Surah Al-Ahqaf: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

Ha. Mim. This divine Book is being sent down to you by your Lord, who is supreme in knowledge and power, made clear in various ways in words formed from the sounds of the language in which you speak, write to one another, and understand one another.

We created the heavens, the earth, and what lies between them for the human being, and the human being to live by the system of life that accords with his innate nature, for an appointed time. But those who have conditioned themselves to deny this truth do not believe.

Say to them: “Just look at those you take as gods instead of Allah, follow, and worship: what have they created on the earth? Or do they have any partnership with Allah in the creation and governance of the heavens and the earth? Have they given Allah any help in this? O you who associate partners with Allah! On what knowledge or proof do you accept others besides Allah as having rights over you? You do not have even a scrap of knowledge about it.”

Who could be more bewildered and further astray than one who looks for help from the dead, who will not be able to answer him until the Day of Resurrection? When these people are gathered together with the Resurrection to be called to account, those from whom they hoped for help and whom they worshipped will turn against them as enemies and disown their obedience and worship.

When Our verses were recited to those who associate partners with Allah, they would all say at once, “This Quran is a Book made up of magical, spellbinding words; Muhammad makes them up himself and speaks them.” Say to them: “If I made up these words and spoke them in Allah’s name, not one of you could save me from Allah’s punishment for it; and Allah suffices as witness against your slanders; He knows best the reason for these imputations of yours.

Allah is merciful and forgiving toward those who see the truth, understand it, repent, and turn to what is right.”

O Prophet! Say to them: “I am a prophet, and not the first one either. I do not know what will happen to me or to you in the future. I am only a plain warner who follows what is revealed to me and gives counsel with it.”

Say: “Just consider: if this Book is being sent by Allah and you reject it, and moreover, while one from among you stands up and testifies that a prophet who made this very same call came to the Children of Israel in the past, you nevertheless turn away from this call in arrogance, who could be more ungrateful, ignorant, and unjust than you? Allah does not bring to His right path those who stubbornly persist like this in their shirk and disbelief.”

Those who persist in denying the system of life that is the reason for their creation say of the believers who believe in it and strive to live it: “Had we believed that this call was truer than our existing system and morality, and to our benefit, we would have been the first to run to it, embrace it, and stand up for it, and we would have let no one get there before us.” But since they had no intention of following it, all they did was say, “This Quran is nothing but an ancient tale that people of old made up and told.”

Yet with the Book given to Moses, too, people were invited to live what is conveyed through the Quran. This Quran is a Book in Arabic, sent down to confirm what was sent with Moses, to warn those who live in shirk and disbelief, and to give good news to those mindful of Allah (the muttaqin).

For those who say, ‘Our Lord is Allah,’ and fulfill their responsibilities toward Him, there is no fear. They will not grieve; they will receive the recompense for their deeds in abundance. These are the people of Paradise, and they will remain there forever.

We have commanded the human being to treat his mother and father well. His mother carried him in her womb through many hardships and brought him into the world with much travail. His carrying in the womb, together with his weaning, comes to thirty months. Then, at last, some of them, only when they reach forty and attain full maturity, pray: “My Lord! Grant that I may give thanks to You for the blessings You have bestowed on me and on my mother and father, and live a life that will please You; and bestow on the generations that will come from my line the desire and drive to live in keeping with Your good pleasure. My Lord! I repent of the sins I have committed until now, turn to You with all my heart, and submit to You.” And We will forgive those who repent of their sins and do their utmost to live what is right and keep it alive, and, as We have promised, include them among the people of Paradise.

Yet there are also children who, when their mother and father call them to follow Allah’s call, answer them thus: “Shame on you both! When so many people have come and gone from this world before me and not one of them has been raised, you tell me that after I die I will be raised and called to account, and so you think you are warning me, do you?”

Even so, the mother and father go on praying to Allah that their child may see the truth, while also telling their child, “Allah’s promise is true, and it will surely be fulfilled; do not be ungrateful and turn away from His call.” But this time the good-for-nothing child turns on his mother and father and simply says, “What you are saying is nothing but the tales of the ancients.”

Such people have deserved to suffer ruin, included among the communities of humans and jinn who came and went before them and against whom the sentence of punishment became final.

Every person has a recompense he deserves according to the way of life he chose and lived. Allah will give everyone what they deserve in full, and no one will be wronged.

