Surah The wind-curved sandhills [Al-Ahqaf] in English

Ha, Meem.

The [gradual] sending down of the Book is from Allah, the All-mighty, the All-wise.

We did not create the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them except with consummate wisdom and for a specified term. Yet the faithless are disregardful of what they are warned.

Say, ‘Tell me about those you invoke besides Allah. Show me what [part] of the earth have they created. Do they have any share in the heavens? Bring me a scripture [revealed] before this, or some vestige of [divine] knowledge, if you are truthful.’

Who is more astray than him who invokes besides Allah such [entities] as would not respond to him until the Day of Resurrection, and who are oblivious of their invocation?

When mankind are mustered [on Judgement’s Day] they will be their enemies, and they will disavow their worship.

When Our manifest signs are recited to them, the faithless say of the truth when it comes to them: ‘This is plain magic.’

Or they say, ‘He has fabricated it.’ Say, ‘Should I have fabricated it, you would not avail me anything against Allah. He best knows what you gossip concerning it. He suffices as a witness between me and you, and He is the All-forgiving, the All-merciful.’

Say, ‘I am not a novelty among the apostles, nor do I know what will be done with me, or with you. I just follow whatever is revealed to me, and I am just a manifest warner.’

Say, ‘Tell me, if it is from Allah and you disbelieve in it, and a witness from the Children of Israel has testified to its like and believed [in it], while you are disdainful [of it]?’ Indeed Allah does not guide the wrongdoing lot.

The faithless say about the faithful, ‘Had it been [anything] good, they would not have taken the lead over us toward [accepting] it.’ And since they could not find the way to it, they will say, ‘It is an ancient lie.’

Yet before it the Book of Moses was a guide and mercy, and this is a Book in the Arabic language, which confirms it, [sent] to warn the wrongdoers, and is a [bearer of] good news for the virtuous.

Those who say, ‘Our Lord is Allah,’ and then remain steadfast, they will have no fear, nor will they grieve.

They shall be the inhabitants of paradise, remaining in it [forever]—a reward for what they used to do.

We have enjoined man to be kind to his parents. His mother has carried him in travail, and bore him in travail, and his gestation and weaning take thirty months. When he comes of age and reaches forty years, he says, ‘My Lord! Inspire me to give thanks for Your blessing with which You have blessed me and my parents, and that I may do righteous deeds which please You, and invest my descendants with righteousness. Indeed I have turned to you in penitence, and I am one of the Muslims.’

Such are the ones from whom We accept the best of what they do, and overlook their misdeeds, [who will be] among the inhabitants of paradise—a true promise which they had been given.

As for him who says to his parents, ‘Fie on you! Do you promise me that I shall be raised [from the dead] when generations have passed away before me?’ And they invoke Allah’s help [and say]: ‘Woe to you! Believe! Indeed Allah’s promise is true.’ But he says, ‘These are nothing but myths of the ancients.’

Such are the ones against whom the word has become due, along with the nations of jinn and humans that have passed away before them. They were the losers.

For everyone there are degrees [of merit] pertaining to what he has done: He will recompense them fully for their works, and they will not be wronged.

The day when the faithless are exposed to the Fire, [they will be told,] ‘You have exhausted your good things in the life of the world and enjoyed them. So today you will be requited with a humiliating punishment for your acting arrogantly in the earth unduly, and because you used to transgress.’

And mention [Hud] the brother of ‘Ad, when he warned his people at Ahqaf—and warners have passed away before and after him—saying, ‘Do not worship anyone but Allah. Indeed I fear for you the punishment of a tremendous day.’

They said, ‘Have you come to turn us away from our gods? Then bring us what you threaten us with, if you are truthful.

He said, ‘The knowledge [of when that threat will be carried out] is with Allah alone. I communicate to you what I have been sent with. But I see that you are a senseless lot.’

When they saw it as a cloud advancing toward their valleys, they said, ‘This cloud brings us rain.’ ‘No, it is what you sought to hasten: a hurricane carrying a painful punishment,

destroying everything by its Lord’s command.’ So they became such that nothing could be seen except their dwellings. Thus do We requite the guilty lot.

Certainly We had granted them power in respects that We have not granted you, and We had vested them with hearing and sight and hearts. But neither their hearing availed them in any way nor did their sight, nor their hearts when they used to impugn the signs of Allah. So they were besieged by what they used to deride.

Certainly We have destroyed the towns that were around you, and We have variously paraphrased the signs so that they may come back.

So why did not those [fake deities] help them whom they had taken as gods besides Allah, as a means of nearness [to Him]? Indeed, they forsook them; that was their lie and what they used to fabricate.

When We dispatched toward you a team of jinn listening to the Quran, when they were in its presence, they said, ‘Be silent!’ When it was finished, they went back to their people as warners.

They said, ‘O our people! Indeed, we have heard a Book, which has been sent down after Moses, confirming what was before it. It guides to the truth and to a straight path.

O our people! Respond to Allah’s summoner and have faith in Him. He will forgive you some of your sins and shelter you from a painful punishment.’

Those who do not respond to Allah’s summoner cannot frustrate [Allah] on the earth, and they will not find any protectors besides Him. They are in manifest error.

Do they not see that Allah, who created the heavens and the earth and [who] was not exhausted by their creation, is able to revive the dead? Yes, indeed He has power over all things.

The day when the faithless are exposed to the Fire, [He will say,] ‘Is this not a fact?’ They will say, ‘Yes, by our Lord!’ He will say, ‘So taste the punishment because of what you used to disbelieve.’