Surah Al-'Alaq: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

O Muhammad! Recite to people, likewise in His name, the verses being revealed to you in the name of your Lord, who created.

Allah created the human being by shaping him from a drop-sized clot, and equipped him with the blessings that would sustain his life. Then He taught him to use the pen, and through what is written with it, He taught people the reasons for which they were created, which they need to know, and how they should live in accordance with them. Your Lord is the possessor of infinite generosity.

The truth is that if the human being considers himself self-sufficient, thinks he has no need of Allah’s guidance, and lives believing this, he grows ungrateful, transgresses, becomes insolent, and in the end suffers loss.

O people! Allah, your Lord, will resurrect all of you after your death and call you to account for the way you used the blessings He granted you.

When a person invites people to servanthood in keeping with the purpose of their creation, can the stance of someone who tries to obstruct him be considered justified? Yet that person was calling people to the absolute truth, to liberation from servitude to fellow human beings.

What is to be said of such a man, who not only rejects the call the Prophet makes in Allah’s name but even tries to obstruct him? Does this ungrateful man, who sets out to cover up the truth and deny it, not consider that Allah knows and sees everything? If he does not give up this stance of shirk (associating partners with Allah) and disbelief, We will seize him by the forelock and drag him to the Hell he deserves. Then let him call the armies of his own system, and let us see: will they be able to save him from the hands of the guardians of Hell? That Day he will understand the truth, but it will already be far too late.

O Prophet! Never yield to their threats and attacks! Taking Allah alone as your Lord and your God, draw near to Him by prostrating, and obey and worship Him.