When the ungrateful who rejected Allah’s call and ran wild are brought before the fire of Hell, they will be told: “In your worldly life you irresponsibly used up the lovely blessings Allah bestowed on you and lived in pleasure with them, without ever taking the Hereafter into account. So today, in return for your arrogance and boastfulness, your shirk and disbelief, you will be punished with a humiliating and most severe punishment.”

O Prophet! Tell them about Hud, whom We charged as a prophet from among the people of Ad themselves. He warned his people, who lived among the sand dunes, and said to them: “Never take other lords and gods alongside Allah and serve anyone other than Him. If you do so, I fear that you will be struck with a dreadful punishment.”

But his people, besides mocking Hud and what he said, said to him: “O Hud! You want to abolish our system and morality, and so make us abandon the way of our forefathers. If what you say is true, bring down on us at once the punishment you threaten us with, so that we may see.”

Then Hud said to them: “Only Allah knows when the punishment will come upon you. I only make known to you what is revealed to me; but sadly you are a people who do not understand counsel and warnings.”

At last, when that people saw a dense bank of cloud coming toward them, they rejoiced, saying, “Here is a cloud that will bring us rain and plenty.” But Hud turned to them and said, “No! It is the very punishment you said should come at once so that you might see. It is a gale that will turn into punishment, and by its Lord’s command it will tear down and destroy everything in its path.” And so it was. Nothing was left of them but empty houses. Thus do We punish a people sunk in shirk.

O you who associate partners with Allah! The truth is that We had given them more wealth and property than We have given you, and bestowed on them too eyes, ears, the ability to reflect and understand, and hearts that feel; but because they did not use them rightly, neither their eyes, nor their ears, nor their minds were of any use to them. For they rejected Allah’s verses stubbornly and ungratefully, with their eyes wide open and their ears hearing. In the end the punishment they did not believe in and mocked came upon them.

In the past We destroyed many peoples like these around you for the same reasons. Yet they too had been invited to the right path with examples and with repetition in various forms. When they met the punishment they deserved, those they took as gods alongside Allah were of no use to them at all; on the contrary, they left them in the lurch. Yet they had believed that those they took as gods would bring them nearer to Allah and help them. These were in fact beliefs made up of nothing but lies, invented by their imagination.

O Prophet! We had directed toward you a group of jinn (whom you did not know or recognize) to listen to the Quran. When they came and listened to the Quran, they said to one another, “Be silent, so that we may listen carefully to what is being recited,” and when the recitation of the Quran was over, they went back to their people to warn them with what they had heard.

When they reached their people, they said to them: “O our people! We have heard a divine Word that confirms all that remains of the truth in the Book sent down to Moses and in all the divine Books, and that guides by inviting people to live by the system of life that is the reason for their creation. O our people! Follow those verses and the Prophet who recites them, so that Allah may forgive your sins and protect you from a painful punishment.”

Whoever disregards Allah’s call and does not follow it, let him know well that no one can save him from Allah’s punishment. Nor will there be any helper to protect him from Hell on the Day of Reckoning. Such people are stuck fast in falsehood and have wronged themselves.

Do those who deny the truth never consider that Allah, who created and governs the heavens, the earth, and what lies between them, and for whom doing this was not in the least difficult, can just as easily raise the dead? Allah’s knowledge and power are surely sufficient to bring into being from nothing, to cause to die, and to bring back to life what He has caused to die.

On the day they are cast into the fire of Hell, these people who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth will be told: “Do you now understand that the resurrection and the Day of Reckoning, which you mocked, disregarded, and rejected in your worldly life, are real?” And they will say: “Yes, by our Lord, it is real after all.” At this they will be told: “Suffer your penalty in return for your denial, mockery, and rebellion.”

O Prophet, and you believers who believe in Allah’s call along with him! You too, like the prophets and believers sent to the peoples before you, hold firm and stand up to the difficulties and hardships you meet as you strive with resolve, patience, and perseverance to live on the right path. And do not be in haste for the punishment to come upon those who associate partners with Allah. On the Day of Reckoning, when they meet the penalty promised them, they will think they lived in the world only a few days, and will understand that worldly life is short and fleeting. Now they do not wish to understand that this is true.

This is Allah’s clear proclamation and warning to people. Know well that none are destroyed but a people sunk in shirk and disbelief.