سورة Az-Zumar ( The Groups )

This Book is sent down by God the Mighty, the Wise.

It is We who sent down the Book to you [Prophet] with the Truth, so worship God with your total devotion:

it is to God alone that sincere obedience is due. And those who take other guardians besides Him say, \"We serve them only that they may bring us nearer to God.\" Surely, God will judge between them concerning that wherein they differ. God does not guide anyone who is bent on lying and is a disbelieving liar.

If God had willed to take a son He could have chosen anyone He pleased out of His creation: but Glory be to Him! [He is above such things.] He is God, the One, the Omnipotent.

He created the heavens and the earth for a true purpose; He causes the night to succeed the day and the day to succeed the night; He has subjected the sun and moon, so that they run their courses for an appointed time; He is truly the Mighty, the Forgiving.

He created you from a single soul, then produced its spouse from it, and He has provided for you eight heads of cattle in pairs. He creates you stage by stage in your mothers' wombs in a threefold darkness. Such is God, your Lord. Sovereignty is His. There is no god but Him. So what has made you turn away?

If you are ungrateful, remember that God has no need of you. He is not pleased by ingratitude in His servants; if you are grateful, He is pleased [to see] it in you. No soul shall bear another's burden. You will return to your Lord in the end and He will declare to you what you have done: He knows well what is in the hearts of men.

When man suffers some affliction, he prays to his Lord and turns to Him in penitence, but once he has been granted a favour from God, he forgets the One he had been praying to and sets up rivals to God, to make others stray from His path. Say, \"Enjoy your unbelief for a little while: you will be one of the inmates of the Fire.\"

Is he who prays devoutly to God in the hours of the night, prostrating himself and standing in prayer, who is ever mindful of the life to come and hopes for the mercy of his Lord [like one who does not]? Say, \"Are those who know equal to those who do not know?\" Truly, only those endowed with understanding will take heed.

Say, \"[God says] O My servants who have believed, fear your Lord. For those who do good in this world will have a good reward -- and God's earth is spacious. Truly, those who persevere patiently will be requited without measure.\"

Say, \"I have been commanded to serve God, dedicating my worship entirely to Him.

I have been commanded to be the first to submit.\"

Say, \"I fear, if I disobey my Lord, the punishment of a Terrible Day.\"

Say, \"It is God I serve, sincere in my faith in Him alone --

as for yourselves, worship anything you please besides Him!\" Say, \"The real losers will be those who lose themselves and all their kith and kin on the Day of Resurrection. That is the [most] obvious loss.

They will have sheets of fire above them and sheets of fire beneath them.\" That is how God puts fear into the hearts of His servants. Fear me, then, My servants.

There is good news for those who shun the worship of false deities and turn to God, so give good news to My servants,

who listen to what is said and follow what is best in it. These are the ones God has guided; these are the people endowed with understanding.

But what of him against whom the sentence of punishment is justified? Can you rescue one who is already in the Fire?

But for those who truly feared their Lord, there will be tall mansions, built up storey upon storey, beneath which there will be rivers flowing. This is God's promise: God never fails in His promise.

Have you not seen that God sends down water from the sky, guides it to form springs in the earth, and then, with it, brings forth vegetation of various colours, which later withers, turns yellow before your eyes, and then He makes it crumble away? There is truly a reminder in this for those who possess understanding.

Anyone whose heart God has opened up to Islam possesses a light from his Lord. But woe betide those whose hearts have been hardened against the rememberance of God! Such people are in obvious error.

God has sent down the best Message: a Scripture that is consimilar and oft-repeated: that causes the skins of those in awe of their Lord to creep. Then their skins and their hearts soften at the mention of God: such is God's guidance. He bestows it upon whoever He will; but no one can guide those whom God leaves to stray.

What about the one who will have only his bare face to protect him from his terrible punishment on the Day of Resurrection? The evil-doers will be told, \"Taste what you have earned.\"

Those before them also denied the truth, and the punishment fell on them from where they did not expect.

God gave them a taste of humiliation in the life of this world, but the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they only knew it.

We have set forth to men all kinds of parables in this Quran so that they may take heed:

a Quran in Arabic, free from any ambiguity -- so that people may be mindful.

God sets forth a parable: there are two men -- one belonging to many masters, all disagreeing with one another, and the other belonging entirely to one master: are those two equal in comparison? Praise be to God! But most of them have no knowledge.

You will die and they too will die,

and, then on the Day of Resurrection you shall place your dispute before your Sustainer.

Who, then, is more unjust than he who lies about God and rejects the truth when it comes to him? Is not Hell an abode for those who deny the truth?

He who brings the truth, and he who testifies to it as such -- those are surely the people who are God-fearing:

they will have everything they wish for from their Lord. Such is the reward of those who do good:

God will efface their worst deeds from their record and give them their reward in accordance with the best of their actions.

Is God not enough for His servant? Yet they try to frighten you with other [deities] besides Him! For such as God lets go astray, there will be no guide;

but he whom God guides cannot be led astray by anyone. Is God not mighty and capable of retribution?

