سورة As-Sajdah ( The Prostration )

Alif, Lam, Meem.

The [gradual] sending down of the Book, there is no doubt in it, is from the Lord of all the worlds.

But they say, ‘He has fabricated it.’ No, it is the truth from your Lord, that you may warn a people to whom there did not come any warner before you, so that they may be guided [to the right path].

It is Allah who created the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them in six days, then He settled on the Throne. You do not have besides Him any guardian or intercessor. Will you not then take admonition?

He directs the command from the heaven to the earth; then it ascends toward Him in a day whose span is a thousand years by your reckoning.

That is the Knower of the sensible and the Unseen, the All-mighty, the All-merciful,

who perfected everything that He created and commenced man’s creation from clay.

Then He made his progeny from an extract of a base fluid.

Then He proportioned him and breathed into him of His Spirit, and made for you hearing, sight, and hearts. Little do you thank.

They say, ‘When we have been lost in the dust, shall we be indeed created anew?’ Indeed, they disbelieve in the encounter with their Lord.

Say, ‘You will be taken away by the angel of death, who has been charged with you. Then you will be brought back to your Lord.’

Were you to see when the guilty hang their heads before their Lord [confessing], ‘Our Lord! We have seen and heard. Send us back so that we may act righteously. Indeed we are [now] convinced.’

Had We wished We would have given every soul its guidance, but My word became due [against the faithless]: ‘Surely I will fill hell with all the [guilty] jinn and humans.’

So taste [the punishment] for your having forgotten the encounter of this day of yours. We [too] have forgotten you. Taste the everlasting punishment because of what you used to do.

Only those believe in Our signs who, when they are reminded of them, fall down in prostration and celebrate the praise of their Lord, and they are not arrogant.

Their sides vacate their beds to supplicate their Lord in fear and hope, and they spend out of what We have provided them.

No one knows what delights have been kept hidden for them [in the Hereafter] as a reward for what they used to do.

Is someone who is faithful like someone who is a transgressor? They are not equal.

As for those who have faith and do righteous deeds, for them will be the gardens of the Abode—a hospitality for what they used to do.

As for those who have transgressed, their refuge will be the Fire. Whenever they seek to leave it, they will be turned back into it and told: ‘Taste the punishment of the Fire which you used to deny.’

We shall surely make them taste the nearer punishment prior to the greater punishment, so that they may come back.

Who is a greater wrongdoer than him who is reminded of his Lord’s signs, whereat he disregards them? Indeed, We shall take vengeance upon the guilty.

Certainly We gave Moses the Book, [declaring], ‘Do not be in doubt about the encounter with Him,’ and We made it a [source of] guidance for the Children of Israel.

When they had been patient and had conviction in Our signs, We appointed amongst them imams to guide [the people] by Our command.

Indeed your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that about which they used to differ.

Does it not dawn upon them how many generations We have destroyed before them, amid [the ruins of] whose dwellings they walk? There are indeed signs in that. Will they not then listen?

Do they not see that We carry water to the parched earth and with it We bring forth crops, from which they eat, themselves and their cattle? Will they not then see?

They say, ‘When will this judgement be, if you are truthful?’

Say, ‘On the day of judgement their [newly found] faith will not avail the faithless, nor will they be granted any respite.’

So turn away from them, and wait. They too are waiting.