An-Naazi'aat

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CONSIDER those [stars] that rise only to set,

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and move [in their orbits] with steady motion,

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and float [through space] with floating serene,

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and yet overtake [one another] with swift overtaking:

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and thus they fulfil the [Creator's] behest!

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[HENCE, think of] the Day when a violent convulsion will convulse [the world],

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to be followed by further [convulsions]!

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On that Day will [men's] hearts be throbbing,

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[and] their eyes downcast...

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[And yet,] some say, "What! Are we indeed to be restored to our former state –

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even though we may have become [a heap of] crumbling bones?"

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[And] they add, "That, then, would be a return with loss!"

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[But,] then, that [Last Hour] will be [upon them of a sudden, as if it were] but a single accusing cry -

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and then, lo, they will be fully awakened [to the truth]!

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HAS THE STORY of Moses ever come within thy ken.

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Lo! His Sustainer called out to him in the twice-hallowed valley:

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"Go unto Pharaoh - for, verily, he has transgressed all bounds of what is right -

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and say [unto him], 'Art thou desirous of attaining to purity?

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[If so,] then I shall guide thee towards [a cognition of] thy Sustainer, so that [henceforth] thou wilt stand in awe [of Him].’"

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And thereupon he [went to Pharaoh and] made him aware of the great wonder [of God's grace].

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But [Pharaoh] gave him the lie and rebelliously rejected [all guidance],

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and brusquely turned his back [on Moses];

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and then he gathered [his great ones], and called [unto his people],

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and said, "I am your Lord All-Highest!"

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And thereupon God took him to task, [and made him] a warning example in the life to come as well as in this world.

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In this, behold, there is a lesson indeed for all who stand in awe [of God].

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[O MEN!] Are you more difficult to create than the heaven which He has built?

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High has He reared its vault and formed it in accordance with what it was meant to be;

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and He has made dark its night and brought forth its light of day.

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And after that, the earth: wide has He spread its expanse,

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and has caused its waters to come out of it, and its pastures,

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and has made the mountains firm:

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[all this] as a means of livelihood for you and your animals.

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AND SO, when the great overwhelming event [of, resurrection] comes to pass –

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on that Day man will [clearly] remember all that he has ever wrought;

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and the blazing fire [of hell] will be lad open before all who [are destined to] see it.

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For, unto him who shall have transgressed the bounds of what is right,

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and preferred the life of this world [to the good of his soul],

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that blazing fire will truly be the goal!

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But unto him who shall have stood in fear of his Sustainer's Presence, and held back his inner self from base desires,

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paradise will truly be the goal!

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THEY WILL ASK thee [O Prophet] about the Last Hour: "When will it come to pass?"

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[But] how couldst thou tell anything about it,

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[seeing that] with thy Sustainer alone rests the beginning and the end [of all knowledge] thereof?

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Thou art but [sent] to warn those who stand in awe of it.

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On the Day when they behold it, [it will seem to them] as if they had tarried [in this world] no longer than one evening or [one night, ending with] its morn!