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

Though the Day of Reckoning draws a little nearer every day, most people pay it no heed. Whenever such people are warned with verses from their Lord and invited to live by the system of life that is the reason for their creation, they mock and turn away. Their minds are forever taken up with fleeting pleasures, amusements, and empty, meaningless pursuits. What is more, these ingrates whisper among themselves: “This man who claims to be a prophet is a mortal human being like us; are we now, with our eyes wide open, to fall under the spell of what this man, who is no different from us, says, and abandon the way of life we have had for so many years?”

O Prophet! Say to them: “My Lord hears what you say, in heaven and on earth, in secret and openly, and knows for what purpose you say it.”

The defenders of the system of shirk and disbelief, not content with saying this, also say: “What Muhammad says in the name of the Quran is nothing but words from his muddled dreams, or his own inventions, the products of his imagination. And he tells us these inventions of his, attributing them to Allah. With such impressive words he has ambitions to be a poet. If he really is a Prophet, should he not show us miracles, like the prophets sent to earlier communities?”

Yet the communities of the past were destroyed because they did not believe in Allah’s call even though they were shown miracles. Are these the ones who will believe now?!

O Prophet! To the communities before this too We sent as prophets mortal people just like you. Say to them: “If you do not know that this is so and wish to learn, ask those of the People of the Book who know the truth.” Those prophets were not angels either; all of them were mortal human beings.

And We kept Our promise to those prophets and the believers with them, and saved them from destruction; and those who acted without restraint and persisted in associating partners with Allah and denying the truth We destroyed with Our punishment.

O people! The truth is that We have sent you a divine Book that will bring you honor and strength if you follow the call within it. Will you still not use your reason, reflect, and follow what you are invited to?

Many communities who, though We created them and endowed them with so many blessings, turned their backs on the system of life to which We invited them and were ungrateful, We wiped out with the punishment they deserved, and brought other peoples in their place.

When those communities that deserved destruction met Our punishment, they tried to flee and escape, and then they were called out to: “Come on, then; if you can, go back to that spoiled, arrogant, wanton life of yours, and we shall see; but that is now impossible, and in the Hereafter, too, you will meet a most severe punishment.”

Those who met the punishment they deserved in the world cried out, “Alas! Woe to us! By denying the truth we have wronged both ourselves and others.” But their remorse did not keep them from being turned into what looked like a field of crops reaped, burned, and reduced to ashes.

O people! Know well that We did not create the heavens, the earth, and what is between them in vain, as play and amusement. Had We had such a purpose, We would not have created either you or what We created for you for it; We would have found it within Our own presence. (We created you in order to test you by the way you live and to give you the recompense you deserve.)

We bring down the truth (the system of life) that We send with prophets and Books like a sledgehammer upon the head of falsehood, and smash it to pieces. O you who associate partners with Allah! Woe to you for what you ascribe to Allah’s Prophet and His Book!

Allah is the Creator and Owner of all that is in the heavens and on the earth; apart from the human being who associates partners with Allah and denies the truth, all that He has created submits to Allah and serves Him; they never grow arrogant, are never ungrateful, and never tire of obeying. Night and day, never straying from the reason for their creation and never ceasing, they strive to carry out their tasks.

Though this is the truth, those who associate partners with Allah still ascribe sanctity to the statues their forefathers made of stone and clay, of beings no longer alive, and go on accepting them as gods, as if it were they who would raise the dead and call them to account.

Had there been gods other than Allah in the heavens and on the earth, the order of the heavens and the earth would have been disrupted and would have collapsed in chaos. Allah alone is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. Authority to lay down rulings over His creatures and to rule them belongs to Him alone; He is the one true God. Allah is far above and exalted beyond what those who associate partners with Him ascribe to Him.

Allah cannot be questioned about what He does and will do, but all besides Him will be questioned by Allah.

Most people stubbornly persist in taking other gods alongside Allah. Say to them: “Bring a single proof to establish this claim of yours, and we shall see. Those who believe in the Quran, which also encompasses what has been sent down to me and the Books sent down to the prophets before me, invite people to live by the belief of tawhid, the reason for their creation.” But those who associate partners with Allah refuse to accept this truth and turn away from believing in Allah.

O Prophet! To the prophets We sent before you too We revealed that there is no true god but Me, and that I can be served only by believing in Me.

Some of those who associate partners with Allah said, “Allah has taken a child.” Far from it! Allah is far above what they ascribe to Him; on the contrary, the angels they call Allah’s children are honored, chosen servants He has created, who follow His commands.

They help no one but those with whom Allah is pleased, and never say or do what He is not pleased with. They tremble for fear of showing Him any disrespect.

