Surah Ar-Ra'd: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

Alif. Lam. Mim. Ra. Allah is sending down to you the verses of the Quran in words made up of letters such as “Alif. Lam. Mim. Ra,” which form the language in which you speak, write, and understand one another; yet many people do not wish to understand and believe the truths plainly made known.

Allah has built these heavens you see, without pillars beneath them, by His boundless knowledge; He has established the order of all His creatures, made them subject to His rulings, and established His sovereignty over them.

He has also placed at your service the Sun and the Moon, each running its course for an appointed term, bound to its own law. Allah explains these things through His verses so that you may see and understand the perfection of the orders He has established, and not forget that you will be brought before Him in the Hereafter. In what Allah has created there are proofs that show His boundless power.

It is Allah who created and furnished the earth, formed firm mountains on it with valleys between them, made rivers flow, created of every kind of plant two sexes, female and male, and covers the day with the night. In all this there are proofs and messages of His knowledge and power for those who use their reason and reflect.

On the earth there are tracts of land, near one another yet with different qualities, that We have created. Though they are watered with the same water, in some grow vineyards, in some fields of grain, and in some date palms, some branching from the same root and some rising from the same root on a single trunk. We have created each of them in various colors, different shapes, and flavors.

Surely those who see these things and use their reason reflect on the greatness of Allah’s knowledge and power and grasp the importance and value of His call.

O Prophet! You are amazed that those who associate partners with Allah turn away from His call though such plain truths stand before them. But what is truly amazing is their saying, “So, after we have died and turned to dust, are we to be raised again and give account?”

Those who say this are the ones who close their eyes and stop their ears against their Lord’s knowledge and power, and who live on the blessings He gives yet are ungrateful. Those who complete their worldly lives persisting in this attitude will be dragged, with the rings called fetters fastened round their necks, into Hell, where they will remain forever.

O Prophet! Those who have conditioned themselves to deny the truth not only refuse the call you make in the name of Allah, who created them and endowed them with so many blessings, but even go so far as to say, “Let the punishment you warn and threaten us with come at once, so that we may see it,” and they do not value the time Allah has given them to turn to what is right. Yet before them Allah destroyed with His punishment many communities of those who associated partners with Him and denied the truth, from whom lessons should have been learned.

Those who deny the truth say, “If Muhammad is truly a prophet, should he not have been given a miracle by his Lord?”

O Prophet! You are only a warner, a messenger who invites people to believe in Allah alone as God and to live by the order of life that is the reason for their creation.

Allah has sent to every community a messenger who invites them to live in keeping with the reason for their creation.

Allah, who creates what every female carries in her womb, determines its sex, and lays down the laws governing whether it comes into the world or not, has created everything He has created according to a measure and directed toward a purpose.

Allah is also the Creator of the unknown things that lie beyond human comprehension, and He sees and watches over His creation.

What a person hides within or reveals is the same to Allah, for He knows all of it. Whatever you do, wherever and whenever, in the pitch darkness of night or the light of day, Allah knows it; by His command He has angels charged with watching what everyone does and recording it down to the finest detail.

The truth is that unless a community or a person changes their conduct together with what is in their inner world, Allah does not change their state; and if Allah wills to punish a community or a person who deserves punishment, no power can prevent it.

By sending you lightning, which brings fear, and then rain, Allah counsels you to live with fear and hope together in balance, and never to let the fear of Hell and the blessings of Paradise slip from your minds.

Thunder too is among the proofs of Allah’s boundless power and greatness. By His command Allah directs thunderbolts in whatever direction He wills and makes them fall wherever He wills, and on whomever He wills. The angels carry out these tasks flawlessly by Allah’s command. Those who have conditioned themselves to deny the truth pay no heed to all these truths they see, hear, and live through, and turn their backs on them.

Serve Allah alone, and pray and ask for help from Him alone. The case of those who pray and ask for help from others than Allah is like that of someone who stretches his hands out toward water and waits for the water to come to his mouth; by doing so the water will never reach his mouth.

The prayer of those who associate partners with Allah is just like the prayer of those who stretch their hands toward water and wait for it to come to their mouths. When they pray and ask for help, their prayers are not answered; their prayers have no value with Allah.

O people! What is wrong with you, that while all Allah has created in the heavens and on the earth, down to their shadows, move morning and evening within the bounds of the perfect order and laws He has established, you shrink from living within the bounds of the order and morality to which you are invited?

