ترجمة معاني سورة الزخرف
باللغة الإنجليزية من كتاب ترجمة معاني القرآن الكريم - عادل صلاحي
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Ḥā. Mīm.
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By the Book that makes things clear!
We have made the Qur’an a discourse in Arabic so that you may understand.
It originates in the source of revelation kept with Us; it is indeed sublime, full of wisdom.
Should We ignore you and take away this reminder from you because you are people who transgress beyond bounds?
Many a prophet did We send to people of olden times;
but they mocked at each prophet who came to them.
We destroyed them even though they were mightier than these. Thus their example has gone down in history.
Yet if you ask them, ‘Who created the heavens and the earth?’ they are sure to answer, ‘The Almighty, the All-Knowing created them’.
It is He who has smoothed out the earth for you and has traced on it paths for you so that you can find your way.
And He it is who sends down water from the sky in due measure. With it We raise dead land to life; and thus you will be raised from the dead.
And He it is who created all living things in pairs, and provided for you the ships and animals on which you ride,
so that when you are seated on their backs you remember your Lord’s blessings and say: ‘Limitless in His glory is He who has made all this subservient to our use. We could not have done it by ourselves.
To our Lord we shall most certainly return.
Yet they assign to Him some of His own servants as offspring. Surely man is clearly hardened in disbelief.
Would He, out of all His creation, choose for Himself daughters and favour you with sons?
If any of them is given the good news of the birth of what he so readily attributes to the Lord of Grace, his face darkens and he is filled with gloom.
[Would they ascribe to God] someone who is brought up among trinkets and cannot put together a clear argument?
They claim that the angels, who are themselves but servants of the Lord of Grace, are females! Did they witness their creation? Their testimony will be put on record and they will be questioned about it.
They say: ‘Had it been the will of the Lord of Grace, we should never have worshipped them’. Of that they have no knowledge: they are blatantly lying.
Or have We given them a book before this one to which they are still holding fast?
No indeed! They say, ‘We found our forefathers following this tradition and we find our guidance by following in their footsteps’.
And thus it is: whenever, before your time, We sent a messenger to any community, the wealthy among them said: ‘We found our forefathers following this tradition and we are only following in their footsteps’.
He said: ‘Even though I bring you a guidance better than what you saw your forefathers following?’ They replied: ‘We reject the message you have been sent with’.
Therefore, We inflicted Our retribution on them. Reflect on how those who rejected the truth met their end.
Abraham said to his father and his people: ‘I renounce what you worship,
I worship none other than Him who brought me into being. It is He who will guide me’.
He made this an abiding precept among his descendants so that they might always return [to God].
I have allowed these people and their forefathers to enjoy their lives freely until the truth has come to them through a Messenger who makes things clear.
Now that the truth has come to them, they say, ‘This is all sorcery, and we reject it outright’.
They also say, ‘Why was not this Qur’an revealed to some great man of the two cities?’
Is it they who apportion your Lord’s grace? It is We who deal out to them their livelihood in the life of this world, and raise some in rank above others, so that some of them may take others into their service. Your Lord’s grace is better than all that they can amass.
Were it not that all people would become one community [of unbelievers], We would have provided those who now disbelieve in the Lord of Grace with roofs of silver for houses, stairways on which to ascend,
gates, couches on which to recline,
and gold ornaments. Yet all this would have been nothing but the fleeting enjoyment of life in this world. It is the life to come that your Lord reserves for the God-fearing.
We shall assign to whoever chooses to remain blind to the remembrance of the Lord of Grace an evil one as a comrade.
These [evil ones] turn them away from the right path, making them think that they are rightly guided.
When such a person comes to Us, he will say [to his comrade]: ‘Would that I was as far away from you as the East is from the West’. Evil indeed are you for a comrade!
Because of your wrongdoing, it will not be of any benefit to you that you are now to share your suffering.
Can you [Prophet] make the deaf hear? Or guide the blind or those who are in manifest error?
