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

Ha. Mim. This divine Book is being sent down from Allah, who created the universe and all within it, established its order and sustains it, and is supreme in knowledge and power.

Surely in the heavens and on the earth there are many proofs that show Allah’s boundless power. Only those who wish to grasp Allah as He deserves and to know the reason for their creation see these and reflect on them. The truth is that both in the creation of the human being and in what Allah has created and spread over the earth on which you live, there are messages from which a lesson can be drawn for everyone who uses his reason and reflects on them.

Those who use their reason see plainly that there is a perfect order in the succession of night and day, in His sending down rain from the sky, reviving dead land with it, and bestowing provision on you, and in His making the winds blow in different directions, always for a reason, as His mercy requires.

These are the verses of Allah that He makes known. Through these verses Allah shows the perfect order He has established for what He has created, and calls you too to live by a system and morality whose limits Allah has set. In what discourse (word) other than these verses will you believe?

While people live, benefiting from every kind of blessing Allah has created, will they stop their ears to Allah’s verses and listen to other words? Woe to those who turn away from these truths, are ungrateful to Allah, and deceive themselves.

Though Allah’s call reaches them, such people grow insolent and boastful and go on living with their backs turned on Him, as if they had never heard it. Tell them that they will be punished with a severe punishment, for they belittled Allah’s verses, made them a subject of mockery, and distanced themselves from them. On the Day of Reckoning, when they are brought before Hell, neither the wealth and property they earned in the world nor those they took as gods alongside Allah will be of any help to them. On That Day such people will be struck with the terrible punishment they have deserved.

This Quran is a divine Book that explains to people the reason for their creation and guides those who wish to live accordingly. The fire of Hell awaits those who turn away from the call made through the Quran.

It is Allah, too, who makes ships float by the laws He has set in the sea and places them at your service. What is expected of you is to give thanks for the blessings He bestows and respond to His call. Allah has generously spread out before you all that He has created in the heavens and on the earth, for you to benefit from. Those who use their reason and reflect see this truth and come to be aware of their responsibilities toward Allah.

O Prophet! Tell the believers: “Let them hold out patiently, for now, against the torments inflicted by those who do not believe that the Last Hour, the Day of Resurrection and Reckoning, will come, and let them try to keep away from them. Allah will call every person to account for what he did.”

Whoever responds to Allah’s call and does righteous deeds does so for his own good; and whoever turns away from it does so to his own harm. In the end all people will be called to account for their stance toward Allah’s call.

As with you, in the past too We sent prophets and Books to the Children of Israel, gave them the power to put Allah’s rulings into practice in life, and bestowed on them pure and lawful provision. We raised them to a position above the communities of their time. But despite clear knowledge, after a while, because of their arrogance and the jealousy among them, instead of following the truth they split into various factions and left the right path. Surely your Lord will call them to account for this attitude of theirs and give them the penalty they deserve.

O Muhammad! To you too We have revealed the Quran, which explains the reason for the creation of all people and the laws of the religion (the system of life) by which they should live in keeping with it. So follow what We have revealed, and invite people to follow it too. Never incline toward the vain desires and whims of those who do not wish to accept the call and do not know their Lord and themselves as they should. No one can save from Allah’s punishment those who incline toward them. Such people are only one another’s protectors (awliya). But Allah is the Friend of those who are mindful of their responsibilities to Him (the people of taqwa).

This Quran is a source of guidance and mercy that illuminates people’s path, hearts, and minds, brings their problems to the soundest solution, and leads them to happiness in this world and the Hereafter. Only people of insight who wish to know the reason for their creation and live wholeheartedly in keeping with it understand this.

Can those who turn away from the call made through the Quran ever be the same as those who believe in Allah’s call and live within the limits He has set? Those who think We will treat the two alike are mistaken; they have miscalculated.

Allah did not create the heavens, the earth, and what is in them in vain, but solely so that people would believe that He alone is Lord and God and live an Allah-centered life. In the end everyone will be gathered in Allah’s presence, called to account for whether or not he lived in keeping with the purpose of his creation, and given the recompense he deserves.

Those who take their own vain desires and whims as their god and stubbornly defend this, Allah seals their hearts and ears, veils their eyes, and leaves them to themselves in their error. What can be said of a human being who brings himself to such a state? Yet who but Allah can show a human being the right path?

Those who have made rejecting Allah’s call their nature and conditioned themselves to it even go so far as to say: “Life is nothing but what we live in this world; we are born, we live, and we die. Time alone kills and destroys us, and we are not going to be raised again after death.” They do not say this from looking at what goes on around them, using their reason, and reflecting; they merely build baseless fancies on conjecture and speak accordingly. And when they are told that we will be raised after death and called to account, they at once say, “Then bring back our forefathers, who are dead and gone, so that we may see, if what you say is true.”

O Prophet! Say to them: “It is Allah who has bestowed on you this life of yours, who decrees your death, and who will raise you with the Resurrection and gather you in His presence.” But most people do not wish to accept this truth.

Without doubt it is Allah who decrees what is and what will be in the heavens and on the earth; the right to lay down rulings, and sovereignty, belong to Him. Those who in their worldly lives willingly submit to rulings laid down by anyone other than Allah will suffer great ruin on the Day of Resurrection and Reckoning. On That Day you will see every community gathered together, kneeling in fear, heads bowed. On That Day every community will be confronted with what is in the books in which their deeds were recorded, and they will be told, “Today you will see the recompense for what you did in your worldly lives and for what you failed to do when you should have done it, and you will see that in the records kept of you nothing has been written short or in excess.”

And those who believe and do their utmost to live a virtuous life befitting their faith, Allah their Lord will reward with His mercy and compassion and settle in His Paradise, the home of blessings and happiness.

On the Day of Reckoning those who have made denial of the truth their nature will be told: “Were you not the ones who, though you were warned with Our verses and told that you would meet these days, grew arrogant and boastful and paid no heed? When you were told, ‘Allah’s promise is true; have no doubt that the Day of Resurrection and Reckoning will come,’ you used to say, ‘What is this Resurrection! We do not believe in such things. What you speak of is nothing but an empty fancy you have made up.’” On the Day of Reckoning these words of theirs, and what they did in their worldly lives, will be set before them; the truth they disregarded and mocked will confront them, and the punishment will surround them on every side.

On That Day they will also be told: “Just as you did not take seriously that you would meet the Day of Reckoning, and forgot it, so today We will not hear your remorseful pleading and imploring in the midst of the punishment, and will leave you forgotten in Hell. There you will find no helper either. What brought you to this state was your mocking of Allah’s call and your excessive passion for the fleeting pleasures of worldly life.” From that day on they will remain in Hell. Their remorse, and their wish to be returned to the world and follow the call, will never be accepted.

Allah, who creates with His boundless knowledge, endows what He creates with countless blessings, and governs it by the perfect order He has established, the Lord of the heavens and the earth, is the one true God, worthy of praise and thanks.

Greatness and majesty in the heavens and on the earth belong to Allah alone. He alone is the Possessor of power and wisdom. Authority to lay down rulings over His creatures and to rule them belongs to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.