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

Most exalted and most generous is Allah, who has sent down the Quran to His servant so that it may be a warning to all humanity, separating right from wrong and setting out the difference between them clearly and decisively.

Allah, the Creator and Owner of the heavens, the earth, and all that is between them, who has established their order according to a measure and governs them, has no partner in His rule and sovereignty. Allah has taken to Himself no descendants, no kin, and no child.

This being the truth, most people took as gods certain people who were created just as they were, and went after them. Yet those they take as gods alongside Allah and associate with Him as partners have no power to take life or to give it, nor to raise anyone to life after death, nor even to avert any evil.

And those who follow such people even go so far as to try to deny the truth, saying, “This Quran is nothing but a book of lies made up by Muhammad; what is more, someone must certainly have helped him make them up, because what he says does not look like the product of one man’s mind on its own. These are nothing but the fables of the ancients, recited to him morning and evening so that he can memorize them.”

O Prophet! Say to them: “It is Allah, the Creator and Owner of the heavens and the earth, who has sent down this Quran. Despite this ungrateful and ignorant attitude of yours, Allah is giving you time to understand what is right and turn to it. For Allah is most merciful and forgiving.”

Despite all your efforts, those who deny the divine call also say: “What kind of prophet is this! He eats and drinks just like us and walks about the streets and markets. Were he a prophet, should there not have been an angel with him too, making the call along with him, or a treasure sent down to him from the sky, or a garden granted to him of a beauty we have never seen around here, from which he could eat and drink?” Besides this, these wrongdoers were saying to one another, “If you follow Muhammad’s call, you will be following nothing but a man bewitched.”

The comparisons they draw about you only increase their deviance and unruliness all the more. Going on like this, they will not turn to the right path.

Allah alone is the Exalted and the Generous. If He wills, He will grant you far more, and far better, than the things of which those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth say, “The Prophet should have had these too”: vineyards and gardens with rivers flowing through them, and mansions.

They deny the reality of the Resurrection too, but for those who deny it We have prepared a Hell that spews out flames; even when they see it from afar, they will hear its furious roar and dreadful rumbling. And when they are thrown, bound to one another, into a narrow place in Hell, they will beg to be wiped out of existence. On That Day they will be told, “Even if today you beg not once but again and again to perish, it is in vain.”

O Prophet! Say to those who stubbornly persist in shirk and disbelief: “Which is better: to reject the call made in Allah’s name and in the end be condemned to the punishment of Hell, or to attain the blessings of Paradise promised to those who do their utmost to live the life that is the reason for your creation, the life whose limits Allah has set?” There they will be granted whatever they wish, and they will attain a happy, peaceful, and secure life. This is the fulfillment of the promise your Lord has made to the believers.

On that Day of Reckoning Allah will gather together those who associate partners with Him, those who deny the truth, and those who followed them, and He will ask the leaders of shirk: “Was it you who kept these servants of Mine from turning to My call, or did they themselves refuse to accept it and turn away?”

And they will say: “Far be it from us! You are the Most High! Your power is infinite; it does not befit us to take anyone other than You as Lord, God, or friend; we understand this very well now. You gave countless blessings to these people and to their forefathers. But instead of giving thanks for these blessings and obeying You, they grew spoiled and unruly, became ungrateful, and turned away from Your call. And so they came to deserve ruin and punishment.”

Thereupon Allah will say to those who followed them: “Look! Those you took as gods in your worldly life claim that they never forced you to follow them, and that you are lying about this. Now you can neither ward off the punishment you deserve nor find anyone to support you.” Those who turn the call made in Allah’s name upside down and turn their backs on Him will taste the punishment they deserve.

O Muhammad! The prophets We sent before you were also people who ate and drank and walked about the streets and markets. Pay no heed to the insolence of the ignorant. We are testing some of you by means of others. In the end it will be brought to light who, through their patience, perseverance, and effort, deserves what. Your Lord sees everything that happens.

Those who do not think that they will come before Allah and give account say, “Why was an angel not sent to us as a prophet, rather than a human being? Or why does our Lord not show Himself to us?” In this way they are in truth swelling with arrogance in their inner world, growing insolent and unruly.

Yes, the day when they will see the angels will certainly come, but on That Day it will long since have been too late for them, and on That Day the angels will say to them, “We have been forbidden to speak to you any kind words that would please you. Why did you not use your reason in your worldly life? Now you stand banished, with no way back, from Allah’s mercy and forgiveness.”