Were any one of them to presume to say, “I too am a god alongside Allah,” We would punish him too with Hell. We punish with punishment upon punishment those who overstep the bounds and claim godhood alongside Allah.

These people do not believe the truth either that We created the heavens and the earth as one whole, then parted them in two, and created every living thing from water.

We set firm mountains on the earth so that it would not shake what is on it, and made valleys and roads between them so that places might be easily reached.

We made the sky a safe roof that will never fall in. Though those who associate partners with Allah see these perfect beings We have created and witness how they work by the order We have established, they stubbornly turn away from living by the system of life to which Allah invites people.

It is Allah, too, who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, each running its course in its own orbit.

O Prophet! We granted immortality to no one before you either; if you are to die, will the deniers live forever in the world?

Every living soul will taste death. We are testing you by your stance toward good and evil. In the end you will all be gathered in Allah’s presence and called to account for this stance.

Whenever those who fiercely oppose the call you make through the Quran see you, they try to mock you, saying, “This is the man who keeps harping on our gods and trying to do away with them!”

And when the call of Allah, the Most Gracious, is mentioned to such people, they at once try to hush it up and pay no heed. These people are very impatient too; they say to the believers, “When will this Resurrection you speak of break and the punishment come? Come on, let it come.” Yet had they understood that they will not be able to keep the fire from scorching their faces and their whole bodies in Hell, and that no one will be able to help them, they would not talk like this.

That Last Hour will come suddenly, and will leave those who keep talking like this bewildered. No one will have the power to turn it back or prevent it, and no one’s remorse or repentance will then be of any use.

O Prophet! Not only you, but the messengers We sent before you too were mocked and their calls turned away from; and when the time came, Allah’s punishment seized them and laid them waste.

Say to those who persist stubbornly in their shirk and disbelief: “Who can protect you from Allah’s punishment, which will come suddenly, by night or by day?” But despite all these reminders and warnings, they still will not agree to live by the way of life that is Allah’s call. Or do they think that those they take as gods will protect them from Our punishment and save them? Yet those they take as gods cannot even save themselves, and on That Day no one will be of any use to anyone.

Yet We let these people who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth, and their forefathers, enjoy the many blessings We created. But they used up their worldly lives on fleeting and petty pleasures. Do they not now see and reflect that the time We have given them is growing ever shorter and drawing to its end?

When the truth stands before you so plainly, how can you be ungrateful to Allah’s call, grow arrogant, and turn away from Him? Will you still not use your reason?

O Prophet! Say: “I call you to live your lives by the verses Allah reveals.”

However much those who stop their ears so as not to hear this call are called to, they persist in not hearing. But if even a little of their Lord’s punishment touched them, they would at once say, “Woe to us! By staying indifferent to our Lord’s call and behaving as if deaf and mute, we have wronged ourselves; truly, we were wrongdoers.”

After the Resurrection, on the Day of Reckoning, We will set up such precise scales that no one will be wronged by so much as an atom’s weight; even if it is as small as a mustard seed, the recompense for a person’s right or wrong will be given to him. Allah’s justice is the absolute manifestation of right and law.

We had also given Moses and Aaron the Book that distinguishes right from wrong and establishes justice, a source of light. And those who felt a sense of responsibility toward Allah followed it. Such people believe in their Lord, whom they cannot see, who is beyond and above their imagining; they revere Him from the heart and live in concern for the reckoning.

And this Quran too has been sent, as We sent down to earlier prophets, to bring people out of darkness into light. Yet most people turn away.

Before Moses, We had also made known to Abraham the right path he should follow. For We knew that he too was eager for it and worthy of it.

Abraham had said to his father and his people: “Does it befit you at all to take as gods people who have passed away from the world, whose statues you make, before which you bow in reverence, whose help you seek and whose footsteps you follow, and the objects in the sky?”

They answered Abraham: “This is what we found our forefathers doing, and we are determined to carry on this belief, which was our forefathers’ way of life.”

At this Abraham said to them: “The truth is that what your forefathers did in the past, and what you are doing today, is plain superstition, worthless, meaningless, error, and associating partners with Allah.”

As soon as they heard this, the people who associated partners with Allah said to Abraham, “Are you mocking us, or are you serious in what you say?” And Abraham turned to them and said: “No, I am not mocking at all. I know that Allah, who created the heavens, the earth, and what is between them, is your true Lord and God; I believe it, and I call you to believe this truth.”

Then he said to himself: “I swear that after you have turned and gone, I will prove that these idols you take as gods are in fact nothing, of no use at all.”

When they had left Abraham, he went into the temple where the idols were, and left untouched the idol regarded as the greatest god, so that they would ask it what had happened and, seeing that it could not answer, understand.

After a while the people noticed what had happened and began to cry out: “Which wrongdoer has done this to our gods?” Meanwhile some of them said: “A young man called Abraham has been talking recklessly about our gods and keeps maligning them.”