O Prophet! If you ask people, “Who is the Creator and Lord (Owner) of the heavens, the earth, and what is between them?” they will surely say, “Allah.” Then say to them: “How is it, then, that you turn your backs on the call of Allah, who governs His creation so perfectly through the order He has established, and turn to the call of beings created like yourselves?” Say: “Can the seeing and the unseeing, darkness and light, ever be equal? Do those you run after have the knowledge and power to create and govern as Allah does? Without doubt the right to govern what He has created belongs to Allah alone, and there is no true Lord and God but Him. Allah has given no one the authority to establish an order or lay down rulings over His servants. This authority belongs exclusively to Allah.” He has power over everything.

When Allah sends down rain from the sky and it fills the streambeds until they overflow, the rubbish and foam on the surface of the flowing water are swept along with it and vanish. Just as the scum that forms on the metals people melt in fire to make ornaments separates from the pure metal and vanishes… Thus Allah explains truth and falsehood to people through such a parable. The rules of the order of life to which Allah invites people are like the pure metal, which never vanishes, is firm, and never decays.

For those who believe in their Lord’s call and do their utmost to live by it and keep it alive there are the finest rewards.

As for those who turn their backs on Him, even if they possessed all the riches on earth, and twice as much, they would gladly give all of it and more as ransom at once to escape the terrible punishment of Hell.

Thus Hell, where they will remain forever, awaits with such a punishment those who turn their backs on Allah’s call.

O Prophet! Can one who strives to live the life to which the Quran invites be the same as one who closes his eyes, stops his ears, and turns his back on this truth? Only those of pure mind reflect on this and understand it. They believe in Allah and keep the word they have given.

Such people uphold the unity of Allah, Lord, and God (the One who creates, owns, and governs), which Allah has commanded to be joined; they do not break this unity apart and violate tawhid. They also fear the punishment in the Hereafter for living cut off from the order of life that is Allah’s call. Moreover, these believers hold out, without compromising their faith, against the hardships they meet in the cause of living and keeping alive a life pleasing to Allah; they perform their prayers scrupulously; they spend in His way, in secret and openly, from what Allah has given them as provision; and they remove evil with good. These will be rewarded and attain a happy end, and in the Gardens of Eden they will be together with those of their fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, spouses, and children who, like them, lived in keeping with Allah’s call in their worldly lives. In the Hereafter the angels charged with this will come to them and say: “Peace be upon you! As the result of the effort you showed in the cause of living and keeping alive Allah’s call, enter Paradise to live in security, peace, and happiness, and enjoy its blessings.”

Though Allah has placed in their innate nature the faculties to reflect on the reason for their creation and to comprehend the order of life that accords with it, many of the people He has created break the bonds with Allah that come from their creation. They violate the unity of Allah, Lord, and God, which He has commanded to be joined. Thus they stir up discord and mischief on the earth and cause degeneration and decay. Such people, and those who follow them, will incur Allah’s curse and be condemned to the punishment of Hell.

Many people too, though it has been made known to them that they are being tested by the blessings bestowed on them, pay no heed to counsel and warnings, and grow ungrateful, conceited, and unruly. Yet Allah will call everyone to account for the way they used the blessings He bestowed, abundantly on some and in limited measure on others.

The blessings and pleasures of worldly life are nothing but a passing diversion, whereas the blessings of the life of the Hereafter are lasting and better.

O Muhammad! Those who close their eyes and stop their ears against the truth still do not wish to believe in your prophethood, and they say: “If he is a prophet, should he not have been given a miracle and come to us with his miracle?”

Say to them: “Had you tried to see and understand the truth to which you are invited instead of seeing a miracle, it would have been better for you.” Allah leaves to themselves in error those who stubbornly refuse to see, understand, and live by this truth.

And He guides to His right path those who wish to know the reason for their creation and live in keeping with it, and brings them to peace through His verses.

Know well that hearts find peace and contentment only by turning to Allah.

The finest of ends awaits those who grasp Allah’s purpose in creating human beings and strive to live believing in His call.

O Prophet! Just as We sent a prophet to every community that has come and gone, so We have sent you as a prophet to the community in which you live. Invite them, with the Quran We have revealed to you, to live the life that is the reason for their creation, and say to them: “My Lord is Allah alone, and there is no true god but Him. I have been commanded to trust in Him alone and to live in submission to His call; in the end our return will be to Allah.”

