All praise be to God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, who made the angels His messengers, with wings -- two, or three, or four pairs. He adds to His creation whatever He wills; for God has the power to will anything.
No one can withhold the blessings God bestows upon people, nor can anyone apart from Him bestow whatever He withholds: He is the Almighty, the Wise One.
People, remember God's favour to you. Is there any creator other than God who provides for you from the heavens and the earth? There is no God save Him. How then are you turned away from the truth.
Those who are bent on denying the truth will have a severe punishment, while those who believe and do good deeds will have forgiveness and a great reward.
Is he whose evil deeds are made alluring to him so that he looks upon them as good, [equal to the man who is rightly guided]? God leaves to stray whom He wills, and guides whom He wills. Do not destroy yourself with grief for them. God has full knowledge of all their actions.
It is God who sends forth the winds so that they raise up the clouds. We drive them to a dead land, and by them bring the earth to life after its death. Such is the Resurrection.
If anyone seeks glory, let him know that glory belongs to God alone. Good words ascend to Him and righteous deeds are exalted by Him. Those who plot evil deeds shall be sternly punished and their plotting will come to nothing.
God has created you from dust, then from a drop of semen and then divided you into pairs; no female conceives or gives birth without His knowledge; and no one's life is prolonged or shortened, but it is recorded in a Book. That surely is easy for God.
The two seas are not alike. The one is sweet, thirst-quenching, and pleasant to drink from, while the other is salty and bitter. Yet from each you eat fresh fish and extract ornaments to wear, and in each you see the ships ploughing through the waves so that you may seek His bounty and so that you may feel thankful.
He makes the night pass into the day and He makes the day pass into the night. He has subjected the sun and the moon, each running for an appointed term. Such is God, your Lord: His is the kingdom. Those whom you invoke besides Him do not own so much as the skin of a date stone;
if you invoke them, they do not hear your call; and even if they could hear, they would not respond to you. And on the Day of Resurrection they will disown your having associated them with God. No one can tell you [the Truth] like the One who is all knowing.
No burden-bearer shall bear another's burden, and if some over-laden soul should call out for someone else to carry his load, not the least portion of it will be borne for him, even though he were a near relative. You can only warn those who fear their Lord in the unseen, and pray regularly. Anyone who purifies himself will benefit greatly from doing so. To God all shall return.
Did you not see how God sent down water from the sky with which We bring forth fruit of diverse colours. In the mountains there are streaks of various shades of white and red, and jet-black rocks;
in like manner, men, beasts, and cattle have their diverse hues too. Only those of His servants, who possess knowledge, fear God. God is almighty and most forgiving.
Those who read the Book of God and attend to their prayers and spend in charity in private and in public out of what We have provided them, may hope for a commerce that suffers no loss.
We have bestowed the Book on those of Our servants whom We have chosen. Some wrong their own souls, some keep half-way [between right and wrong]; some, by God's leave, excel others in good deeds. This is a great bounty of God:
Those who deny the truth shall remain in the fire of Hell. Death will not be decreed for them, so that they could escape by way of death, nor will its torment ever be eased for them. Thus do We requite every ungrateful person.
There they will cry out, \"Lord, take us out! We shall do good deeds, and behave differently from the way we used to.\" But He will answer, \"Did We not make your life long enough to take warning if you were going to? The warner did come to you. So now have a taste of the punishment.\" Wrongdoers will have no supporter.
it is He who has made you inherit the earth. He who denies Him shall bear the burden of his denial. God's displeasure with the deniers will only be increased by their denial of the truth, it will only increase their loss.
Say, \"Have you ever considered your associate gods whom you call on besides God? Show me what it is that they have created on earth. Or have they a share in the creation of the heavens?\" Or have We given them a book so that they may act on evidence from it? Indeed, the wrongdoers' promises to one another are nothing but deception.
Surely, God holds the heavens and the earth, lest they should deviate [from their places]. Were they to deviate, none could hold them after Him. Surely, He is forbearing and most forgiving.
They swore their most solemn oaths that if a warner should ever come to them, they would be better guided than any other community. But when a warner did come to them, it only increased their aversion,
and they behaved arrogantly in the land and plotted evil. But the plotting of evil only rebounds on those who plot. Are they but looking for the way the previous peoples [sinners] were dealt with? You will never find any change in the ways of God; nor will you ever find God's decree averted.
Have they not travelled around the earth and seen the fate of those who preceded them? And they were far superior to them in strength. Nothing in the heavens or the earth can ever frustrate God's [plans]. He is all-knowing and all powerful.
If God were to take men to task for their misdeeds, He would not leave a single living creature on the surface of the earth; but He grants them respite until an appointed time; and when their appointed time comes, then they will know that God is indeed observant of all His servants.