If We take you away, We shall inflict retribution on them;
and if We show you the fulfilment of what We have promised them… We have full power over them.
Therefore, hold fast to what has been revealed to you: you certainly are on a straight path;
and it is an honour for you and your people. In time, you will all be called to account.
Ask any of the messengers We sent before you: ‘Did We ever appoint deities to be worshipped other than the Lord of Grace?’
We sent Moses with Our message to Pharaoh and his nobles; and he said: ‘I am a messenger of the Lord of all the worlds’,
but when he presented Our signs to them, they laughed at them,
yet each sign We showed them was greater than the preceding one. We put them through suffering so that they might return [to the right path].
They said: ‘Sorcerer, pray to your Lord for us on the strength of the covenant He has made with you. We shall now follow the right way’.
Yet when We removed their suffering they still broke their word.
Pharaoh proclaimed to his people, saying: ‘My people, is the kingdom of Egypt not mine, with all these rivers flowing at my feet? Do you not see?
Am I not better than this contemptible wretch who can hardly make his meaning clear?
Why have no bracelets of gold been given to him? Why have no angels come to accompany him?’
Thus did he make fools of his people, and they obeyed him. They were people lost in evil.
When they incurred Our anger, We inflicted Our retribution on them and drowned them all;
and so We made them a thing of the past and an example for later generations.
Whenever the son of Mary is cited as an example, your people raise an outcry,
saying: ‘Who is better: our deities or he?’ They cite him only to challenge you. They are contentious people.
He was but a servant of Ours whom We had favoured and made an example to the Children of Israel.
Had it been Our will, We could have made you angels, succeeding one another on earth.
He is a portent of the Last Hour. Have no doubt about it, but follow Me: this is a straight path.
Let not Satan debar you; for he is your sworn enemy.
When Jesus came with clear signs, he said: ‘I have come to you with wisdom, and to make clear to you some of that on which you differ. Therefore, fear God and follow me.
God is my Lord and your Lord: so worship Him alone. This is a straight path’.
Yet are the sects at variance among themselves. Woe, then, to the wrongdoers for the painful suffering that will befall them on a grievous day.
What are they waiting for other than the Last Hour, which will come upon them all of a sudden and take them unawares?
On that Day, friends will become enemies to one another, except for the God-fearing.
You, servants of Mine, no fear need you have today, nor shall you grieve.
You, who have believed in Our revelations and surrendered yourselves to Us,
enter paradise, you and your spouses, in pure happiness.
They will be waited upon with trays and goblets of gold; and there will be found all that the souls may desire and the eyes may delight in. There you shall abide;
This is the garden that shall be your own on account of what you used to do.
You shall have there fruits in abundance, from which to eat.
The evildoers shall abide in the suffering of hell.
It will not be lightened for them; they will remain in utter despair.
We never wronged them; it was they who have wronged themselves.
They will cry, ‘Malik, if only your Lord would put an end to us!’ He will answer: ‘You are here to stay’.
We have brought the truth to you, but most of you abhor the truth.
If they have resolved on some scheme, We have a scheme of Our own.
Or do they think that We do not hear their secret talk and their private counsel? Indeed We do, and Our messengers are with them, recording all.
Say: ‘If the Lord of Grace had a son, I would be the first to worship him’.
Limitless in His glory is the Lord of the heavens and earth, the Lord of the Throne: He is far above their false descriptions.
Leave them to indulge in idle talk and play until they face the Day they have been promised.
It is He alone who is God in heaven and God on earth; He alone is the Wise, the All-Knowing.
Blessed is He to whom sovereignty over the heavens and the earth and all that is between them belongs, and with whom the knowledge of the Last Hour rests, and to whom you shall be brought back.
Those whom they invoke beside Him have no power of intercession, unlike those who know the truth and bear witness to it.
Yet if you ask them who created them they are sure to answer, ‘God’. How is it, then, that they are so misled?
And [the Prophet] says: ‘My Lord, these are people who will not believe’.
Still, bear with them and say, ‘Peace’, for in time they will come to know.
