Surah Ar-Rahman: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

Allah, who is most merciful toward His creation, taught the Quran, and wanted the human being to think and speak by the Quran and to grasp with his reason why he was created.

Allah also makes the Sun and the Moon float and revolve in their orbits, bound to the order and laws He has set.

Plants and trees, with trunks and without, likewise carry out the task laid upon them within the bounds of the laws Allah has set.

Allah formed the heavens in layers one above another and established their order.

O people! Do not overstep the limits Allah has set for you and try to upset and disturb the balances. Live weighing and measuring by the morality of the order to which Allah invites, and do not depart from justice!

Allah has adorned and furnished the earth for all the living creatures He has created on it with fruits of every kind, date palms laden with clusters, grain sprouting on its stalks, fragrant flowers, and many other blessings, and made it ready for their service.

Living in the midst of these truths and benefiting from all His blessings, which of your Lord’s blessings can you deny?

Allah created the human being from dry clay and furnished him with limbs and organs, and He created the jinn from a smokeless flame.

This being the truth, O people! Which blessing bestowed by your Lord can you deny?

Allah is the Lord of all that lies between the places where the sun rises and sets. When this is plain to see, which of your Lord’s blessings can you deny?

Allah has let loose two seas, one with sweet water and the other with salt, made them meet, and by a barrier He set between them has kept their waters from mixing. How can you deny the power of your Lord, who ordained this by His boundless knowledge and has the power to do it?

From both of those seas He brings forth pearls and coral, large and small, and you benefit from many other blessings of theirs too. Despite this, which of these blessings can you say is not your Lord’s gift to you?

It is Allah who, by the order He has established and the laws He has laid down, makes ships like mountains float on the seas and places them at your service. Seeing and living these truths, which of your Lord’s blessings can you deny?

Everything on the earth will, when its time comes, be brought to an end by your Lord. Only your Lord, the Possessor of majesty and power, will remain. Since it is inevitable that in the end everyone will be gathered in His presence and called to account for the way they used the blessings He gave, which of your Lord’s blessings can you deny?

Everything in the heavens and on the earth is subject to the order and laws Allah has established. This being so, which of the blessings your Lord has bestowed on you can you deny?

O you whom We have created in pairs so that you might live by the order of life to which We invite you! When the day comes, We will ask you to account for whom, how, and where you used the blessings We gave; on that day, which of your Lord’s blessings will you deny?

O you who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth! Neither you nor those jinn devils of yours, whom you fear and whose help you seek, whose whisperings you fall for and run after, will find any place, beyond the heavens or beyond the earth, to escape and get away from giving account to Allah.

This being the truth, how can you deny your Lord’s power and the blessings you enjoy!

On the Day of Reckoning, those who turned away from Allah’s call though they lived their worldly lives with the blessings He bestowed will be condemned in Hell to a blazing red fire that burns and scorches with its flame and chokes with its smoke, and they will receive no help from anyone.

When you face this, which of your Lord’s blessings will you deny, lying that you never enjoyed it?

When the sky is split apart and turns red as a rose, like oil heated until it glows, which of your Lord’s blessings can you call a lie?

On that Day humans and jinn will not be asked about the attitude they took toward Allah’s call, for the records of what they did will already be handed to them.

On such a day, which of His blessings can you deny, saying, “Our Lord deprived us of His blessings”?

On that Day of Resurrection, those who associate partners with Allah, those who deny the truth, and the hypocrites will be known by their faces and their expressions, and they will be seized by the scruff of the neck and cast into Hell. This penalty is because of their ingratitude for the blessings Allah bestowed on them in their worldly lives.

On that Day, how will you deny that you enjoyed your Lord’s blessings in the world? On that Day it will be said to them, “This penalty is the recompense for your turning away from the order of life that is the reason your Lord created you.” They will be condemned to the punishment of fire and boiling water in Hell and punished. How can you deny a blessing of your Lord such as the Quran, which made known to you and warned you that these things would come to pass?

On that Day two Gardens will be granted to those who, believing that they will be brought before their Lord and give account, do righteous deeds and are worthy of reward.

Would those who believe that they will meet these rewards turn away from their Lord’s call, being ungrateful for His blessings? Both Gardens are adorned with fruit trees of every kind and color. In both there are fruits of every kind, and two springs flowing. When there are blessings of matchless beauty to be attained, how can you possibly deny the blessings of Paradise your Lord has promised?

Those deemed worthy to enter these Gardens will recline there on cushions of silk and satin, and eat of the many fruits of the trees of Paradise.

How can you deprive yourselves of the blessings of Paradise by turning your backs on the Islamic order of life to which your Lord invited you in your worldly life?

In those Gardens there will also be spouses, untouched before by the hand of human or jinn, whose eyes see none but their own spouses, fair in character and fair in form, protected like pearls and coral.

Allah is calling you to live the order and morality of Islam so as to bring you to such blessings. How can you turn your backs on this call and give up the blessings of Paradise?

The reward of goodness is nothing but goodness. Now, how can you deny your Lord’s blessings?

For His believing servants Allah has prepared two more Gardens besides these two, and furnished them with lush green plants of matchless beauty and many other blessings. Which of these can you say you do not accept?

In each of these two Gardens there are two springs from which crystal-clear waters gush. Which one of these blessings of your Lord can you say no to?

Which of you could refuse to enjoy the fruit and the shade of the pomegranate, the date palm, and the many other fruit trees in those gardens? In these Gardens, good-natured and beautiful spouses will also be awaiting the believers.

In those Gardens, where there is the finest of everything, which of these blessings would you wish to be deprived of, or give up?

No hand of human or jinn has ever touched these good-natured spouses of matchless beauty. The believers, reclining on cushions of green silk and satin in richly furnished pavilions, will enjoy these blessings of Allah there in peace and live there forever.

Which of all these blessings Allah has promised can you deny?

Allah, the Possessor of boundless knowledge, power, majesty, and generosity, will bestow all these blessings of His as a reward on the believers who strive heart and soul to live by the order of life centered on Allah.