سورة Al-Furqan (The Criterion )

Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion to His servant that he may be a warner to all the nations.

He, to whom belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth, and who did not take any offspring, nor has He any partner in sovereignty, and He created everything and determined it in a precise measure.

Yet they have taken gods besides Him who create nothing and have themselves been created, and who have no control over their own harm or benefit and have no control over [their own] death, life, or resurrection.

The faithless say, ‘This is nothing but a lie that he has fabricated, and other people have abetted him in it.’ Thus they have certainly come out with wrongdoing and falsehood.

They say, ‘He has taken down myths of the ancients, and they are dictated to him morning and evening.’

Say, ‘It has been sent down by Him who knows the hidden in the heavens and the earth. Indeed He is all-forgiving, all-merciful.’

And they say, ‘What sort of apostle is this who eats food and walks in the marketplaces? Why has not an angel been sent down to him so as to be a warner along with him?’

Or, ‘[Why is not] a treasure thrown to him, or [why does] he [not] have a garden from which he may eat?’ And the wrongdoers say, ‘You are just following a bewitched man.’

Look, how they coin epithets for you; so they go astray, and cannot find the way.

Blessed is He who will grant you better than that if He wishes—gardens with streams running in them, and He will make for you palaces.

Indeed, they deny the Hour, and We have prepared a Blaze for those who deny the Hour.

When it sights them from a distant place, they will hear it raging and roaring.

And when they are cast into a narrow place in it, bound together [in chains], they will pray for [their own] annihilation.

[They will be told:] ‘Do not pray for a single annihilation today, but pray for many annihilations!’

Say, ‘Is that better, or the everlasting paradise promised to the Godwary, which will be their reward and destination?’

There they will have whatever they wish, abiding [forever]—a promise [much] besought, [binding] on your Lord.

On the day that He will muster them and those whom they worship besides Allah, He will say, ‘Was it you who led astray these servants of Mine, or did they themselves stray from the way?’

They will say, ‘Immaculate are You! It does not behoove us to take any wali in Your stead! But You provided for them and their fathers until they forgot the Reminder, and they were a ruined lot.’

So they will certainly impugn you in what you say, and you will neither be able to circumvent [punishment] nor find help, and whoever of you does wrong, We shall make him taste a terrible punishment.

We did not send any apostles before you but that they indeed ate food and walked in marketplaces. We have made you a [means of] test for one another, [to see] if you will be patient and steadfast, and your Lord is all-seeing.

Those who do not expect to encounter Us say, ‘Why have angels not been sent down to us, or why do we not see our Lord?’ Certainly, they are full of arrogance within their souls and have become terribly defiant.

The day they will see the angels, there will be no good news for the guilty on that day, and they will say, ‘Keep off [from paradise]!’

Then We shall attend to the works they have done and then turn them into scattered dust.

On that day the inhabitants of paradise will be in the best abode and an excellent resting place.

The day when the sky with its clouds will be split open, and the angels will be sent down [in a majestic] descent,

on that day true sovereignty will belong to the All-beneficent, and it will be a hard day for the faithless.

It will be a day when the wrongdoer will bite his hands, saying, ‘I wish I had followed the Apostle’s way!

Woe to me! I wish I had not taken so and so as a friend!

Certainly he led me astray from the Reminder after it had come to me, and Satan is a deserter of man.’

And the Apostle will say, ‘O my Lord! Indeed my people consigned this Quran to oblivion.’

That is how for every prophet We assigned an enemy from among the guilty, and your Lord suffices as helper and guide.

The faithless say, ‘Why has not the Quran been sent down to him all at once?’ So it was, that We may strengthen your heart with it, and We have recited it [to you] in a measured tone.

They do not bring you any representation but that We bring you the truth [in reply to them] and the best exposition.

Those who will be mustered [fallen] on their faces toward hell, they are the worse situated and further astray from the [right] way.

Certainly We gave Moses the Book and We made Aaron, his brother, accompany him as a minister.

Then We said, ‘Let the two of you go to the people who have denied Our signs.’ Then We destroyed them utterly.