So they seized Abraham, had him repeat what he had said before witnesses and confess that he himself had broken the idols, decided that he must be punished, and took action. Bringing Abraham before the people, they said, “Tell us, then: was it you who smashed our idols, the statues of our gods, and left them like this?” And Abraham said to them, “Perhaps this biggest of them did it; you had best ask him; of course, if he can speak, he will answer you.”

Those who listened to Abraham thought for a while and then said to themselves, “To take as gods these lifeless, helpless creatures, who are of no use even to themselves, and to hope for their help, is ingratitude to Allah, who creates and sustains everything. Truly, by believing and living like this we have wronged ourselves; what Abraham says is true.”

Though they saw and understood this truth, before long they went back to those old warped, false, deviant beliefs of theirs and said to Abraham: “O Abraham! You too know that they do not speak, but they are still our gods.” And Abraham said to them: “Shame on you and on those you take as gods alongside Allah! Why, when the truth stands plain before you, do you ascribe godhood to these things that are of no use to you? Do you never use your reason?”

Those who heard this from Abraham said: “Let us throw him into the fire, so that he will never again talk recklessly about our gods, and so let us show everyone that we stand up for our belief and our order.”

At this We commanded: “O fire, be cool for Abraham, and do him no harm.” Thus We brought to nothing the plans of those who associated partners with Allah to do away with Abraham, and brought ruin upon them.

We saved Abraham and Lot from the hands of those who denied the truth and settled them in the land We had blessed. And We granted Abraham Isaac, and also his grandson Jacob. We supported and strengthened their longing to be virtuous, upright people, and made them leaders who invited people to what is right (the path that is the reason for their creation). Surely they too used to urge people to perform the prayer and to give in Allah’s way what must be given, so as to be purified and uplifted.

To Lot too We revealed verses containing knowledge and rulings, strengthened his ability to tell right from wrong and to make sound judgments, and saved him from among the people who did vile deeds. For they were a depraved community, stuck fast in a vile swamp, knowing no bounds.

So We brought Lot to safety with Our compassion and mercy, for he too was among Our virtuous and upright servants.

Long before Abraham and Lot, Noah too had prayed to his Lord and asked for help, that He would save him and those who believed from the oppression of his people, who opposed Allah’s call, and destroy his people who associated partners with Allah.

And We accepted Noah’s prayer, saved those who believed with him from that great calamity, and drowned those who associated partners with Allah and denied the truth.

O Prophet! Tell too of David and Solomon. Long ago, when a stray flock of sheep got into a field and destroyed the crops, David and Solomon gave judgment between the parties upon the field owner’s complaint. And We were witness to that judgment. In applying justice and interpreting the laws, Solomon had the deeper understanding.

David too was a righteous servant of Ours, who always gave thanks to his Lord for the knowledge and wisdom We bestowed on him, who, like the mountains, the rocks, and the birds, submitted to his Lord’s order, lived with this awareness, and called others too to submit to their exalted Lord with praise. We bring to success, with Our help, those who strive to fulfill their responsibilities. And We also granted David superior knowledge of protection and taught him to make armor.

Surely the system of life to which the Quran invites is, likewise, like armor for the believers against falsehood. Should you not therefore give thanks to your Lord?

To Solomon too We granted power and authority, seated him in the office of applying Our rulings, and helped him with the wind; his country’s merchant ships, sailing back and forth with the strong winds We made blow toward the blessed lands, made great profits.

It is We who create everything by Our knowledge and power and have power to do what We will. We made subject to Solomon, and put into his service, certain headstrong, insolent people, companions of Satan, who were at the same time skilled craftsmen; some of them worked as divers in the sea, and while they labored at important and difficult tasks for Solomon, We kept them under watch and prevented them from doing harm.

O Prophet! Tell too the story of Job, from which lessons should be learned. Job prayed and pleaded, “My Lord, this illness has bent my back; You are the Most Merciful of the merciful; grant me healing.”

And We accepted his prayer, delivered him from the illness that had struck him, and then, as the reward for his submission to his Lord, restored to him, twice over, his family and his other relatives, who had drifted away from him. There are lessons in this for those who turn to Allah as He deserves.

There are lessons to be drawn from the stories of Ishmael, Idris, and Dhul-Kifl too. Each of them, in their efforts to live and keep alive the life that pleases Allah, bore with patience the attacks and hardships they met, and held out without compromise.

So We enfolded them in Our compassion, mercy, and grace. They were virtuous, upright, righteous people.