On That Day We will show them how empty and meaningless were even the things they did in the name of goodness and righteousness, by their own reckoning, and We will turn all they did into dust and haze and scatter it to the winds.

And on That Day those who believed in the divine system and morality and fulfilled what it requires will be rewarded with Paradise, the best and finest of dwelling places.

When the Last Hour comes, the sky will be torn to pieces along with the clouds, and the angels will descend to earth in successive ranks.

On the Day of Resurrection, those who denied Allah’s rulings in their worldly life will understand that true dominion, in this world and in the Hereafter, belongs to Allah alone.

That Day will be a very hard day for them. Those who denied the truth will bite their fingers in remorse and say, “Oh, if only I had followed the call of the messengers who told us that these days would come, and taken Allah alone as God, and turned away from the call of anyone but Him! Even though Allah’s reminder (the Quran) reached me, Satan and his followers kept me from grasping Allah as He deserves.”

On that day Satan and his followers, and those who went after them, will abandon one another and go off, all alone and helpless.

Then the Prophet too will say, “My Lord! My people would not bring themselves to understand the importance and worth of the Quran; regarding it as the call to an outdated system that could not be put into practice, they turned their backs on it.”

It has always been so: those who have conditioned themselves to deny the reason for their creation have not only turned their backs on the call made in Allah’s name but have never held back from showing enmity to the believers as well. Pay no heed to them; your Lord is enough for you as a guide and helper.

And now these people even go so far as to say, “Should the Quran not have been sent down to you all at once, as a whole?” We are sending it down as the parts of a whole, bit by bit so that it can be fully absorbed, in due order as the time and place require, so that through it We may strengthen your heart and build up your awareness.

O Prophet! They strive to sow doubt in you and the believers and to confuse your minds, but whatever they say and whatever they do, We are explaining what is right to you in the best way.

Those who persist in stubbornly rejecting the truth to which they are invited will be dragged on their faces and crammed into Hell in droves. Thus will they be made to pay the penalty for taking other lords and gods besides Allah.

In the past We gave Moses the Book as well, and made his brother Aaron his helper, and then We said, “Go, both of you, and warn the people who have covered up the truth that Allah is Lord and God.” But that people not only turned a deaf ear to the warnings but also attacked those who warned them. Thereupon We punished them with Our punishment.

The people of Noah too, who would not stop accusing their prophet of lying, We drowned in the waters and made an example for humanity. And for these ungrateful, insolent wrongdoers who do not believe in the Hereafter either, We have prepared a severe punishment.

The people of Ad, the people of Thamud, the People of Rass, and all the many generations between them who associated partners with Allah and denied the truth, We punished with the punishment they deserved. To them, too, We had sent prophets inviting them to live the life that is the reason for their creation, but they opposed them and persisted in their unruliness, and so We destroyed them.

Those first addressed by the Quran, too, keep passing over the lands of the peoples We punished, and see the traces of the punishment those peoples deserved. Yet they do not use their reason and accept the truth; they cannot stomach the idea of being raised to life after death and called to account, and they call it a lie.

O Prophet! Whenever those who have made associating partners with Allah part of their very character see you or speak of you, they mock you and the verses you convey, saying, “Is this the one Allah has sent as a prophet?” And then they say, “Had we not held fast to our way of life and stood up for it, he would have torn us away from our gods.” But when they face the punishment they deserve, they will see and understand who was on the right path and who had turned away from what is right.

You are not responsible for those who take their whims and desires as their god. Or do you think that some of them are people who use their reason, reflect, and try to understand what they hear? No, they are like a flock of sheep that does not turn to the right path; indeed, they are even more oblivious than sheep.

O humankind! Everything, down to your very shadow, moves within the bounds of the order Allah has established in the universe. Allah has bound everything to the laws of that order, right down to His lengthening and shortening the shadow and then gradually withdrawing it, and has created it all dependent on causes; had He willed, He would not have created any of it. Just as We made the sun the guide for the lengthening and shortening of the shadow, so We have made the Quran a guide for you.

It is Allah who has made the night a covering for you to sleep and rest, and the day bright so that you may work to earn your provision and Allah’s good pleasure. It is He who sends the winds as bearers of good news ahead of His mercy. So He sends down pure water from the sky, revives dead land with it, and brings water to every living thing.

Indeed, We explain all this again and again with examples, so that you may reflect, draw lessons, and turn to Allah. Yet most people are ungrateful and turn away.

