Sura LVI (56)
The Inevitable
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
When
the day that must come shall have come suddenly,
None
shall treat that sudden coming as a lie:
Day
that shall abase! Day that shall exalt!
When
the earth shall be shaken with a shock,
And
the mountains shall be crumbled with a crumbling,
And
shall become scattered dust,
And
into three bands shall you be divided:
Then
the people of the right hand -- Oh! how happy shall be the people of the right
hand!
And
the people of the left hand -- Oh! how wretched shall be the people of the left
hand!
56:10 And they who were foremost on earth --
the foremost still.
These
are they who shall be brought nigh to God,
In
gardens of delight;
A
crown of the former
And
few of the latter generations;
On
inwrought couches
Reclining
on them face to face:
Aye-blooming
youths go round about to them
With
goblets and ewers and a cup of flowing wine;
Their
brows ache not from it, nor fails the sense:
56:20 And with such fruits as shall please
them best,
And
with flesh of such birds, as they shall long for:
And
theirs shall be the Houris, with large dark eyes, like pearls hidden in their
shells,
In
recompense of their labours past.
No
vain discourse shall they hear therein, nor charge of sin,
But
only the cry, "Peace! Peace!"
And
the people of the right hand -- oh! how happy shall be the people of the right
hand!
Amid
thornless sidrahs
And
talh trees clad with fruit,
And in
extended shade,
56:30 And by flowing waters,
And
with abundant fruits,
Unfailing,
unforbidden,
And on
lofty couches.
Of a
rare creation have we created the Houris,
And we
have made them ever virgins,
Dear
to their spouses, of equal age with them,
For
the people of the right hand,
A
crowd of the former,
And a
crowd of the latter generations.
56:40 But the people of the left hand -- oh!
how wretched shall be the people of the left hand!
Amid
pestilential winds and in scalding water,
And in
the shadow of a black smoke,
Not
cool, and horrid to behold.
For
they truly, ere this, were blessed with worldly goods,
But
persisted in heinous sin,
And
were wont to say,
"What!
after we have died, and become dust and bones, shall we be raised?
And
our fathers, the men of yore?"
Say: Aye, the former and the latter:
56:50 Gathered shall they all be for the
time of a known day.
Then
you, O you the erring, the gainsaying,
Shall
surely eat of the tree Ez-zakkoum,
And
fill your bellies with it,
And
thereupon shall you drink boiling water,
And
you shall drink as the thirst camel drinketh.
This
shall be their repast in the day of reckoning!
We
created you, will you not credit us?
What
think you? The germs of life --
Is it
you who create them? or are we their creator?
56:60 It is we who have decreed that death
should be among you;
Yet
are we not thereby hindered from replacing you with others, your likes, or from
producing you again in a form which you know not!
You
have known the first creation: will you not
then reflect?
What
think you? That which you sow --
Is it
you who cause its upgrowth, or do we cause it to spring forth?
If we
pleased we could so make your harvest dry and brittle that you would ever
marvel and say,
"Truly
we have been at cost, you are we forbidden harvest."
What
think you of the water you drink?
Is it
you who send it down from the clouds, or send we it down?
Brackish
could we make it, if we pleased: will you not
then be thankful?
56:70 What think you? The fire which you
obtain by friction --
Is it
you who rear its tree, or do we rear it?
It is
we who have made it for a memorial and a benefit to the wayfarers of the
desert,
Praise
therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.
It
needs not that I swear by the setting of the stars,
And it
is a great oath, if you knew it,
That
this is the honourable Koran,
Written
in the preserved Book:
Let
none touch it but the purified,
It is
a revelation from the Lord of the worlds.
56:80 Such tidings as these will you
disdain?
Will
you make it your daily bread to gainsay them?
Why,
at the momwent when the soul of a dying man shall come up into his throat,
And
when you are gazing at him,
Though
we are nearer to him that you, although you see us not:
--
Why do
you not, if you are to escape the judgment,
Cause
that soul to return? Tell me, if you speak the truth.
But as
to him who shall enjoy near access to God,
His
shall be repose, and pleasure, and a garden of delights.
Yea,
for him who shall be of the people of the right hand,
56:90 Shall be the greeting from the people
of the right hand -- "Peace be to thee."
But
for him who shall be of those who treat the prophets as deceivers,
And of
the erring,
His
entertainment shall be of scalding water,
And
the broiling of hell-fire.
Verily
this is a certain truth:
Praise
therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.