CONSIDER the sun and its radiant brightness, and the moon as it reflects the sun! * Consider the day as it reveals the world, * and the night as it veils it darkly! Consider the sky and its wondrous make, * and the earth and all its expanse! Consider the human self, * and how it is formed in accordance with what it is meant to be, ** and how it is imbued with moral failings as well as with consciousness of God! * To a happy state shall indeed attain he who causes this [self] to grow in purity, and truly lost is he who buries it [in darkness]. TO [THIS] TRUTH gave the lie, in their overweening arrogance, [the tribe of] Thamud, * when that most hapless wretch from among them rushed forward [to commit his evil deed], although God's apostle had told them, "It is a she-camel belonging to God, so let her drink [and do her no harm]!" * But they gave him the lie, and cruelly slaughtered her * - whereupon their Sustainer visited them wwith utter destruction for this their sin, destroying them all alike: for none [of them] had any fear of what might befall them. *