And Noah’s people, We drowned them when they impugned the apostles, and We made them a sign for mankind, and We have prepared for the wrongdoers a painful punishment.

And ‘Ad and Thamud, and the people of Rass, and many generations between them.

For each of them We drew examples, and each We destroyed utterly.

Certainly they must have passed the town on which an evil shower was rained. Have they not seen it? Rather, they did not expect resurrection [to happen].

When they see you they just take you in derision: ‘Is this the one whom Allah has sent as an apostle!?

Indeed he was about to lead us astray from our gods, had we not stood firm by them.’ Soon they will know, when they sight the punishment, who is further astray from the [right] way.

Have you seen him who has taken his desire to be his god? Is it your duty to watch over him?

Do you suppose that most of them listen or exercise their reason? They are just like cattle; indeed, they are further astray from the way.

Have you not regarded how your Lord spreads the twilight? (Had He wished He would have made it stand still.) Then We made the sun a beacon for it.

Then We retract it toward Ourselves, with a gentle retracting.

It is He who made for you the night as a covering and sleep for rest and He made the day a recall to life.

And it is He who sends the winds as harbingers of His mercy, and We send down from the sky purifying water,

with which We revive a dead country and provide water to many of the cattle and humans We have created.

Certainly We distribute it among them so that they may take admonition. But most people are only intent on ingratitude.

Had We wished, We would have sent a warner to every town.

So do not obey the faithless, but wage a great jihad against them with it.

It is He who merged the two seas: this one sweet and agreeable, and that one briny and bitter, and between the two He set a barrier and a forbidding hindrance.

It is He who created the human being from water, then invested him with ties of blood and marriage, and your Lord is all-powerful.

They worship besides Allah that which neither brings them any benefit nor causes them any harm, and the faithless one is ever an abettor against his Lord.

We did not send you except as a bearer of good news and as a warner.

Say, ‘I do not ask you any reward for it, except that anyone who wishes should take the way to his Lord.’

Put your trust in the Living One who does not die, and celebrate His praise. He suffices as one all-aware of the sins of His servants.

He, who created the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them in six days, and then settled on the Throne, the All-beneficent; so ask someone who is well aware about Him.

When they are told: ‘Prostrate yourselves before the All-beneficent,’ they say, ‘What is ‘‘the All-beneficent’’? Shall we prostrate ourselves before whatever you bid us?’ And it increases their aversion.

Blessed is He who appointed houses in the sky and set in it a lamp and a shining moon.

It is He who made the night and the day alternate for someone who desires to take admonition, or desires to give thanks.

The servants of the All-beneficent are those who walk humbly on the earth, and when the ignorant address them, say, ‘Peace!’

Those who spend the night for their Lord, prostrating and standing [in worship].

Those who say, ‘Our Lord! Turn away from us the punishment of hell. Indeed its punishment is enduring.

Indeed it is an evil station and abode.’

Those who are neither wasteful nor tightfisted when spending, but balanced between these [two extremes].

Those who do not invoke another deity besides Allah, and do not kill a soul [whose life] Allah has made inviolable, except with due cause, and do not commit fornication. (Whoever does that shall encounter its retribution,

the punishment being doubled for him on the Day of Resurrection. In it he will abide in humiliation forever,

except those who repent, attain faith, and act righteously. For such, Allah will replace their misdeeds with good deeds, and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.

And whoever repents and acts righteously indeed turns to Allah with due penitence).

Those who do not give false testimony, and when they come upon frivolity, pass by with dignity.

Those who, when reminded of the signs of their Lord, do not turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to them.

And those who say, ‘Our Lord! Give us joy and comfort in our spouses and offspring, and make us imams of the Godwary.’

Those shall be rewarded with sublime abodes for their patience and steadfastness, and they shall be met there with greetings and ‘Peace,’

to abide in them [forever], an excellent station and abode.

Say, ‘Were it not for the sake of summoning you [to faith], what store my Lord would have set by you? But you impugned [me and my summons], so it will soon follow as a result.’