Surah Ghafir: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

Ha. Mim.

This divine Book has been sent down, as verses made up of the letters you use to express what you think and know, by Allah, who creates everything by His knowledge and power.

Allah guides to the right path those who reflect on the reason for their creation and wish to live in keeping with it, and He accepts the repentance of such people. Allah is most merciful and forgiving toward the believers, and severe in punishment toward those who associate partners with Him. There is no true god but Him, and in the end the return is to Him.

Those who call Allah’s verses lies and turn away from them are the ones who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth. Do not let their swaggering about in their wealth, enjoying themselves as they roam the land, deceive you. When the time comes they will give account for this and suffer its penalty.

Long before them, the people of Noah and many of the peoples who came after them also accused the prophets who invited them to guidance of lying and rejected them; going further still, they laid traps and did all they could to kill them and be rid of them. In the end I seized them in an iron grip and punished them with the punishment they deserved.

So your Lord’s word of punishment concerning those who persist in shirk and disbelief was fulfilled. In the Hereafter, too, they will find themselves in the fire of Hell.

The angels, who run the order Allah has established in the universe in keeping with the laws He has set, and the believers, who are conscious that sovereignty belongs to Allah alone, remember with praise the knowledge, power, and greatness of their Lord, give Him thanks, and pray thus: “Our Lord! You encompass everything with Your knowledge and power, Your mercy and compassion. Forgive in Your mercy those who repent and turn to You, and protect them from the punishment of Hell.

Our Lord! Unite them in the Gardens You have promised with those of their forefathers, their spouses, and their children who believe! Surely You have power over everything. Our Lord! Protect the believers from committing deeds that do not please You! Whomever You deem worthy of protection, You have granted Your compassion and mercy. And this is the true salvation, gain, and happiness.”

Those who turn away from the system of life that is Allah’s call will be addressed thus in the Hereafter: “Allah’s anger toward you, when in the world you were ungrateful to Allah and rejected His call, is greater than the anger you now feel toward yourselves in the face of Hell.” On That Day those who have deserved Hell will say: “Our Lord! Before this dreadful punishment of fire we are dying and coming back to life again and again, and we admit our guilt. Is there no pardon for us, no way out of this punishment?”

They will be answered thus: “The reason you have come to this is that in your worldly life you resisted accepting Allah’s call. Yet whenever you were called to take other gods alongside Allah, you at once listened to those who called you and went after them. Now you accept and confess that judgment and sovereignty, in the world and in the Hereafter, belong to Allah, but you are far too late.”

Is it not enough proof that Allah alone is your Lord and your God that He created you, provides for you with the rain He sends down from the sky, and endows you with more blessings than you can count? Only those of pure understanding who seek the truth can grasp this.

O believers! Turn to Allah, purified of shirk and disbelief, even though those who deny the truth dislike it. Allah the Exalted, who created the universe, established its order, and governs it by the laws He has set, the Owner of the Throne, who raises in rank those who are worthy, counsels people through the prophets and Books He sends, and warns them of the Day of Reckoning.

When people are raised, brought out of their graves, and brought into Allah’s presence, everything they did in their worldly lives, in secret or openly, will be laid bare, and it will be shown once more that authority to judge and rule over His servants belongs to Allah alone.

And on That Day every person will be given the recompense for what he did, and no one will be wronged.

Allah is the most just and the swiftest in reckoning. Through the Quran, Allah’s Messenger warns people of That Day, when hearts will press against throats as if to choke. On That Day those who ended their worldly lives associating partners with Allah and denying the truth will find neither a friend nor a helper (an intercessor). For every crime, hidden or open, will have been laid bare, and no one will have anything left to say to anyone.

On That Day Allah’s justice will be made manifest once again. It will become plain that those taken as gods alongside Allah have no authority at all and can rule over nothing. Allah hears everything and knows what is hidden in hearts.

Do those who associate partners with Allah never travel through the land and look at what became of those who lived before them? Those who were destroyed in the past were mightier than they, and left deeper marks on the earth. Allah seized them in an iron grip for their shirk and disbelief and punished them, and they found no one who could protect them from Allah’s punishment. For they had called the call made in Allah’s name through prophets and Books a lie and rejected it. So Allah punished them with the punishment they deserved. Allah is All-Mighty, and His punishment is most severe.

