| asad | |
|---|---|
| 1. * | NAY! I call to witness the Day of Resurrection! [2]1 |
| 2. * | But nay! I call to witness the accusing voice of man's own conscience! [3]2 |
| 3. * | Does man think that We cannot [resurrect him and] bring his bones together again? |
| 4. * | Yea indeed, We are able to make whole his very finger-tips! |
| 5. * | None the less man chooses to deny what lies ahead of him, |
| 6. * | asking [derisively], "When is that Resurrection Day to be?" |
| 7. * | But [on that Day,] when the eyesight is by fear confounded, |
| 8. * | and the moon is darkened, |
| 9. * | and the sun and the moon are brought together [4]3- |
| 10. * | on that Day will man exclaim "Whither to flee?" |
| 11. * | But nay: no refuge [for thee, O man]! |
| 12. * | With thy Sustainer, on that Day, the journey's end will be! |
| 13. * | Man will be apprised, on that Day, of what he has done and what he has left undone: [5]4 |
| 14. * | nay, but man shall against himself be an eye-witness, |
| 15. * | even though he may veil himself in excuses. [6]5 |
| 16. * | MOVE NOT thy tongue in haste, [repeating the words of the revelation:] [7]6 |
| 17. * | for, behold, it is for Us to gather it [in thy heart,] and to cause it to be read [as it ought to be read]. [8]7 |
| 18. * | Thus, when We recite it, follow thou its wording [with all thy mind]: [9]8 |
| 19. * | and then, behold, it will be for Us to make its meaning clear. [10]9 |
| 20. * | NAY, but [most of] you love this fleeting life, |
| 21. * | and give no thought to the life to come [and to Judgment Day]! |
| 22. * | Some faces will on that Day be bright with happiness, |
| 23. * | looking up to their Sustainer; |
| 24. * | and some faces will on that Day be overcast with despair, |
| 25. * | knowing that a crushing calamity is about to befall them. |
| 26. * | NAY, but when [the last breath] comes up to the throat [of a dying man], |
| 27. * | and people ask, "Is there any wizard [that could save him]?" [11]10 |
| 28. * | the while he [himself] knows that this is the parting, |
| 29. * | and is enwrapped in the pangs of death [12]11 - : |
| 30. * | at that time towards thy Sustainer does he feel impelled to turn! [13]12 |
| 31. * | [Useless, though, will be his repentance: [14]13] for [as long as he was alive] he did not accept the truth, nor did he pray [for enlightenment], |
| 32. * | but, on the contrary, he gave the lie to the truth and turned away [from it], |
| 33. * | and then went arrogantly back to what he had come from. [15]14 |
| 34. * | [And yet, O man, thine end comes hourly] nearer unto thee, and nearer - |
| 35. * | and ever nearer unto thee, and nearer! |
| 36. * | DOES MAN, then, think that he is to be left to himself to go about at will? [16]15 |
| 37. * | Was he not once a [mere] drop of sperm that had been spilt, |
| 38. * | and thereafter became a germ-cell - whereupon He created and formed [it] in accordance with what [it] was meant to be, [17]16 |
| 39. * | and fashioned out of it the two sexes, the male and the female? |
| 40. * | Is not He, then; able to bring the dead back to life? |