If you ask them who created the heavens and the earth, they will surely reply, \"God.\" Say, \"Consider those you invoke besides Him: if God wished to harm me, could they undo that harm? Or if God wished to show me mercy, could they withhold that mercy?\" Say, \"God is sufficient for me. In Him let the faithful put their trust.\"

Say, \"My people, do whatever is in your power -- and so will I. Soon you shall come to know

who will suffer a humiliating torment and on whom will descend an everlasting punishment.\"

[O Prophet!] We have sent down to you the Book for mankind with the truth. Then whoever adopts the right way, will do so for his own soul, and whoever goes astray, injures his own soul. You are not their custodian.

It is God who takes away men's souls upon their death and the souls of the living during their sleep. Then He withholds those for whom He has ordained death and restores the souls of others for an appointed term. There are certainly signs in this for those who reflect.

Have they taken others for intercessors besides God? Say, \"Even though they have no power nor understanding?\"

Say, \"Intercession is entirely in the hands of God. He controls the heavens and the earth; you will all return to Him.\"

When God alone is named, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter shrink with aversion, but when others are named instead of Him, they are filled with joy.

Say, \"O God! Originator of the heavens and earth! Knower of all that is hidden and all that is manifest, You will judge between Your servants regarding their differences.\"

If the wrongdoers possessed all that is on earth, and twice as much, they would offer it to redeem themselves from the awful suffering on the Day of Resurrection. For God will show them what they had never anticipated,

the evil of their deeds will become apparent to them, and they will be overwhelmed by that which they used to mock.

When affliction befalls man, he appeals to Us; but when We bestow a favour upon him he says, \"All this has been given to me because of my own knowledge.\" By no means! It is a trial: yet most of them do not realize it.

Those who preceded them said the same thing but they gained nothing from what they did;

the very evil of their deeds recoiled upon them; today's wrongdoers shall also have the evil of their deeds recoil upon them: they will never be able to frustrate [Our plan].

Do they not know that God grants abundant sustenance to anyone He wishes and gives sparingly to anyone He pleases? Surely there are signs in this for those who believe.

Say, [God says] \"O My servants, who have committed excesses against their own souls, do not despair of God's mercy, for God surely forgives all sins. He is truly the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

Turn to your Lord and submit to Him before His scourge overtakes you, for then you shall not be helped.

Follow the best aspect of what is sent down to you from your Lord, before the scourge comes upon you unawares,

lest anyone should say, \"Alas for me, for having neglected what is due to God, and having been one of those who scoffed!\"

Or, \"If only God had guided me, I would surely have joined the God-fearing.\"

Or, he may say as he sees the punishment, \"Would that I had a second chance, so that I could be among the doers of good.\"

No indeed! My revelations did come to you, but you rejected them: you showed arrogance, and were among those who deny the truth.\"

On the Day of Resurrection you will see those who uttered falsehoods about God with their faces blackened. Is there not enough room in Hell for the arrogant?

But God will deliver them who feared Him to their place of salvation. No evil shall touch them, nor shall they grieve.

God is the Creator of all things, He has charge of everything;

the keys of the heavens and the earth belong to Him. Those who deny God's revelations will surely be the losers.

Say, \"Ignorant men! Would you bid me worship someone other than God?\"

It has already been revealed to you and to those who have gone before you that if you ascribe any partner to God, all your works will come to nothing, and you will surely be among the losers.

Therefore, you should worship God alone and be among the thankful.

No just estimate have they made of God, such as is due to Him. But on the Day of Resurrection, the whole earth will lie within His grasp, while heaven will be folded up in His right hand -- Glory be to Him! Exalted is He above all that they associate with Him --

the Trumpet shall be blown and whoever is in heaven and whoever is on earth will fall down in a swoon, except those who shall be spared by God. Then the trumpet will be blown again and they shall rise and gaze around them.

The earth will shine with the light of its Lord, and the Book will be laid open; the prophets and witnesses will be brought in; and judgement will be passed on them with fairness. And none shall be wronged.

Every soul will be repaid in full for what it has done. He is fully aware of all that they did.

Those who rejected the truth will be led to Hell in throngs. When they reach it, its gates will be opened and its keepers will say to them, \"Have messengers not come to you from among yourselves, who conveyed to you the revelations of your Lord and warned you about meeting [Him] on this Day?\" They will answer, \"Yes, they did come.\" But the decree of punishment has proved true against the deniers of the truth.

They will be told, \"Enter the gates of Hell, to stay therein forever.\" What an evil dwelling place for the haughty.

But those who fear their Lord will be led in groups towards Paradise. When they reach it, its gate will be opened, and its keepers will say to them, \"Peace be upon you. You have done well, enter Paradise and dwell in it forever,\"

and they will say, \"Praise be to God who has fulfilled His promise to us and made us the inheritors of this land, letting us settle in the Garden wherever we want.\" How excellent is the reward of those who labour!

You shall see the angels circling about the throne, glorifying their Lord with praise. And judgement will have been passed in justice on all and it will be said, \"Praise be to God, Lord of the Universe!\"