We also sent Moses, supported by Our verses and miracles as proof of his prophethood, to Pharaoh and to Korah; but they said of Moses, “A skilled sorcerer and an out-and-out liar.”

When Moses, with Our verses, invited them to live in keeping with the truth, Pharaoh not only rejected Moses’ call but said, “Kill the males of those who believe with him, boys and men alike; spare their women and girls, and humiliate them.” But Allah brought their schemes to nothing.

Pharaoh had also said to those around him: “Leave Moses to me; I will kill him with my own hands. Let him plead with his Lord, and we shall see whether He can save him from me! Then everyone will see and understand what it means for Moses to set out to abolish our established order (our religion) and change our beliefs. If we do not get rid of him but leave him free, I fear he will spread corruption in the land and change our order.”

When Moses heard this, he said: “I seek refuge in Allah, my Lord and your Lord, from everyone who, arrogant and boastful, says whatever comes into his head without taking Allah into account, and gives no thought to the Day of Reckoning when he speaks.”

When Pharaoh decided to kill Moses, a man of Pharaoh’s royal house, who believed in the call Moses made in Allah’s name but had kept his faith hidden until that day, opposed Pharaoh’s decision and said: “What is the matter with you, that you set out to kill a man because he says, ‘My Lord is Allah’? Yet he has come to you from your Lord with clear proofs and miracles. If he is lying, he will pay the price for his lie; but if he is telling the truth, the punishment he warns and threatens you with will come down upon you. And know this well: if Moses is lying, Allah never lets liars attain their aims anyway. O my people! Today power and rule in the land are in your hands; perhaps you are the mightiest on earth; but if the punishment Allah has promised comes down upon you, who will save you from it?”

At this Pharaoh said to his people: “I am only telling you my own view, and calling you to what I consider right.” After these words of Pharaoh, the man of the royal house who had chosen to be a believer went on: “O my people! I fear that the punishment which befell the peoples who came and went before you, the people of Noah, Ad, and Thamud, and many more, will befall you too. Do not forget that Allah does not punish His servants without cause.

O my people! I also fear that you will be condemned to punishment on the Day of Resurrection, when everyone will cry out, calling to one another for help.

In the terror of that Day of Resurrection you will turn your backs and try to flee, but you will find nowhere to escape from Allah’s hands, and on That Day no one will be able to help you. Allah leaves those who overstep the bounds alone with their wanton rebellion. And no one can lead such people to the right path.

O my people! Before Moses, Joseph too came to your forefathers, and so to you, with clear proofs; yet they doubted the system of life to which he invited them with the clear verses and proofs he brought from your Lord, and held back from believing and responding to it; and in the end, when Joseph died, they said, ‘Allah will never send another prophet after him.’ Is this why you will not believe in Moses now? Do not forget that Allah leaves in error those who doubt without end, who flounder in a swamp of doubt, and who overstep the bounds and run riot.

Those who, without any proof or knowledge in their hands, talk recklessly and dispute about Allah’s verses arouse great anger in the sight of Allah and among the believers. Surely, in this way, the hearts of the ignorant who grow arrogant, swagger, and give themselves airs of greatness harden against the truth and are sealed.”

After what the believer had said, Pharaoh turned to Haman and mocked, saying, “O Haman! Build me a lofty tower, so that I may reach the Lord of Moses before this punishment they speak of reaches me. In truth I believe Moses is a liar, but who knows, perhaps up there I may come across his Lord, his God.” This denial and wanton rebellion of Pharaoh’s seemed fine to him, and so it kept him from reaching what is right. In the end the traps he laid for Moses and his mocking words brought about Pharaoh’s destruction.

After this mocking attitude of Pharaoh’s, the man of the royal house who had chosen to be a believer said: “O my people! Come, you too follow me; follow me and turn to the system of life that is the reason for our creation, so that you may find the right path. O my people! Do not forget that this worldly life is nothing but fleeting pleasures and goods, while the Hereafter is the home of everlasting life. Whoever does evil will be paid the full penalty for what he did.

