Meccan, consisting of 30 verses.

Blessed, exalted above the attributes of created beings, is He in Whose hand, at Whose disposal, is [all] sovereignty, [all] authority and power, and He has power over all things.

[He] Who created death, in this world, and life, in the Hereafter — or both of them in this world, since the sperm-drop is imbued with life, [life being] that [power] by which sensation becomes possible, death being the opposite of this or the non-existence of it — these being two [alternative] opinions; in the case of the latter [life in the Hereafter], ‘creation’ implies ‘ordainment’ — that He may try you, that He may test you in [this] life, [to see] which of you is best in conduct, [which of you] is most obedient to God, and He is the Mighty, in His vengeance against those who disobey Him, the Forgiving, to those who repent to Him;

Who created seven heavens in layers, one above the other without any contact [between them]. You do not see in the Compassionate One’s creation, of these or of other things, any irregularity, any disparity or discordance. Then cast your eyes again, turn them toward the heaven: Do you see, in it, any fissure?, any cracks or ruptures?

Then cast your eyes yet again, once and then twice, and your sight will return to you humbled, abject on account of it not perceiving any fissure, and wearied, unable to see any fissure.

And verily We have adorned the lowest heaven, the one closest to the earth, with lamps, with stars, and made them missiles against the devils, should they [attempt to] listen by stealth, in which case a meteor of fire detaches itself from the star, just like a brand is taken from a fire, and either kills that jinn or deprives him of his senses: it is not that the star itself is displaced from its position; and We have prepared for them the chastisement of the Blaze, the ignited Fire.

And for those who disbelieve in their Lord there is the chastisement of Hell, and [what] an evil journey’s end!, it is.

When they are flung into it they hear it blaring, [producing] a horrid sound like that of an ass, as it seethes,

almost exploding (tamayyazu: a variant reading has the original [form] tatamayyazu) ripped apart, with rage, in wrath against the disbelievers. Whenever a host, a group of them, is flung into it, its keepers ask them, an interrogation of rebuke: ‘Did there not come to you a warner?’, a messenger to warn you of God’s chastisement.

They will say, ‘Yes, a warner did indeed come to us, but we denied and said, “God has not revealed anything; you are assuredly in great error”’: this [last words] may be the words of the angels [spoken] to the disbelievers when they are told of the denial, or they may belong to the words of the disbelievers [spoken] to the warners.

And they will say, ‘Had we listened, that is, listening so as to understand, or comprehended, that is, comprehension entailing reflection [upon the truth], we would not have been among the inhabitants of the Blaze’.

Thus they will confess, when confession is of no avail, their sin, which was their denial of the warners. So away (suhqan or suhuqan) with the inhabitants of the Blaze!, so far away may they be from God’s mercy.

Assuredly those who fear their Lord in secret, while they are absent from people’s eyes, being obedient to Him in secret, such that openly [before people] it is all the more likely [that they fear their Lord] — there will be for them forgiveness and a great reward, namely, Paradise.

And [whether you] keep secret, O people, your speech or proclaim it, He indeed, exalted be He, is Knower of what is in the breasts, of what they contain: so how much more so [is He Knower] in the case of what you utter [openly] — the reason for the revelation of this [verse] was that the idolaters said to one another: ‘Speak secretly, and Muhammad’s god will not hear you’.

Will He Who has created not know?, what you keep secret, in other words: will His knowledge of [things] be precluded by such [secret speech]? And He is the Subtle, in His knowledge, the Aware, therein.

It is He Who made the earth tractable for you, easy for you to walk on; so walk in its flanks and eat of His provision, that has been created for you; and to Him is the resurrection, from the graves for the Requital.

Are you secure (read a-amintum pronouncing both hamzas fully, or by not pronouncing the second one, inserting an alif between it and the other one, or without [the insertion] but replacing it with an alif instead) [in thinking] that He Who is in the heaven, [that He] Whose authority and power [is in the heaven], will not cause the earth to swallow you (an yakhsifa substitutes for man, ‘He Who’) while it quakes?, [while] it moves underneath you and rises above you?

