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

The right and authority to lay down rulings over what He has created and owns, to bind His rulings to the laws He has made and put them into force, and so to govern what He has created, belong to Allah alone, the Lord and God of all the worlds.

His knowledge and power are boundless; He alone is the Exalted, and He has power to do what He wills.

Allah has created death and life to test you and bring to light which of you will live in keeping with His call and which will not. Surely Allah has power to do what He wills. He is most merciful toward the believers and forgiving toward those who turn back from their wrong.

It is Allah who created the seven heavens in harmony with one another and established their order. You will find no deficiency, flaw, or disharmony in Allah’s creation and in the order He has established; however much you look again and again, searching, you will never see a crack or an imbalance, and you will gain nothing but weariness.

We have adorned the sky nearest the earth with stars that shine like lamps.

Certain people who have become Satan’s playthings busy themselves with such empty, meaningless pursuits as getting and giving news of the unseen from the positions and movements of these stars; they make people who do not know Allah as He deserves believe in this, keep them occupied with it, and profit from it.

We burn up and destroy these satanic snares with the light of the verses We send.

Yet those who, despite this, turn away from the prophets and the Books We sent with them, fall into Satan’s trap, and consent to be his playthings, We condemn to the punishment of Hell, and what an evil destination that is. When they are thrown into it along with those who laid the snares, they will hear the dreadful sound Hell gives out, as if it were almost bursting with rage; and as they are thrown into it group by group, the keepers of Hell will say to them: “Did no one come to you who warned you that what you were doing was wrong, told you that its penalty would be this, and invited you to what is right?”

And they will say: “Yes, a warner did in fact come to us, but we paid no heed to the warnings. Had we used our reason rightly and grasped the importance of what the prophets and the Books made known, we would not now have deserved this scorching fire,” and so they will confess their guilt, their shirk and disbelief; and these people, unworthy of mercy and compassion, will live in Hell with the punishment they deserve.

For those who turn to their Lord wholeheartedly, fearing to be deprived of the love of Allah, who is above and beyond all comprehension, there is a very great reward and forgiveness.

O people! Reveal what you think and believe, or conceal it. Allah knows full well both what you reveal and what you conceal. Could Allah ever be unaware of what He has created? His knowledge encompasses everything.

Allah has made the earth fit for you to live on and placed it at your command. So travel through the earth and benefit from the provision bestowed on you. Never let it slip from your minds that in the end you will be gathered in Allah’s presence and called to account for the way you lived your worldly life.

O you who associate partners with Allah, deny the truth, and are ignorant! Are you sure that Allah, whom you believe to be in the sky, though He is above place, will not shake the earth violently and make it swallow you up? Or are you safe from His sending upon you a deadly storm of calamity? Do you have any guarantee of this? Sooner or later you will grasp the importance of these warnings.

Those like them who came before them also did not believe the warnings and the call made through prophets and Books, paid no heed, and ignored them. So in the end they deserved Our punishment and, being destroyed, came face to face with the truth.

Do those who have conditioned themselves to deny the system of life that is Allah’s call never look at the birds flying above them, beating their wings, and reflect? It is Allah who created them with those qualities and holds them up in the air.

Allah establishes the order of everything He creates, binds it to laws, and keeps it under His watch.

O people! Is there anyone besides Allah, the Most Gracious, who will help you, and anyone but Him who will protect you against what may befall you? Those who ignore and deny this truth are in great delusion.

If Allah took away from you the provision He gives, could anyone else provide for you?

Though those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth enjoy the provision Allah gives, they go on being ungrateful and turning away from His call.

Just consider! Who will reach his goal more easily: one who, ignoring these truths, crawls along on his face, unable to raise his head and see what is in front of him, or one who walks upright on the right path?

Say: “Will you not feel responsibility and gratitude toward Allah, who brought you into being from nothing and bestowed on you ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts to feel, reason and understanding, and turn to His call? It is He who has multiplied you and spread you over the earth, and in the end you will be returned to Him and called to account for your stance toward His call.”

Despite all these truths, the deniers say to the believers who believe in Allah’s call, “If you are telling the truth, tell us, then: when will this promised Day of Resurrection and Reckoning you threaten us with come?”

Say to them: “Allah alone knows when That Day will come; I only warn you that That Day will come.”

On the Day of Reckoning, when they meet the punishment, their faces will turn black with fear, and they will be told, “This is the punishment you used to mock, asking when it would come and saying, ‘Let it come, and we shall see.’”

O Prophet! Say: “Whether Allah takes my soul and the souls of those with me, or lets us live a while longer in His compassion and mercy, either way there is good for the believers. But do you have anyone who will save you from Allah’s punishment for your shirk, your disbelief, and your ingratitude?”

Say: “It is Allah, the Most Gracious, alone who will have mercy on us. We have believed in living and keeping alive the system of life that is His call; we have trusted in our Lord and submitted to Him.

O you who think you were created without purpose! When the time comes, you too will see and understand who was in the wrong and suffered ruin.

Just consider: if Allah suddenly drew down into the earth and did away with the water He created and bestowed on you, is there anyone who could create again the pure water you drink and offer it to you?”