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

Alif. Lam. Ra. What is being made known to you are the verses of the clear Book, the Quran. These verses are made up of words formed from the letters of your language.

A day will come when those who stubbornly persist in their shirk and disbelief will say, “If only we had submitted to what Allah invited us to through the clear verses of the Book He sent down!”

O Prophet! Leave to themselves those who turn their backs on the call and persist in refusing it; for now let them eat and drink of Allah’s blessings and amuse themselves with the passing blessings of this world; in any case they will return to Us and understand that the truth was otherwise.

We do not destroy the people of any town before the divine call has reached them, before the time granted them has run out, and before the conditions have come about. And when the conditions have come about and the time has come, no power can either postpone or bring forward the inevitable end.

Those who deny the verses conveyed to them mock, saying, “O you who claim that a Book is being sent down to you! In our view you have gone mad; if what you say is true, bring the angels and show them to us.” Know well that We do not send down the angels because those who associate partners with Allah demand it, but only to punish such people; and then their punishment is never postponed.

Let no one have any doubt that it is We who have sent down this Reminder (the Quran), full of counsel and warnings, and it is We who will protect it.

O Prophet! Before you, too, We sent prophets to communities that came and went, and they too mocked the prophets who came to them; those who stubbornly persist in their mocking and denying attitude We write off, and We do not stop them from sinking deeper into sin and going their way; this has always been how We have dealt with those of earlier communities who associated partners with Allah and denied the truth. There is no change in Allah’s law.

Even if We opened a gate in the sky for those who fiercely oppose the way of life to which the Quran invites, and they kept ascending through it, they would say, “We must be seeing things, or we have fallen for the tricks of sorcerers,” and still not believe.

Should a human being not look at the star clusters We have created in the sky by Our power, and at the order and workings there, grasp the boundlessness of Allah’s knowledge and power, and turn to His call? The sky is not, as some of those who associate partners with Allah believe and claim, a place from which certain jinn-devils carry news to certain people on earth; those who say that news is carried from there, and those who believe them, have the scorching fire of Hell on their heels.

We have spread out the earth and laid it before you, and set on it mountains that cannot be shaken from their places, and We have made the blessings of every kind of plant grow in it in due measure and balance. And We have created in it means of life and livelihood both for you and for all the living creatures whose provision you do not give.

We know in full all the needs of what We have created and meet them; it is We alone who establish the perfect order and laws of their lives, and We send down everything according to a measure.

It is We, not you, who send the winds to fertilize and enrich the plants, who send down water from the sky to quench your thirst, who store it in the sky, and who have command over it.

Without doubt it is We who create life and decree death. We are also the true Owner of what you claim to own. We know how those who came and went before you lived, and how those who come after will live.

Have no doubt that on the Day of Reckoning you will all be gathered together, called to account for your stance toward the truths to which you were invited, and receive what you deserve. Allah knows everything fully and is just in every judgment.

The truth is that We created the human being from dried clay, and the jinn from a scorching fire.

Long ago your Lord said to the angels: “I am going to create a human being from dried clay; I will give him shape, breathe into him the spirit (knowledge), bestow blessings on him, and place responsibility upon him; treat him with respect and enter his service.” In response to this command all the angels except Iblis prostrated to Allah; but Iblis, by not prostrating with them, made it known that he would not obey the command.

Thereupon Allah said, “O Iblis! Why did you not, along with the angels, prostrate to Me in response to My command?” And Iblis said, “I will not enter the service of a human being whom You created from dried clay.”

Then Allah said to Iblis, “Then get out of here; you are not worthy to be here; you are banished and have become one who is despised; you are cursed until the Day of Resurrection.”

Then Iblis said, “My Lord, since You have banished me, at least grant me respite to live until the day when people will be raised to life after death.”

Allah said to him: “Very well, you are among those granted respite until the Day of Resurrection.”

Then Iblis said, “My Lord, because You have let me go astray and banished me on account of this human being, I swear that I will make shirk, disbelief, and sin seem fair and attractive to them, and so I will strive with all my might to lead them all astray and make them rebel against You, except those of Your servants whom You stand behind and support because they hold fast to Your call wholeheartedly and submit, for over them I have no power.”

Allah said: “My servants who believe in and follow My call obey Me alone in any case. The truth is that you have no power to compel these servants of Mine; you can only lead along behind you and lead astray the ungrateful and ignorant who wish to follow you. The place where you and those who follow you will meet is Hell; that Hell has seven gates, and through each of those seven gates will pass those who deserve the punishment.”

As for those who believe and do righteous deeds, they will attain a happy, peaceful, and secure life in Gardens by springs. In Paradise they will be told, “You have been deemed worthy to live here in peace; how happy you are!”

We will draw out of the hearts of those We deem worthy of Paradise every kind of rancor, anger, and ill feeling. They will live as brothers upon thrones; no weariness or hardship will touch them there, and they will not be made to leave it.

O Prophet! Tell My servants: “Allah, your Lord, is most compassionate and merciful toward the believers; and at the same time His punishment of those who associate partners with Him and deny the truth is most severe.”

Tell them the story, full of lessons, of Abraham’s guests.

Recall when those guests greeted Abraham with peace and became his guests, and Abraham, seeing that they did not eat what was offered, said, “Truly, you frighten me.”

