سورة Ya-seen

Ya'. Sin.

By the Wise Qur'an,

you are truly among the Messengers,

on a Straight Way,

(and this Qur'an) is a revelation from the Most Mighty, the Most Compassionate

so that you may warn a people whose ancestors were not warned before wherefore they are heedless.

Surely most of them merit the decree of chastisement; so they do not believe.

We have put fetters around their necks which reach up to their chins so that they are standing with their heads upright,

and We have put a barrier before them and a barrier behind them, and have covered them up, so they are unable to see.

It is all the same for them whether you warn them or do not warn them for they shall not believe.

You can warn only him who follows the Admonition and fears the Merciful Lord without seeing Him. Give such a one good tidings of forgiveness and a generous reward.

We shall surely raise the dead to life and We record what they did and the traces of their deeds that they have left behind. We have encompassed that in a Clear Book.

Recite to them, as a case in point, the story of the people of the town when the Messengers came to them.

We sent to them two Messengers and they rejected both of them as liars. Then We strengthened them with a third (Messenger).

They said: “We have been sent to you as Messengers.” The people of the town said: “You are only human beings like ourselves, and the Merciful Lord has revealed nothing. You are simply lying.”

The Messengers said: “Our Lord knows that we have indeed been sent to you

and our duty is no more than to clearly convey the Message.”

The people of the town said: “We believe you are an evil omen for us. If you do not desist, we will stone you or you will receive a grievous chastisement from us.”

The Messengers replied: “Your evil omen is with you. (Are you saying this) because you were asked to take heed? The truth is that you are a people who have exceeded all bounds.”

In the meantime a man came running from the far end of the town, saying: “My people, follow the Messengers;

follow those who do not ask any recompense from you and are rightly-guided.

Why should I not serve the One Who created me and to Whom all of you shall be sent back?

What! Shall I take any deities apart from Him whose intercession will not avail me the least were the Merciful One to bring any adversity upon me, nor will they be able to rescue me?

Surely in that case I should indeed be in evident error.

I believe in your Lord; so listen to me.”

(Eventually they killed him and he was told): “Enter Paradise.” The man exclaimed: “Would that my people knew

for what reason Allah has forgiven me and placed me among the honoured ones.”

After him, We did not send down any hosts from the heaven; We stood in no need to send down any host.

There was but a single Blast and suddenly they became silent and still.

Alas for My servants! Never does a Messenger come to them but they mock him.

Have they not seen how many nations before them did We destroy? Thereafter they never came back to them.

All of them shall (one day) be gathered before Us.

Let the dead earth be a Sign for them. We gave it life and produced from it grain whereof they eat.

We made in it gardens of date-palms and vines, and We caused springs to gush forth

that they might eat of its fruits. It was not their hands that made them. Will they not, then, give thanks?

Holy is He Who created all things in pairs, whether it be of what the earth produces, and of themselves, and of what they do not know.

And the night is another Sign for them. We strip the day from it and they become plunged in darkness.

The sun is running its course to its appointed place. That is the ordaining of the All-Mighty, the All-Knowing.

We have appointed stages for the moon till it returns in the shape of a dry old branch of palm-tree.

Neither does it lie in the sun's power to overtake the moon nor can the night outstrip the day. All glide along, each in its own orbit.

Another Sign for them is that We carried all their offspring in the laden vessel

and then created for them other vessels like those on which they ride.

Should We so wish, We can drown them, and there will be none to heed their cries of distress, nor will they be rescued.

It is only Our Mercy (that rescues them) and enables enjoyment of life for a while.

When it is said to such people: “Guard yourselves against what is ahead of you and what has preceded you that mercy be shown to you” (they pay scant heed to it).

Never does any Sign of their Lord come to them, but they turn away from it.

And when it is said to them: “Spend (in the Way of Allah) out of the sustenance that Allah has provided you,” the unbelievers say to the believers: “Shall we feed him whom, Allah would have fed, had He so wished?” Say: “You are in evident error.”

They say: “When will this threat (of Resurrection) come to pass? Tell us if indeed you are truthful.”

The Truth is that they are waiting for nothing but a mighty Blast to seize them the while they are disputing (in their worldly affairs),

and they will not even be able to make a testament, nor to return to their households.

Then the Trumpet shall be blown and lo! they will come out of their graves and be on the move towards their Lord,

(nervously) exclaiming. “Alas for us! Who roused us out of our sleeping-place?” “This is what the Merciful One had promised, and what (His) Messengers had said was true.”

Then there will simply be one single Blast, and all will have gathered before Us.

Today no one shall suffer the least injustice, and you shall not be recompensed except according to your deeds.

Indeed, the people of Paradise will be busy enjoying themselves:

they and their spouses shall be reclining on their couches in shady groves;

therein there will be all kinds of fruits to eat, and they shall have all that they desire.

“Peace” shall be the word conveyed to them from their Merciful Lord.

“Criminals, separate yourselves from others today!

Children of Adam, did I not command you not to serve Satan -- he is to you an open enemy

and serve Me alone: this is the Straight Way?

Still, he misguided a whole throng of you. Did you have no sense?

Now this is the Hell of which you were warned.

Burn in it on account of your disbelieving.

Today We shall put a seal on their mouths, and their hands will speak to Us and their feet shall bear witness to what they had been doing.

If We so willed, We would have put out their eyes, then they would rush to see the Way, but how would they be able to see?

If We so willed, We would have transformed them where they were so that they would not go forward or backward.

Whomsoever We grant a long life, We reverse him in his constitution. Do they still not understand?

We did not teach him (to wit, the Messenger) poetry and it does not behove him. This is none but an Admonition, and a Clear Book

that he may warn him who is alive and establish an argument against those that deny the Truth.

Do they not see Our handiwork: We created for them cattle which they own?

We have subjected the cattle to them so that some of them they ride and eat the flesh of others.

They derive a variety of benefits and drinks from them. Will they, then, not give thanks?

They set up deities apart from Allah, hoping that they will receive help from them.

Those deities can render them no help. Yet these devotees act as though they were an army in waiting for them.

Let not their words grieve you. Surely We know all things about them, what they conceal and what they reveal.

Does man not see that We created him of a sperm drop, and lo! he is flagrantly contentious?

He strikes for Us a similitude and forgot his own creation. He says: “Who will quicken the bones when they have decayed?”

Say: “He Who first brought them into being will quicken them; He knows well about every kind of creation;

He Who created from a green tree a fire for you, a fire to light your stoves with.”

Has He Who created the heavens and the earth no power to create the likes of them? Yes, indeed, He is the Superb Creator.

Whenever He wills a thing, He just commands it “Be” and it is.

Holy is He Who has full control over everything, and to Him you shall all be recalled.