool water for you to wash with and to drink.’
We restored his family to him, and doubled their number as an act of grace from Us, and as a reminder to those who are endowed with insight.
‘Take in your hand a bunch of grass and strike with it, and you will not then break your oath.’ We found him patient in adversity. How excellent a servant of Ours; he would always turn to Us.
Remember Our servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: all men of strength and vision.
We gave them a specially distinctive quality: the remembrance of the life to come.
In Our sight, they were indeed among the elect, the truly good.
And remember Ishmael, Elisha and Dhul-Kifl: each belonged to the truly good.
Let all this be a reminder. The God-fearing will certainly have a good place to return to:
gardens of perpetual bliss, with gates wide open to them.
They will be comfortably seated there, and they will call for abundant fruit and drink,
having beside them well-matched mates of modest gaze.
This is what you are promised for the Day of Reckoning:
this, Our provision for you will never end.
This is so! Indeed those who transgress the bounds of what is right will have the most evil place to return to:
hell will they have to endure; and how evil a resting place.
Let them, then, taste this: a scalding fluid and a dark, disgusting food,
and coupled with it, further [suffering] of similar nature.
Here is another crowd of people rushing headlong to join you. No welcome to them! They too shall burn in the Fire.
These others will say: ‘No, but it is you! No welcome to you either! It is you who brought this on us! How vile a place to be in!’
They will say: ‘Our Lord! Give double punishment in the Fire to whomever has brought this on us’.
They will say: ‘How is it that we do not see here men whom we considered to be wicked,
and whom we made the target of our derision? Or is it that our eyes have missed them?’
This is in truth how it will be: the people of the Fire will quarrel among themselves.
Say: ‘I am but a warner; and there is no deity other than God, the One who conquers all.
the Lord of the heaven and the earth and all that is between, the Almighty, the All-Forgiving!’
Say: ‘This is a great message;
yet you turn away from it.
No knowledge would I have of what those on high argue.
It is only revealed to me that I am here to give clear warning’.
Your Lord said to the angels: ‘I am about to create a human being out of clay;
when I have fashioned him and breathed of My spirit into him, kneel down before him in prostration’.
The angels prostrated themselves, all of them together.
Not so Iblis. He gloried in his arrogance and was one of those who reject the truth.
Said [God]: ‘Iblis! What prevents you from bowing down to one whom I have created with My hands? Are you too proud, or do you deem yourself superior?’
Answered [Iblis]: ‘I am better than he: You have created me out of fire, but created him from clay’.
Said He: ‘Then get out from it: you are accursed;
My rejection shall follow you until the Day of Judgement’.
Said [Iblis]: ‘My Lord! Grant me a respite till Resurrection Day’.
Said He: ‘You are one of those granted respite
till the day of the appointed time’.
[Iblis] then said: ‘I swear by Your very might: I shall certainly tempt them all
except Your true servants’.
[And God] said: ‘This, then, is the truth! And the truth do I state:
I will most certainly fill hell with you and such of them as shall follow you’.
Say: ‘No reward do I ask of you for this, and I am not one to claim what I am not.
This is no less than a reminder to all the worlds,
and in time you will certainly come to know its truth’.