Surah Al-A'la English Translation & Brief Tafsir

¹Remember with praise the name of your Lord, who is unrivaled in His exaltedness. With your heart as well as with your words and your deeds, never let His exaltedness slip from your mind. Always keep your Lord’s commands alive in your heart, and exalt Him with the most heartfelt prayers and supplications.

²It is that Lord of yours who created everything from nothing and gave it a perfect form. He set what He created in order with laws suited to the purpose of its existence. He equipped all living things and all other beings with qualities suited to the purpose of their creation, and directed them onto the path that will fulfill those purposes.

³Within the framework of the laws He has set in the universe, Allah has arranged everything with perfect measure and balance. By equipping every being with particular qualities and functions, He has shown human beings the path that leads to the purpose of their existence. That is why you should know that your Lord has created nothing in vain.

⁴Through the laws He has placed in the beings He created, your Lord has brought forth lush green trees, many-colored flowers, and plants from parched soil.

⁵Then, to show how fleeting the life of this world is, He dried the plants up in accordance with their own law and turned them into dry debris. In the same way, these dazzling blessings of the world will one day pass away and be gone. Just as Allah brings forth green plants from the earth, dries them up when their time comes and turns them into dry debris, and then brings them back to life, so too will He raise you again and call you to account for the attitude you took toward His call in your life in this world. So, O traveler on the path of truth! Do not get caught up in the passing blessings of the world. You must hold fast to this divine Book, which will bring you to eternal salvation in the abode of the Hereafter.

⁶O Prophet! Through the Quran We will place in your heart, and teach you, the purpose of human creation and the knowledge of how to live in keeping with that purpose. Do not ever worry that you will forget the revelation that comes down to you. We Ourselves will place in your memory what you recite and what you learn. Unless We will to make you forget, from now on you will never forget.

⁷The only exceptions are the things Allah wills you to forget. Know that there is no one but Allah who can make you forget. He causes whomever He wills to forget, and reminds whomever He wills. Surely Allah knows in the most perfect way both what you conceal within yourselves and what you disclose. Whether it is hidden or open, no one can hide anything from his Lord.

⁸O My Messenger! We know the difficulties you face in memorizing the revelation and putting its message into practice. Do not dwell on these difficulties. We will help you live and convey the Quran, which sets forth the message of tawhid. As you carry out these divine commands, We will direct you, under the guidance of revelation, to what is easiest, and We will help you walk on the straight path.

⁹So give counsel to people. Explain to them that the way to truth, justice, peace, and happiness is to live an Allah-centered life. Surely those who do not want to be left in a wretched state on the Day of Reckoning will heed this counsel and will certainly benefit from it. Whether people benefit from the counsel or not, keep on conveying the message through the Quran. As for the arrogant and stubborn people who do not listen to you even though you have set out the truth with all its proofs, do not get into fruitless arguments with them. Instead, keep on conveying the message without growing weary, until you reach the pure hearts that will give ear to this call!

¹⁰Know that those who revere Allah and fear His punishment, and who reflect on His verses, will take heed. Warn them, so that they may take heed from the verses you recite. Whether they reflect and take heed, or show ingratitude and turn away, is up to them.

¹¹People of sound judgment, who seek the truth and wish to live by it and to be grateful for the blessings Allah has given, take heed. But the rebellious who choose misery, and those who deny the truth and grow arrogant, turn away from the counsel.

¹²Those wretched ones who turn away, and those who follow in their footsteps, will enter a dreadful and terrifying fire.

¹³They will be condemned to so relentless a punishment that they will long to die and so escape this heavy torment, but they will not get their wish. Such people will neither be able to die and escape the fire of Hell, nor be able to live at ease. Every day of theirs will be worse than death.

¹⁴Without any doubt, those who heed the counsel and purify themselves of shirk, and who take Allah alone as their God and live their lives according to His laws, will attain salvation.

¹⁵Furthermore, those who remember the name of their Lord and submit to Him, and who perform the prayer with full awareness, will be saved.

¹⁶O you heedless ones! A prescription for spiritual salvation has been set before you. But you prefer the short life of this world to Paradise, the abode of eternal happiness.

¹⁷Yet the blessings of this world are fleeting. If you believe in tawhid, the blessings of the Hereafter that Allah will give you are far better and more lasting. So, O people! Give ear to this final divine call, which sets forth anew, and in all its clarity, the perfect system of belief that all the prophets brought to humanity:

¹⁸Surely this is not the first time the call now being made to you has been made. The same universal messages are found in the revelations sent down to the earlier prophets as well. Ever since life in this world began, your Lord has always made the truth of tawhid clear to people.

¹⁹The truths being explained to you today were also contained in the scriptures revealed to Abraham and Moses, the symbols of the struggle for tawhid. Why are you surprised? Your Lord has counseled all people to be truthful and to keep away from lies. That being so, what you must do is give ear to the Quran and take heed.