Surah Explained in detail [Fussilat] in English

Ha, Meem.

A [gradually] sent down [revelation] from the All-beneficent, the All-merciful,

[this is] a Book whose signs have been elaborated for a people who have knowledge, an Arabic Quran,

a bearer of good news and a warner. But most of them turn away [from it], [and] so they do not listen.

They say, ‘Our hearts are in veils [which shut them off] from what you invite us to, and there is a deafness in our ears, and there is a curtain between us and you. So act [as your faith requires]; we too are acting [according to our own].’

Say, ‘I am just a human like you. It has been revealed to me that your God is the One God. So worship Him single-mindedly and plead to Him for forgiveness.’ And woe to the polytheists

—those who do not pay the zakat and disbelieve in the Hereafter.

As for those who have faith and do righteous deeds, there will be an everlasting reward for them.

Say, ‘Do you really disbelieve in Him who created the earth in two days, and ascribe partners to Him? That is the Lord of all the worlds!’

He set in it firm mountains, [rising] above it, blessed it, and ordained in it, in four days, [various] means of sustenance, equally for all seekers.

Then He turned to the heaven, and it was smoke, and He said to it and to the earth, ‘Come, willingly or unwillingly!’ They said, ‘We come obediently.’

Then He set them up as seven heavens in two days, and revealed [to the angels] in each heaven its ordinance. We have adorned the lowest heaven with lamps, and guarded them. That is the ordaining of the All-mighty, the All-knowing.

But if they turn away, say, ‘I warn you of a thunderbolt, like the thunderbolt of ‘Ad and Thamud.’

When the apostles came to them, before them and in their own time, saying, ‘Worship no one except Allah!’ They said, ‘Had our Lord wished, He would have sent down angels [to us]. We indeed disbelieve in what you have been sent with.’

As for [the people of] ‘Ad, they acted arrogantly in the earth unduly, and they said, ‘Who is more powerful than us?’ Did they not see that Allah, who created them, is more powerful than them? They used to impugn Our signs;

so We unleashed upon them an icy gale during ill-fated days, in order that We might make them taste a humiliating punishment in the life of the world. Yet the punishment of the Hereafter will be surely more disgraceful, and they will not be helped.

As for [the people of] Thamud, We guided them, but they preferred blindness to guidance. So the bolt of a humiliating punishment seized them because of what they used to earn.

And We delivered those who had faith and were Godwary.

The day the enemies of Allah are marched out toward the Fire, while they are in check,

when they come to it, their hearing, their eyes and their skins will bear witness against them concerning what they used to do.

They will say to their skins, ‘Why did you bear witness against us?’ They will say, ‘We were given speech by Allah, who gave speech to all things. He created you the first time, and you are being brought back to Him.

You did not use to conceal yourselves [while perpetrating sinful acts] lest your hearing, your eyes, or your skins should bear witness against you, but you thought that Allah did not know most of what you did.

That misjudgement, which you entertained about your Lord ruined you. So you became losers.’

Should they be patient, the Fire is their abode; and should they seek to propitiate [Allah], they will not be redeemed.

We have assigned them companions who make their present [conduct] and future [state] seem decorous to them, and the word became due against them along with the nations of jinn and humans that passed away before them. They were indeed losers.

The faithless say, ‘Do not listen to this Quran and hoot it down so that you may prevail [over the Apostle].’

We will surely make the faithless taste a severe punishment, and We will surely requite them by the worst of what they used to do.

That is the requital of the enemies of Allah—the Fire! In it, they will have an everlasting abode, as a requital for their impugning Our signs.

The faithless will say, ‘Our Lord! Show us those who led us astray from among jinn and humans so that we may trample them under our feet, so that they may be among the lowermost!’

Indeed those who say, ‘Our Lord is Allah!’ and then remain steadfast, the angels descend upon them, [saying,] ‘Do not fear, nor be grieved! Receive the good news of the paradise, which you have been promised.

We are your friends in the life of this world and in the Hereafter, and you will have in it whatever your souls desire, and you will have in it whatever you ask for,

as a hospitality from One all-forgiving, all-merciful.’

Who has a better call than him who summons to Allah and acts righteously and says, ‘Indeed I am one of the Muslims’?

Good and evil [conduct] are not equal. Repel [evil] with what is best. [If you do so,] he between whom and you was enmity, will then be as though he were a sympathetic friend.

But none is granted it except those who are patient, and none is granted it except the greatly endowed.

Should an incitement from Satan prompt you [to ill feeling], seek the protection of Allah. Indeed, He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing.

Among His signs are night and day, and the sun and the moon. Do not prostrate to the sun, nor to the moon, but prostrate to Allah who created them, if it is Him that you worship.

But if they disdain [the worship of Allah], those who are near your Lord glorify Him night and day, and they are not wearied.

Among His signs, is that you see the earth desolate; but when We send down water upon it, it stirs and swells. Indeed, He who revives it will also revive the dead. Indeed, He has power over all things.

Those who abuse Our signs are not hidden from Us. Is someone who is cast in the Fire better off, or someone who arrives safely on the Day of Resurrection? Act as you wish; indeed He watches what you do.

Those who reject the Reminder when it comes to them... Indeed, it is an august Book:

falsehood cannot approach it, at present or in future, a [revelation gradually] sent down from One all-wise, all-laudable.

Nothing is said to you except what has already been said to the apostles before you. Indeed your Lord is One who forgives and also metes out a painful retribution.

Had We made it a non-Arabic Quran, they would have said, ‘Why have not its signs been articulated?’ ‘What! A non-Arabian [scripture] and an Arabian [prophet]!?’ Say, ‘It is guidance and healing for those who have faith. As for those who are faithless, there is a deafness in their ears and it is lost to their sight: [to them it is as if] they were called from a distant place.’

Certainly We gave Moses the Book, but differences arose about it; and were it not for a prior decree of your Lord, judgement would have been made between them, for they are in grave doubt concerning it.

Whoever acts righteously, it is for [the benefit of] his own soul, and whoever does evil, it is to its detriment, and your Lord is not tyrannical to His servants.

On Him devolves the knowledge of the Hour, and no fruit emerges from its covering and no female conceives or delivers except with His knowledge. On the day when He will call out to them, ‘Where are My ‘partners’?’ They will say, ‘We informed You that there is no witness amongst us.’

What they used to invoke before has forsaken them, and they know there is no escape for them.

Man is never wearied of supplicating for good, and should any ill befall him, he becomes hopeless and despondent.

If, after distress has befallen him, We let him have a taste of Our mercy, he says, ‘This is my due! I do not think the Hour will ever come, and in case I am returned to my Lord, I will indeed have the best [reward] with Him.’ So We will surely inform the faithless about what they have done, and will surely make them taste a harsh punishment.

When We bless man, he is disregardful and turns aside; but when an ill befalls him, he makes protracted supplications.

Say, ‘Tell me, if it is from Allah and you disbelieve in it, who will be more astray than those who are in extreme defiance.’

Soon We shall show them Our signs in the horizons and in their own souls until it becomes clear to them that He is the Real. Is it not sufficient that your Lord is witness to all things?