سورة Ya-seen

Ya Seen!

By the Wise Quran,

you are indeed one of the apostles,

on a straight path.

[It is a scripture] sent down gradually from the All-mighty, the All-merciful

that you may warn a people whose fathers were not warned, so they are oblivious.

The word has certainly become due against most of them, so they will not have faith.

Indeed We have put iron collars around their necks, which are up to the chins, so their heads are upturned.

And We have put a barrier before them and a barrier behind them, then We have blind-folded them, so they do not see.

It is the same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not have faith.

You can only warn someone who follows the Reminder and fears the All-beneficent in secret; so give him the good news of forgiveness and a noble reward.

Indeed it is We who revive the dead and write what they have sent ahead and their effects [which they left behind], and We have figured everything in a manifest Imam.

Cite for them the example of the inhabitants of the town when the apostles came to it.

When We sent to them two [apostles], they impugned both of them. Then We reinforced them with a third, and they said, ‘We have indeed been sent to you.’

They said, ‘You are no other than human beings like us, and the All-beneficent has not sent down anything, and you are only lying.’

They said, ‘Our Lord knows that we have indeed been sent to you,

and our duty is only to communicate in clear terms.’

They said, ‘Indeed we take you for a bad omen. If you do not desist we will stone you, and surely a painful punishment will visit you from us.’

They said, ‘Your bad omens attend you. What! If you are admonished.... Indeed, you are an unrestrained lot.’

There came a man hurrying from the city outskirts. He said, ‘O my people! Follow the apostles!

Follow them who do not ask you any reward and they are rightly guided.

Why should I not worship Him who has originated me, and to whom you shall be brought back?

Shall I take gods besides Him? If the All-beneficent desired to cause me any distress, their intercession will not avail me in any way, nor will they rescue me.

Indeed, then I would be in manifest error.

Indeed I have faith in your Lord, so listen to me.’

He was told, ‘Enter paradise!’ He said, ‘Alas! Had my people only known

for what my Lord forgave me and made me one of the honoured ones!’

After him We did not send down on his people a host from the sky, nor We would have sent down.

It was but a single Cry, and, behold, they were stilled [like burnt ashes]!

How regrettable of the servants! There did not come to them any apostle but that they used to deride him.

Have they not regarded how many generations We have destroyed before them who will not come back to them?

And all of them will indeed be presented before Us.

A sign for them is the dead earth, which We revive and bring forth grain out of it, so they eat of it.

We make in it orchards of date palms and vines, and We cause springs to gush forth in it,

so that they may eat of its fruit and what their hands have cultivated. Will they not then give thanks?

Immaculate is He who has created all the kinds of what the earth grows, and of themselves, and of what they do not know.

A sign for them is the night, which We strip of daylight, and, behold, they find themselves in the dark!

The sun runs on to its place of rest: That is the ordaining of the All-mighty, the All-knowing.

As for the moon, We have ordained its phases, until it becomes like an old palm leaf.

Neither it behooves the sun to overtake the moon, nor may the night outrun the day, and each swims in an orbit.

A sign for them is that We carried their progeny in the laden ship,

and We have created for them what is similar to it, which they ride.

And if We like We drown them, whereat they have no one to call for help, nor are they rescued

except by a mercy from Us and for an enjoyment until some time.

And when they are told, ‘Beware of that which is before you and that which is behind you, so that you may receive [His] mercy…’

There does not come to them any sign from among the signs of their Lord but that they have been disregarding it.

When they are told, ‘Spend out of what Allah has provided you,’ the faithless say to the faithful, ‘Shall we feed [someone] whom Allah would feed, if He wished? You are only in manifest error.’

And they say, ‘When will this promise be fulfilled, should you be truthful?’

They do not await but a single Cry that will seize them as they wrangle.

Then they will not be able to make any will, nor will they return to their folks.

And when the Trumpet is blown, behold, there they will be, scrambling towards their Lord from their graves!

They will say, ‘Woe to us! Who raised us from our place of sleep?’ ‘This is what the All-beneficent had promised, and the apostles had spoken the truth!’

It will be but a single Cry, and, behold, they will all be presented before Us!

‘Today no soul will be wronged in the least, nor will you be requited except for what you used to do.’

Indeed today the inhabitants of paradise rejoice in their engagements

—they and their mates, reclining on couches in the shades.

There they have fruits, and they have whatever they want.

‘Peace!’—a watchword from the all-merciful Lord.

And ‘Get apart today, you guilty ones!’

‘Did I not exhort you, O children of Adam, saying, “Do not worship Satan. He is indeed your manifest enemy.

Worship Me. That is a straight path”?

Certainly, he has led astray many of your generations. Have you not exercised your reason?

This is the hell you had been promised!

Enter it today, because of what you used to deny.

Today We shall seal their mouths, and their hands shall speak to Us, and their feet shall bear witness concerning what they used to earn.’

Had We wished We would have blotted out their eyes: then, were they to advance towards the path, how would have they seen?

And had We wished We would have deformed them in their place; then they would neither have been able to move ahead nor to return.

And whomever We give a long life, We cause him to regress in creation. Then, will they not exercise their reason?

We did not teach him poetry, nor does it behoove him. This is just a reminder and a manifest Quran,

so that anyone who is alive may be warned, and that the word may come due against the faithless.

Have they not seen that We have created for them—of what Our hands have worked—cattle, so they have become their masters?

And We made them tractable for them; so some of them make their mounts and some of them they eat.

There are other benefits for them therein, and drinks. Will they not then give thanks?

They have taken gods besides Allah, [hoping] that they might be helped [by the fake deities].

[But] they cannot help them, while they [themselves] are an army mobilized for their defence.

So do not let their remarks grieve you. We indeed know whatever they hide and whatever they disclose.

Does not man see that We created him from a drop of [seminal] fluid, and, behold, he is an open contender!?

He draws comparisons for Us, and forgets his own creation. He says, ‘Who shall revive the bones when they have decayed?’

Say, ‘He will revive them who produced them the first time, and He has knowledge of all creation.

He, who made for you fire out of the green tree, and, behold, you light fire from it!

Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like of them? Yes indeed! He is the All-creator, the All-knowing.

All His command, when He wills something, is to say to it ‘Be,’ and it is.

So immaculate is He in whose hand is the dominion of all things, and to whom you shall be brought back.