Surah An-Naba: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

Those who have conditioned themselves to deny the truth keep disputing among themselves whether the great news you have brought them about the Day of Resurrection and Reckoning is true, and will not bring themselves to accept it.

Without doubt, when the time comes, they will come face to face with that truth and suffer remorse for not having accepted it in their worldly lives; but by then it will be far too late, and their remorse will be of no use to them at all.

Just think: did We not spread out the earth like a bed and endow it with so many blessings for you? Did We not make the mountains pillars and stakes holding the earth firm? Did We not create you in pairs, and make the night a covering over you, sleep a means of rest, and the day a time to seek and earn your provision?

We made the seven heavens a roof above you and set the sun there like a lamp, a source of heat and light. From the rain-laden clouds We drive with the winds We send down rain, and with it We grow all kinds of plants, vineyards, gardens, and trees.

Have no doubt that Allah, who by His knowledge and power brings everything into being from nothing and creates again and again, will raise you too after death, with the Day of Resurrection, and call you to account for the way you used the life and blessings He bestowed on you.

Allah alone, your Lord, knows the time of That Day, which will certainly come. On That Day, when the Trumpet is blown, you will be brought in throngs to the place of gathering. On That Day the heavens will be like gateways with their doors flung wide open, and the mountains will be torn from their places, turn to dust, become a mirage, and vanish.

Then Hell will begin to wait for the ungrateful and wanton who turned away from Allah’s call and did not believe that the Day of Resurrection and Reckoning would come; Hell will now be their final stop and the place where they will remain forever; there they will find neither a cool place nor a cooling drink... They will be given nothing to eat or drink but boiling water and pus; for they called the verses conveyed in Allah’s name lies, denied the Hereafter, and rebelled against their Lord.

And We were keeping a record of what they did.

On That Day they will be told: “Now suffer the punishment you have deserved; as you kept adding to your crimes, so We will add to the severity of Our punishment.”

As for those who strive with all their strength and means to live by the system of life that is Allah’s call, they will be rewarded with the indescribably beautiful blessings of Paradise; amid lush green vineyards, gardens, and mansions, they will be in indescribable happiness with their spouses of matchless beauty and of like age; they will drink from cups the drinks of Paradise, each more delicious than the last, and enjoy every kind of pure food their souls desire. There they will hear no empty, meaningless, or irksome word. All this is Allah’s gift to those who believe in His call and consciously fulfill what it requires.

Allah is the Lord of the heavens, the earth, and all that is between them. Allah has bestowed countless blessings on what He has created. And He is most compassionate, merciful, and forgiving toward the believers.

On the Day of Reckoning no one will have a word or an excuse to put to his Lord, and since no one will find anything to say to Him, he will not utter a sound.

On that day the Spirit (Gabriel) and the other angels stand in rows before their Lord. None of them speaks except those to whom Allah, the Most Gracious, gives leave; and even when they are given leave, they speak only what is right.

This, then, is the day whose coming was made known beforehand with certainty, and these are the things that will come to pass. After these truths have been made known, whoever wishes chooses to live the life that is his Lord’s call.

We are warning you of the punishment of the day that will certainly come.

On That Day there will be set before every person how, and for whom, he used the time and blessings bestowed on him.

Then those who turned away from the right way of living will say, “If only I had been dust, and passed away, so that I had not lived what is set before me and deserved the punishment.”