Had We willed, We could also have sent a prophet to every community around you, to help and support you alongside you. But We did not do so; so strive (wage jihad) with all your might, by means of the Quran, against those who attack your call by attacking you, and never give in to them.

Allah, who has brought together two seas, the water of one sweet enough to drink and that of the other salty and bitter, and through the barrier He has placed between them keeps their waters from mixing, has also placed between right and wrong barriers that keep them from mixing. They can never pass into one another or mix.

It is Allah, too, who created the human being from a drop of fluid, endowed him with so many blessings, and formed bonds of kinship among people through descent and marriage. While these are plain truths, those who associate partners with Allah still do not refrain from taking other gods besides Allah, their Creator and Lord, even though the gods they take besides Allah are of no benefit to them at all.

O Prophet! We sent you to warn people with these truths and to give good news to those who believe. Say to those who associate partners with Allah: “For this call I ask of you no wage or position. I am only a messenger who invites anyone who wishes to the way of his Lord.”

O people! Turn to Allah, the Ever-Living who never dies and whose life is absolute; lean on Him, trust in Him, give thanks for the countless blessings He has given, and never let His greatness slip from your minds. Although this is how it should be, Allah knows that most of His servants stubbornly persist in being ungrateful.

Allah created the heavens, the earth, and all that is between them in six stages; He established their order, bound them to their laws, and holds sovereignty over them. Allah is most merciful and generous toward what He has created, so whatever you would ask for, ask it of your Lord.

When those who are conditioned to deny their Lord’s call are told, “Come, follow the call of Allah, the Most Gracious,” they say, “And what is this ‘Most Gracious’! What, do you think we will now do whatever you command us?” and they grow even more insolent and unruly.

Most exalted and most generous is Allah, who has scattered clusters of stars across the sky and set them in place, created the sun as a source of light and heat, and made the moon reflect light. It is He who makes the night and the day follow one another; in these there are lessons for those who use their reason. The believers who reflect on these truths, come to know Allah, the Most Gracious, as He deserves, and respond to His call walk on the earth humbly and with dignity, and conduct themselves with dignity; they pay no attention to the provocations of the ungrateful and ignorant who do not know their place, and they make no concessions in their faith. They say “Peace” to them and go on their way; and they spend their nights in deeds that will earn their Lord’s good pleasure, prostrating themselves and submitting to His commands.

These believers also pray to their Lord: “Our Lord! Keep the punishment of Hell away from us, for its punishment is most severe and terrible, and it is an evil place to dwell.”

When the believers spend their wealth in the way of Allah’s call, they spend carefully and consciously; they do not show off to others, and they are never miserly. They do not take other lords and gods besides Allah, they do not seek help from anyone other than Allah, they do not take a life Allah has made inviolable except for a just cause, and they do not commit adultery or fornication. Those who commit these crimes and fall into sin will certainly suffer the penalty; what is more, on the Day of Resurrection their punishment will be multiplied, along with the pain of being abandoned, and they will remain in Hell forever.

But whoever repents of his shirk, his disbelief, and all his sins, turns to living life by Allah’s verses, and fulfills his responsibilities in this, Allah enables such people, who have repented and turned wholeheartedly to the reason for their creation, to do good deeds. Allah is most merciful, compassionate, and forgiving.

The believers, the good servants of the Most Gracious, do not bear false and baseless witness; they do not occupy themselves with empty and meaningless things, and when they see those who do, they greet them and pass them by with dignity. And when their Lord’s verses are recited to them or they are reminded of them, those believers do not turn blind and deaf to these verses; they listen with their whole attention and follow them.

They also pray to their Lord: “Our Lord! Grant us spouses, children, and descendants who will be the delight of our eyes and a source of joy and happiness! Make us leaders of those who are aware of their responsibilities toward You (the muttaqin).” These are the ones who, because they turned to their Lord wholeheartedly and submitted to Him, because of the struggle they waged against shirk and disbelief, and because of their steadfastness in the face of hardship, will be rewarded with the lofty mansions of Paradise and welcomed there with greetings of peace and happiness, to remain forever. What an excellent destination it is, and what a noble station!

O Prophet! Say to the believers: “Were it not for your stand and your struggle against shirk and disbelief, and your prayers, your Lord would not have valued you or rewarded you. It is thanks to the effort you have shown in this cause that you have been deemed worthy of reward.”

And say to those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth: “Because of your indifference to the system of life that is Allah’s call, your ingratitude, and your unruliness, what you have done will not go unpunished; you will be made to pay its price many times over.”