Qaaf

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Qaf. CONSIDER this sublime Qur’an!

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But nay - they deem it strange that a warner should have come unto them from their own midst; and so these deniers of the truth are saying, “A strange thing is this!

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Why - [how could we be resurrected] after we have died and become mere dust? Such a return seems far-fetched indeed!”

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Well do We know how the earth consumes their bodies, for with Us is a record unfailing.

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Nay, but they [who refuse to believe in resurrection] have been wont to give the lie to this truth whenever it was proffered to them; and so they are in a state of confusion.

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Do they not look at the sky above them - how We have built it and made it beautiful and free of all faults?

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And the earth - We have spread it wide, and set upon it mountains firm, and caused it to bring forth plants of all beauteous kinds,

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thus offering an insight and a reminder unto every human being who willingly turns unto God.

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And We send down from the skies water rich in blessings, and cause thereby gardens to grow, and fields of grain,

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and tall palm-trees with their thickly-clustered dates,

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as sustenance appor­tioned to men; and by [all] this We bring dead land to life: [and] even so will be [man’s] coming-forth from death.

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[Long] before those [who now deny resur­rection] did Noah’s people give the lie to this truth, and [so did] the folk of Ar-Rass, and [the tribes of] Thamud

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and Ad, and Pharaoh, and Lot’s brethren,

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and the dwellers of the wooded dales [of Madyan], and the people of Tubba: they all gave the lie to the apostles - and thereupon that whereof I had warned [them] came true.

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Could We, then, be [thought of as being] worn out by the first creation? Nay - but some people are [still] lost in doubt about [the possibility of] a new creation!

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NOW, VERILY, it is We who have created man, and We know what his innermost self whispers within him: for We are closer to him than his neck-vein.

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[And so,] whenever the two demands [of his nature] come face to face, contending from the right and from the left,

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not even a word can he utter but there is a watcher with him, ever-present.

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And [then,] the twilight of death brings with it the [full] truth that [very thing, O man,] from which thou wouldst always look away! –

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and [in the end] the trumpet [of resurrection] will be blown: that will be the Day of a warning fulfilled.

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And every human being will come forward with [his erstwhile] inner urges and [his] conscious mind,

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[and will be told:] “Indeed, unmindful hast thou been of this [Day of Judgment]; but now We have lifted from thee thy veil, and sharp is thy sight today!”

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And one part of him will say: “This it is that has been ever-present with me!”

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[Whereupon God will command:] “Cast, cast into hell every [such] stubborn enemy of the truth,

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[every] withholder of good [and] sinful aggressor [and] fomentor of distrust [between man and man – everyone]

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who has set up another deity beside God: cast him, then, cast him into suffering severe!”

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Man’s other self’ will say: “O our Sustainer! It was not I that led his conscious mind into evil [nay,] but it had gone far astray [of its own accord]!

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[And] He will say: “Contend not before Me, [O you sinners,] for I gave you a forewarning [of this Day of Reckoning].

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The judgment passed by Me shall not be altered; but never do I do the least wrong unto My creatures!”

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On that Day We will ask hell, “Art thou filled?”- and it will answer, “[Nay,] is there yet more [for me]?”

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And [on that Day] paradise will be brought within the sight of the God-conscious, and will no longer be far away; [and they will be told:]

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“This is what you were promised - [promised] unto every­one who was wont to turn unto God and to keep Him always in mind –

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[everyone] who stood in awe of the Most Gracious although He is beyond the reach of human perception, and who has come [unto Him] with a heart full of contrition.

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Enter this [paradise] in peace; this is the Day on which life abiding begins!”

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In that [paradise] they shall have whatever they may desire - but there is yet more with Us.

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AND HOW MANY a generation have We destroyed before those [who now deny the truth] people of greater might than theirs; but [when Our chastise­ment befell them,] they became wanderers on the face of the earth, seeking no more than a place of refuge

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In this, behold, there is indeed a reminder for everyone whose heart is wide-awake -that is, [every­one who] lends ear with a conscious mind -

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and [who knows that] We have indeed created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six aeons, and [that] no weariness could ever touch Us.

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HENCE, [O believer,] bear thou with patience what­ever they may say, and extol thy Sustainer’s limit­less glory and praise before the rising of the sun and before its setting;

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and in the night, too, extol His glory, and at every prayer’s end.

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And [always] listen for the day when He who issues the call [of death] shall call [thee] from close-by;

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[and bethink thyself, too, of] the Day on which all [human beings] will in truth hear the final blast - that Day of [their] coming-forth [from death].

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Verily, it is We who grant life and deal death; and with Us will be all journeys’ end

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on the Day when the earth is riven asunder all around them as they hasten forth [towards God’s judgment]: that gathering will be easy for Us [to encompass].

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Fully aware are We of what they [who deny resurrection] do say; and thou canst by no means force them [to believe in it]. Yet none the less, remind, through this Qur’an, all such as may fear My warning.