Tell too of what Jonah, whom the fish swallowed, went through! There are lessons to be learned from his story too. Long ago Jonah too invited his people to live by the divine order and morality; but when his people would not accept the call, he grew angry and, unable to show more patience, fled to get away from them; he was thrown into the sea from the ship he had boarded, and when he was swallowed by the fish, in the pitch darkness of the fish’s belly he prayed: “My Lord, there is no god but You; You alone are exalted and supreme. I made a great mistake by running away instead of holding out to the end of my strength and my life to carry out the task You gave me. So I have become one of the wrongdoers who wrong themselves; forgive me.”

He had made this mistake without considering that We would make him pay the price for what he did. When he realized his mistake, repented wholeheartedly, and longed to turn to what is right, We saved him from the darkness he was in and from his distress.

Thus do We save those who repent of their wrongs, turn to what is right, and trust in Us.

We had also accepted and rewarded the prayer of Zechariah, one of Our messengers. Long ago he prayed to Us thus: “My Lord! Do not leave me in this world without a successor, all alone; grant me someone to be my heir; surely You alone are the One who grants a good heir.” And We accepted Zechariah’s plea, made him and his wife able to have a child in their old age, and bestowed on them John (Yahya) as a son.

They vied with one another in good deeds, strove to win their Lord’s good pleasure, took refuge in Our mercy and compassion in hardship and in plenty, and trusted in Us.

There are lessons to be learned, too, from the character and the submission to Allah of Mary, most scrupulous in guarding her honor, the very model of chastity. We breathed spirit into what We created in Mary’s womb, and made her a proof to people, so that Our knowledge and power might be understood as they deserve.

O people! The truth is that all the prophets, those whose stories have been told to you and those whose stories have not, were sent to invite you to grasp tawhid and live in keeping with it. I alone am the Lord of you all! So obey Me alone and serve Me alone!

But despite this truth, most people broke the unity of tawhid (Allah as Lord and God) and strayed onto separate paths. In the end they will be returned to Us and meet what they deserve.

Know well, too, that the labors of those who strive to follow Allah’s call and live it will not go to waste, and they will be rewarded as they deserve. We are recording what they do in their books of deeds.

Those whom We punished in the world because they deserved destruction We will also gather in Our presence in the Hereafter. On That Day their remorse will be of no use to them, and returning to the world to turn to Allah’s call will be impossible.

When the wanton hordes of Gog and Magog, who have made shirk, disbelief, oppression, and corruption their nature, spread out over every part of the earth and begin their onslaught, those who come face to face with this reality will be far too late to return to the system of life that is Allah’s call.

On the Day of Resurrection the eyes of those who associated partners with Allah and denied the truth will open wide as if to burst from their sockets, and they will say, “Woe to us! Though we were warned, we paid no heed to this reality of the Resurrection and did not take it seriously. Now we understand that by thinking so we wronged ourselves.”

On That Day they will be told: “You and those you took as gods alongside Allah will be fuel for Hell, and you will burn together. Have you seen that those you made up, made sacred, followed in hope of help, and took as gods are wretched beings without even the power to save themselves? Both they and you will remain forever in the Hell you have deserved.”

In Hell they will groan and moan, and will hear no sound but groaning.

But the believers who did their utmost to live a life pleasing to Allah will be kept far from Hell; they will hear neither the roar of Hell nor the groaning of those in it, and they will live forever in the Paradise Allah has bestowed, rewarded with every blessing their souls desire.

The terror of the Day of Resurrection will not trouble them either; the angels will meet them, saying, “Today is the day you attain the Paradise you were promised and its blessings.”

On That Day We will roll up the heavens as the pages of a book are rolled up, and then We will create the universe again, just as We created it the first time. This is Our promise, which We have pledged to fulfill, and We will surely fulfill it.

In all the Books We sent with the prophets, as in the Torah and the Psalms (Zabur), We made known that those who believe in Allah’s call and strive (jihad) in this cause will prevail, and that they will be made heirs to the earth.

Surely there are lessons to be learned from what is made known through this Quran, but only those who wish to know Allah as He deserves and to grasp the purpose of their creation can draw lessons from it.

O Prophet! We have sent you, and the Quran with you, as a mercy, to remind people once again of the truths.

Say to people: “It is revealed to me that your God is Allah alone; will you not use your reason, so as to submit to Him?”

If, despite this, they turn away and reject it, then say to them: “I have made this truth known to you; and I cannot know whether the Day of Resurrection you have been warned of is far or near. What I know is that Allah knows best what people do openly and in secret, and what their intentions are. Nor can I know why the punishment promised to those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth has not yet come. Whether Allah does this to give you time to turn to the right path, and is therefore letting you enjoy His blessings and testing you, that too He alone knows.”

O Prophet, say: “Allah alone is the true Lord and God of us all. It is He, too, who will protect, guard, and help those who believe, and who will judge between us with justice.”