Surah Stoneland, Rock city, Al-Hijr valley [Al-Hijr] in English

Alif, Lam, Ra. These are the signs of the Book and a manifest Quran.

Much will the faithless wish that they had been Muslims.

Leave them to eat and enjoy and to be diverted by longings. Soon they will know.

We did not destroy any town but that it had a known term.

No nation can advance its time nor can it defer it.

They said, ‘O you, to whom the Reminder has been sent down, you are indeed crazy.

Why do you not bring us the angels should you be truthful?!’

We do not send down the angels except with due reason, and then they will not be granted any respite.

Indeed We have sent down the Reminder, and indeed We will preserve it.

Certainly We sent [apostles] before you to former communities,

and there did not come to them any apostle but that they used to deride him.

That is how We let it pass through the hearts of the guilty:

they do not believe in it, and the precedent of the ancients has already passed.

Were We to open for them a gate of the sky, so that they could go on ascending through it,

they would surely say, ‘Indeed a spell has been cast on our eyes; indeed, we are a bewitched lot.’

Certainly We have appointed houses in the sky and adorned them for the onlookers,

and We have guarded them from every outcast Satan,

except someone who may eavesdrop, whereat there pursues him a manifest flame.

And We spread out the earth, and cast in it firm mountains, and We grew in it every kind of balanced thing,

and made in it [various] means of livelihood for you and for those whom you do not provide for.

There is not a thing but that its sources are with Us, and We do not send it down except in a known measure.

And We send the fertilizing winds and send down water from the sky providing it for you to drink and you are not maintainers of its resources.

Indeed it is We who give life and bring death and We are the inheritors.

Certainly We know the predecessors among you and certainly We know the successors,

and indeed it is your Lord who will resurrect them. Indeed, He is all-wise, all-knowing.

Certainly We created man out of a dry clay [drawn] from an aging mud,

and We created the jinn earlier, out of a piercing fire.

When your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed I am going to create a human out of a dry clay [drawn] from an aging mud.

So when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down in prostration before him.’

Thereat the angels prostrated, all of them together,

but not Iblis: he refused to be among those who prostrated.

He said, ‘O Iblis! What kept you from being among those who have prostrated?’

Said he, ‘I will not prostrate before a human whom You have created out of a dry clay [drawn] from an aging mud.’

He said, ‘Begone hence, for you are indeed an outcast,

and indeed the curse shall lie on you until the Day of Retribution.’

He said, ‘My Lord! Respite me till the day they will be resurrected.’

Said He, ‘You are indeed among the reprieved

until the day of the known time.’

He said, ‘My Lord! As You have consigned me to perversity, I will surely glamorize [evil] for them on the earth, and I will surely pervert them, all

except Your dedicated servants among them.’

He said, ‘This is the path [leading] straight to Me.

Indeed, as for My servants you do not have any authority over them, except the perverse who follow you,

and indeed hell is the tryst of them all.

It has seven gates, and to each gate belongs a separate portion of them.’

Indeed the Godwary will be amid gardens and springs.

‘‘Enter it in peace and safety!’’

We will remove whatever rancour there is in their breasts; [intimate like] brothers, [they will be reclining] on couches, facing one another.

Therein neither weariness shall touch them, nor will they [ever] be expelled from it.

Inform my servants that I am indeed the All-forgiving, the All-merciful,

and that My punishment is a painful punishment.

And inform them about the guests of Abraham,

when they entered into his presence and said, ‘Peace!’ He said, ‘We are indeed afraid of you.’

They said, ‘Do not be afraid. Indeed we give you the good news of a wise son.’

He said, ‘Do you give me good news though old age has befallen me? What is the good news that you bring me?’

They said, ‘We bring you good news in truth; so do not be despondent.’

He said, ‘Who despairs of his Lord’s mercy except the astray?!’

He said, ‘O messengers, what is now your errand?’

They said, ‘We have been sent toward a guilty people,

[who shall perish] except the family of Lot. We will indeed deliver all of them,

except his wife, [who], We have ordained, will indeed be among those who remain behind.’

So when the messengers came to Lot’s family,

he said, ‘You are indeed strangers [to me].’

They said, ‘Indeed, we bring you what they used to doubt.

We bring you the truth, and indeed, we speak truly.

Take your family in a watch of the night; and follow in their rear, and none of you should turn round, and proceed as you are bidden.’

We apprised him of the matter that these will be rooted out by dawn.

The people of the city came, rejoicing.

He said, ‘These are indeed my guests. Do not bring dishonour on me.

Be wary of Allah and do not humiliate me.’

They said, ‘Did we not forbid you from [defending ] strangers?’

He said, ‘These are my daughters, [marry them] if you should do anything.’

By your life, they were bewildered in their drunkenness.

So the Cry seized them at sunrise,

and We made its topmost part its nethermost, and rained on them stones of shale.

There are indeed signs in that for the percipient.

Indeed it is on a standing road,

and there is indeed a sign in that for the faithful.

Indeed the inhabitants of Aykah were [also] wrongdoers.

So We took vengeance on them, and indeed the two of them are on an open highway.

Certainly the inhabitants of Hijr denied the apostles.

We had given them Our signs but they disregarded them.

They used to hew out dwellings from mountains feeling secure.

So the Cry seized them at dawn,

and what they used to earn did not avail them.

We did not create the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them except with consummate wisdom, and indeed the Hour is bound to come. So forbear with a graceful forbearance.

Indeed your Lord is the All-creator, the All-knowing.

Certainly We have given you [the surah of] the seven oft-repeated verses and the great Quran.

Do not extend your glance toward what We have provided to certain groups of them, and do not grieve for them, and lower your wing to the faithful,

and say, ‘I am indeed a manifest warner [of punishment from God],’

like that We sent down upon those who split into bands,

who represented the Quran as magic.

By your Lord, We will question them all

concerning what they used to do.

So proclaim what you have been commanded, and turn away from the polytheists.

Indeed We will suffice you against the deriders

—those who set up another deity besides Allah. Soon they will know!

Certainly We know that you become upset because of what they say.

So celebrate the praise of your Lord and be among those who prostrate,