And whoever does good as a believer, whether woman or man, will there attain blessings boundless and of indescribable beauty. O my people! It is beyond understanding that while I call you to salvation, to happiness, to what is right, you call me to take Pharaoh as lord and god, and so to the fire of Hell. Without any knowledge or proof in your hands, you want me to accept Pharaoh as someone with authority to lay down rulings over our lives. Yet Allah has given no one but Himself authority to lay down rulings over His servants.

I invite you to follow the system of life that is the call of Allah, whose knowledge and power are infinite, who is absolutely Mighty and Exalted, and who is most merciful and forgiving toward those who repent and turn to what is right. But you call me to take Pharaoh as god and be among those who deserve Hell. Never let this truth slip from your minds: in the end the place we will all reach is Allah’s presence. The place of those who turn their backs on Him will be Hell.

When That Day comes, you will see and understand how true and how valuable what I am telling you is. I devote myself to living a life that will please Allah. Surely Allah sees and watches over His servants.”

Allah saved this believing servant of His from the schemes and oppression of that people, who associated partners with Allah, denied the truth, and did wrong. And He punished Pharaoh and his men with the punishment they deserved.

Yet they had been told, morning and evening, that because they persisted in shirk and disbelief they would be cast into the fire of Hell. Even so, they did not give up their shirk and disbelief.

After the Day of Resurrection the angels will be told, “Cast Pharaoh and those with him into the Fire, the most severe of punishments.”

When those who rejected the counsel and warnings given them dispute with one another in the Fire, the weak will say to their leaders who insolently gave themselves airs of greatness: “We followed you in our worldly life. You promised to solve our problems and help us. Come on, then; lighten this punishment a little now and take it away from us.” And those arrogant leaders who gave themselves airs of greatness will say to them: “We are all in the same Fire; what can we do? Allah has now passed His judgment on us all, and it is far too late.” Then they will all say together to the keepers of Hell, “Please plead with our Lord to lighten the punishment of the Fire just a little.”

And the keepers of Hell will say to them: “Did the prophets and the Books not warn you with clear verses and proofs? We have no authority to make such a request of our Lord; you plead and implore, but we know that today pleading and imploring are in vain.”

Surely We will help Our prophets and those who believe with them, both in their worldly lives and on the Day of the Hereafter, when the witnesses will be heard.

On the Day of Reckoning the excuses offered by those who associate partners with Allah will be of no use to them; there too they will be cursed, deprived of all good, and condemned to the most terrible of punishments.

Long ago We gave Moses too the Book of guidance that invites people to live in keeping with the reason for their creation, and made the Children of Israel heirs to that Book, so that those of pure understanding might reflect and arrive at what is right.

O Prophet! Bear hardships as Moses did, patient and steadfast! Do not forget that Allah’s promise of help and victory will surely be fulfilled. And when you make a mistake, ask your Lord for forgiveness, and morning and evening never let your Lord’s greatness slip from your mind!

Those who talk recklessly about Allah’s verses without any knowledge or proof harbor within them a craving for greatness and for power to rule that they will never be able to satisfy. Seek refuge in your Lord from their evil. He sees and watches over everything. Greatness and sovereignty belong to Allah alone.

Say to those among people who do not believe they will be raised again after death: “Creating the heavens and the earth is a far greater thing than creating people.” But most people do not wish to understand that Allah’s knowledge and power suffice for everything. Of course one who uses his reason and grasps Allah’s power cannot be the same as one who does not use his reason; just as the blind and the seeing are not the same, one who believes in Allah’s call, submits to it, and enters the right path is not the same as one who turns away from it and chooses to associate partners with Allah.

O people! How little you use your reason! Have no doubt that the Last Hour will come, yet most of you do not believe it.

Allah declares that He will answer the prayers of those who repent, give up their sins, and turn to His call; and He makes known that those who turn away from His call, whose pride will not let them worship Him, He will condemn to Hell, humbled and disgraced.