O Prophet! Even if those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth, who ask you to show them miracles, were to see mountains set in motion by this Quran, the earth split apart, and the dead brought back to life and made to speak, they still would not believe in and turn to the call you make in Allah’s name.

Allah certainly has power to do whatever He wills, and He has power over everything. Had Allah willed, He would have created all people without free will, compelled to accept guidance.

But Allah has created people with the capacity to choose to be believers, hypocrites, those who associate partners with Him, or those who deny the truth, and to live accordingly, and He tests them. The believers believe that this is Allah’s law and act accordingly. Let those who reject Allah’s call and choose to live by orders of life invented by beings created like themselves not forget that, because of this choice, calamities and disasters will befall them again and again and they will live a troubled life. Allah’s word is surely fulfilled, and Allah never goes back on His word.

O Prophet! Have no doubt that the calls the prophets before you made in Allah’s name were also mocked and rejected by those who associated partners with Allah and denied the truth. We gave them time in case they might turn back from their shirk and disbelief, and in the end We seized in an iron grip and punished those who stubbornly persisted in their wrongs. So they saw what the penalty for mockery and rejection was like.

Can Allah, who created everything in the heavens, on the earth, and between them, and who sees and watches over what His creatures do, be the same as one who has no knowledge or power to create anything and is himself created? Though this truth is plain to see, those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth do not refrain from taking other gods alongside Him and associating partners with Him.

Say to them: “Give those you have taken as gods whatever names you like and attach to them whatever titles you please. Or does Allah have partners among the people He has created, to whom He has given divine authority, and does He not know of it? These are nothing but your baseless fictions and fabrications.” Satan makes the ugly life these ungrateful people who associate partners with Allah live seem pleasing and fine to them, and they stray from living the order and morality that accords with their innate nature. However much you call such people to what is right, they stop their ears and do not wish to hear.

For them there is punishment in their worldly life too, but their punishment in the Hereafter is far more severe, and no one can save them from Allah’s punishment.

As for the Paradise Allah has promised to those who strive heart and soul to live the life that is His call, it is gardens through which rivers flow, with trees of every kind whose fruit never diminishes, and whose shade is enjoyed to the full. Such is the destination of those who believe in His call and follow His Prophet. But the destination of those who deny the truth will be Hell.

O Prophet! Some of the People of the Book also rejoice, as the believers do, at being invited through the Quran We have sent down to you; they believe in it and choose to become believers. But many of them dislike Allah’s verses and turn away.

Say to them: “I have been commanded to call people to follow Allah’s call and so to serve Him. In the end your return will be to Him, and you will be called to account for your way of life.”

We have sent down Our verses in words made up of Arabic letters.

If, after this knowledge that has come to you through the Quran, you give in to the wishes of others, you will find neither friend nor helper to save you from Allah’s punishment.

We gave wives and children to the prophets We sent before you too. You, like them, are a servant and messenger of Allah. You cannot produce a miracle of your own accord and show it to anyone; it is Allah alone who will decide to create and show miracles. Allah knows best how, and by what means, He will invite each community to live the reason for its creation. Allah sets miracles before whatever community He wills, and removes them from whatever community He wills. Judging by what each community should be warned belongs to Allah, and the original of the Books is with Him.

Whether We show you in this world part of the punishment We have warned those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth of, or cause you to die before that, it makes no difference to you. For your task, as long as you live, is to invite people to live by the order and morality that is the reason for Allah’s creating them. The reckoning belongs to Us alone.

Do people not see and reflect that, by the order We have established and the laws We have laid down, We are every moment diminishing the lifespan of what We have created on the earth and bringing it closer to its end?

Allah swiftly calls to account those who presume to lay down rulings over His servants besides Him, and those who consent to and follow these rulings, and gives them the penalty they deserve.

Those who lived before them also laid traps for Allah’s prophets and sought to block His call. But Allah saw and knew all the traps they laid, and He undid every one of them. Allah knows best what everyone does and what each deserves and is worthy of. Those who have conditioned themselves to deny a life whose limits Allah has set will see who comes out the winner in the end.

They still say to you, “You are not someone chosen and appointed by Allah as a prophet.”

Say to them: “Allah suffices as a witness between me and you, and so do those who truly understand this divine Word!”