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

O people! By the knowledge and power of Allah, who through the order He has established has arranged the night to be dark and the day to be bright, and who has created His creatures in pairs, male and female: Allah created you so that you would follow the system and morality to which He invites you. Yet you are chasing after lives and dreams very different from this.

Whoever believes, uses his means for the sake of living the Allah-centered life that is the reason for his creation, and strives to fulfill his responsibilities consciously: for such people We make easy the way that leads to happiness in this world and the Hereafter.

But whoever does not use for this cause the blessings Allah has graciously given him, pays no heed to His call, considers himself self-sufficient, stubbornly goes on living in the belief that he has no need of Allah, and does not believe in the Hereafter either: for him, too, We make easy the road to Hell, which is so very hard. Then, there, he will understand that none of his wealth, his children, and the things he imagined he owned are of any benefit to him.

It is for Allah alone to show the right path.

Surely We are the true Owner of both this world and the Hereafter, and in both of them the right to establish order and lay down rulings belongs to Us. O people! Do not turn away from the reason for your creation and so throw yourselves into the Fire. Believe in Allah’s call, grasp its importance, and live with an awareness of your responsibilities.

Those who believe in Allah’s call, do all they can to live by it and to keep it alive, and wholeheartedly and willingly devote their means to this cause will be kept far from the Fire. Such people are believers who expect no return from anyone beyond earning Allah’s good pleasure, and when the time comes, Allah will reward them over and above what they have done.