It is Allah who made the night dark for you to rest in and the day bright for you to go about your work. Allah is most bountiful toward people, but most people, though they make use of the blessings Allah bestows, are ungrateful to Him and do not turn to His call.

Such is Allah, who created everything for you, established its order, and placed it at your service, and there is no true god but Him. Then how is it that, while you see all this and benefit from it, you associate partners with Allah and turn to the call of servants He has created? Those who will not give up such conduct are people whose minds are warped, who have strayed from the right path, who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth.

It is Allah who created people and gave them the finest form, made the earth fit for people to live on, built the vault of the sky above you, and provides for you with pure and wholesome blessings; and exalted is Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.

O people! Allah, who creates everything, gives it its form, establishes its perfect order, and is Ever-Living, is the true God. So call on Him alone; He alone is worthy of praise and thanks.

Say: “Since it has been made known to me with clear proofs from my Lord how I must live, I cannot serve those you worship instead of Allah. I have been commanded only to submit to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds, and to take no god but Him.”

O people! It is Allah who first created you from dust, then from sperm, a drop of the fluid of life, then from a fertilized egg cell, and brings you into the world as a baby. Then you reach maturity and grow old; some of you die before reaching that age, and some of you complete your worldly life amid the blessings He bestows, until the term Allah has set by His laws. Despite all this, do you not think that you ought to turn to Allah’s call?

It is Allah who creates, gives life, and causes to die. When He wills a thing and decrees it, He only says to it, “Be,” and at once it enters the process of coming into being.

Just look at the state of these ignorant people, who without any knowledge keep talking recklessly about Allah’s verses! Despite so many truths, they abandon Allah and follow beings created like themselves.

Those who call Our call a lie and reject it, the call We made through this Quran and through the Books We sent with earlier prophets, will understand, when the time comes, how blind and deaf they were. On the Day of Reckoning, with iron collars fastened around their necks and bound in chains, they will be dragged into boiling water and then burn in the Fire. And they will be addressed thus: “Now tell us, where are those you took as gods alongside Allah?” And those who associated partners with Allah will say: “They have abandoned us and vanished. So we were badly wrong to follow them while we were in the world.” Thus does Allah leave those who associate partners with Him and deny the truth in remorse and helplessness.

This penalty is because they arrogantly turned away from the system of life that is Allah’s call and behaved without restraint.

Come now, you who associated partners with Allah! Enter now through the gates of Hell, to remain in it forever. What a wretched final abode Hell is for the ungrateful who were arrogant and boastful!

Hold out with patience against the difficulties and hardships you meet in Allah’s way. Allah’s promise will surely be fulfilled. Whether We show you part of the penalty those who persist in denying the reason for their creation have deserved coming upon them, or take your soul before showing you, it is an inescapable truth that they will be brought into Our presence and give account.

O Prophet! Before you, too, We sent many prophets. The stories of some of them We have told you, and of some We have said nothing at all. Without doubt no prophet can show any miracle without Allah’s permission. And once Allah’s punishment has become certain for those who deserve it, no one can prevent it. Then justice is done as it should be, and those who defend falsehood suffer ruin and are destroyed.

It is We who created the animals and placed them at your service, some for you to ride and some whose meat you benefit from. There are many other benefits in those animals for you; with them you reach distant destinations, and through them you attain many of the needs you long for. On land you carry your loads on them, and at sea on ships. These are Allah’s favors to you.

O people! With many examples Allah shows you and makes known to you that He is the one true God. Can you possibly close your eyes to these proofs of Allah and pretend they do not exist?

Do these people who associate partners with Allah, as they travel through the land, never look at what became of those who lived before them and reflect? They were more numerous than they, mightier, and left deeper marks on the earth. But what they earned and amassed, their power and their positions, were of no use to them at all.

Those who refuse to live by the system of life that is the reason for their creation, who grow arrogant and mock the believers, at once begin to say, when they meet the punishment they deserve, “We take Allah alone as God, and we disown those we associated with Him as partners.” But saying so after they have seen the punishment will be of no use to them. This is the law Allah has always applied to His servants. Those who turn their backs, though they were invited to the reason for their creation, will suffer ruin.