They said to Abraham, “There is no need for you to fear us, for we are angels who have come to give you the good news of a son who will become wise and learned.” Thereupon Abraham, in great astonishment, said: “I am a man well advanced in years; even so, on what grounds do you give me the good news that I will have a child?”

The angels said to Abraham, “We are giving you the good news of a truth Allah has made known; so do not fall into despair. Do not be among those who lose hope in Allah.” And Abraham answered them: “Only those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth lose hope in my Lord’s mercy.”

Then Abraham asked the angels: “Do you have any other message for me from my Lord?”

The messenger angels said to Abraham, “We have also been charged with destroying the people of Lot, who associate partners with Allah, are steeped in sin, and are guilty. We will bring out Lot and the believers of his family from among those who will be destroyed and save them; but Lot’s wife will stay behind with those who will be destroyed, for she too has chosen to be among those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth.”

The messenger angels left that place, came to where the people of Lot lived, and made for his house. When they reached his house, Lot said to them, “You are not people I know.” They said, “Yes, that is true; we are angels charged with bringing you news of the punishment that this people, who associate partners with Allah, deny the truth, and are steeped in sin, doubted would come and did not believe in; and know well that we speak nothing but the truth.”

“O Lot! That is why you must take your family out of here by night, follow behind them yourself, and let none of you look back with longing; go in the direction we have told you to go.”

We made known to Lot through Our messengers that toward morning We would punish this perverted and unruly people with the punishment they deserved and wipe them out root and branch.

While Our messengers were saying these things to Lot, the perverted people of the city were shouting insolently in front of his house, demanding that Lot hand his guests over to them.

Lot went out to the door and said to them, “Look, these are my guests. Do not shame me before them; fear Allah and go away without disgracing me.” But the perverts, blind with frenzy in their unruliness, said to Lot, “Did we not forbid you to meet with people, to take this one and that under your wing, and to meddle in other people’s business? Have you forgotten?”

This time Lot said to them: “Come, do what is right; choose the way of lawfully marrying the widows of the city and the women of marriageable age. In this way you may even ask for my daughters.”

The angels, who had witnessed Lot’s distress among this perverted people, said to Lot: “O Lot, good soul that you are, do not wear yourself out trying to reason with these people and call them to what is right; they are blind with the intoxication of lust, and in their unruliness they no longer know what they are doing.”

At last, toward morning, We seized these unruly, rabid perverts with a terrible sound and rained stones down upon them; screaming, they vanished, and We turned the place where they lived upside down. Without doubt there are lessons in this account for those who use their reason. The ruins of these destroyed cities still stand on roads that people travel. But only those who grasp Allah as He deserves and are conscious of their responsibilities toward Him draw the lessons to be drawn from them.

The people of the green valley in Midian, the people of the Thicket (Ayka), were also a wrongdoing community who stubbornly persisted in living in shirk and disbelief.

We punished them too, because they were ungrateful to Us and stubbornly persisted in their shirk and disbelief. Thus did We exact retribution on both communities; the ruins of both stand in the open, by the roadside; will you still not learn of these, see them, and take a lesson?

The people of al-Hijr, too, had accused their prophet, who invited them to the truth that is the reason for their creation, of lying, opposed him, and turned away from Our verses; they hollowed out mountains and carved rocks to build themselves homes they imagined were secure, thinking that there they would be protected from every danger.

But one night, toward morning, We seized them with a terrible sound and quake, punished them with the punishment they deserved, and wiped them out root and branch. The homes they had made by hollowing out mountains and carving rocks could not protect them from Allah’s punishment.

We created the heavens, the earth, and all that is between them for a lofty purpose. (And We created the human being to establish on earth a divine order whose limits Allah has set.)

Those who do not believe this, who turn away and pay it no heed, will meet what they deserve on the Day of Resurrection, which will surely come.

O Prophet! Pay no heed to their hostile attitude toward the call you make in Allah’s name; be patient in the face of their attacks and stand firm with perseverance.

Your Lord sees and knows everything, and He has power over everything.

We have given you the blessing of the Quran, to be recited again and again seven days a week (at all times). So do not look with longing at the passing worldly blessings We have given to those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth, nor grieve that they do not turn to Allah’s call. Take under your wing those who turn to your call, and do not withhold your compassion and mercy from them. Say: “I am a warner who invites you to the system of life that is the reason Allah created you.”

We had sent prophets and books to the peoples before you too. Some of them split up the revelation sent to them into parts, following some and rejecting others.

And now some of those invited through the Quran are also trying to cover up the divine purpose by dividing it and breaking it into pieces. By your Lord, We will question them in the Hereafter for what they are doing.

O Prophet! As you have been commanded, invite people openly to tawhid, and continue in obedience and worship! Pay no heed to those who, despite this, stubbornly persist in associating partners with Allah and denying the truth, and do not forget that We are enough against those who oppose Our call.

Those who turn their backs on Allah’s call will give account for taking lords and gods other than Him.

We know that your heart is heavy because of what they say and do. But until death comes to you, tirelessly continue your call and your prostration in your Lord’s name, and give thanks to Him with praise. Repeat that praise and worship belong to Allah, who created so many blessings for the human being.