Are you secure [in thinking] that He Who is in the heaven will not unleash (an yursila substitutes for man, ‘He Who’) upon you a squall of pebbles?, a wind hurling pebbles at you. But you will [soon] come to know, upon seeing the chastisement with your own eyes, the nature of My warning, My warning of chastisement, in other words, [you will soon see] that it was true.

And verily those, communities, who were before them denied, then [see] how was My rebuttal!, [how was] My rebuttal of them in destroying them when they denied: in other words, [how] it was true.

Or have they not seen the birds above them, in the air, spreading their wings and closing?, their wings after spreading them? (in other words [read wa-yaqbidna] as wa-qābidātin [similar to sāffātin, ‘spreading’]). Nothing sustains them, from falling, either when they are spreading them or closing them, except the Compassionate One, by His power. Indeed He is Seer of all things. The meaning is: have they not inferred from the fact that the birds [are able to] remain in the air that We have the power to do with them what has been mentioned above as well as [inflicting upon them] other kinds of chastisement?

Or who (am-man: the subject) is it (hādhā: its predicate) that (alladhī: a substitution for hādhā, ‘is it’) will be an army, supporters, for you (lakum belongs to the relative clause of alladhī, ‘that’) to help you (yansurukum is an adjectival qualification of jundun, ‘an army’) besides the Compassionate One?, that is to say, other than Him, who [is there that] will [be able to] avert His chastisement from you, in other words, you have no helper. The disbelievers are in nothing but delusion: Satan has deluded them [into believing] that the chastisement will not befall them.

Or who is it that will provide for you if He, the Compassionate One, withholds His provision?, that is to say, [if He withholds] the rain from you (the response to the conditional has been omitted, but is indicated by what preceded it, namely [the statement to the effect] ‘who will provide for you?’, and so [the response would be]: you have no provider other than Him. Nay, but they persist in disdain and aversion, moving away [further] from the truth.

Is he who walks cast down, fallen, on his face more rightly guided, or he who walks upright on a straight path? (the predicate of the second man, ‘who’, has been omitted, but is indicated by the predicate of the first, namely, ahdā, ‘more rightly guided’; the similitude refers to the believer and the disbeliever and to which of the two is more rightly guided).

Say: ‘It is He Who created you and endowed you with hearing and sight and hearts. Little do you thank!’ (mā tashkurūna: mā is extra; the sentence itself is a new [independent] one, informing of how extremely little they give thanks for these graces).

Say: ‘It is He Who multiplied you, created you, on earth, and to Him you will be gathered’, for the Reckoning.

And they say, to the believers: ‘When will this promise be [fulfilled], the promise of the gathering, if you are truthful?’, about it.

Say: ‘The knowledge, of its coming, is only with God, and I am but a plain warner’, one whose warning is plain.

But when they see it, that is, the chastisement, after the gathering, near at hand, the faces of those who disbelieved will be awry, blackened, and it will be said, that is, the keepers [of Hell] will say to them: ‘This is that, chastisement, which, the warning of which, you used to make claims about’, [claims to the effect] that you would not be resurrected — this is the narration of a situation that will take place [in the future], and which has been expressed using the past tense in order to confirm that it will actually take place.

Say: ‘Have you considered: If God destroys me and those with me, of believers, by His chastisement, as you would have it, or has mercy on us, and does not chastise us, who then will protect the disbelievers from a painful chastisement?’: in other words, they will have no protector from it.

Say: ‘He is the Compassionate One; we believe in Him, and in Him we put our trust. And assuredly you will [soon] know (sa-ta‘lamūna is also read sa-ya‘lamūna, ‘they will know’) upon seeing the chastisement with your own eyes, who is in manifest error’: is it us, or yourselves or them?

Say: ‘Have you considered: If your water were to sink deep into the earth, who then will bring you running water?’, which hands and buckets would be able to reach, like [they do] your water: in other words, none but God, exalted be He, would be able to bring it, so how can you reject that He will resurrect you? It is commendable for one to say Allāhu rabbu’l-‘ālamīna, ‘God, Lord of the Worlds!’, after ma‘īn, ‘running water’, as is stated in a hadīth. This verse was recited before a certain tyrant who then replied, ‘Hatchets and pickaxes will bring it!’, whereupon the water of his eyes dried up and he became blind. We seek refuge with God against that we should be insolent towards Him or His verses.