Surah Ya-Sin: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

O humankind! By the Quran, full of wisdom, which makes plain the reason for your creation, Muhammad is a prophet who invites people to the straight path.

This Quran has been sent by Allah, the Creator of the universe, the Almighty (al-Aziz), the Most Gracious (ar-Rahman), the Most Merciful (ar-Rahim), to warn a people whose forefathers had not been warned for some time.

For those who stubbornly oppose the call the Prophet is making with the Quran in Allah’s name and persist in associating partners with Allah, Allah’s word of punishment will certainly come true.

It is as though iron collars had been fastened around the necks of such people so that they cannot bow to Allah’s call, or barriers had been set up before them and behind them so that they cannot see the truth, or veils had come down over their eyes so that they are unable to see. However much you warn them, it makes no difference; they will not believe.

O Prophet! You can warn only those who reflect on why they were created and how they should live, who are in search of this, and who turn to Allah sincerely and with this aim, trying to find the answer. Give these people the good news that, if they fulfill their responsibilities toward their Lord, they will be rewarded.

We will surely raise you to life after death. We will call every one of you to account for what you have sent ahead and what you have left behind. A record has been kept of all that every human being has done.

Tell them the story of the people of that city to whom We sent prophets. Once We sent two messengers to the people of that city and invited them, too, to live by the system and morality that is the reason for their creation, but they rejected both messengers. So We sent a third to support them. Although all three made it known that they were Allah’s messengers, the people of that city said to them: “You are only human beings like us. Allah, the Most Gracious, has sent nothing down to you. You are nothing but liars.”

Thereupon the messengers replied: “Our Lord knows that we truly are messengers sent to you. Our duty is to convey to you clearly, through Allah’s verses, the system of life that is the reason for your creation.”

The people retorted: “You have brought us bad luck. If you do not give up trying to change our way of life, we will pelt you with stones without mercy, heap insults on you, and make you suffer.” And the messengers turned to them and said: “Your bad luck stems from the way of life you have chosen. Do you blame us because we invite you to what is right and warn you with counsel? Sadly, you are an ungrateful people who have overstepped all bounds and run wild.”

While this was being said between the prophets and the people, a man came running from the far end of the city and said to his people: “O my people! Follow the call these men are making in Allah’s name, for they expect nothing in return from you! They are calling you to what is right, and they themselves are on the right path. And why should I refuse to serve Allah, who created both me and you and endowed us with so many blessings? Know well that we will all be raised to life and gathered in His presence to give account to Allah for the way we lived our worldly lives. O my people! With this truth in plain view, I cannot abandon my Lord, take other gods, and follow their systems.

If Allah, the Most Gracious, wishes me harm, those you have taken as lords and gods can never help me (intercede for me), nor can they save me from Allah. O my people! I have believed in the call of Allah, the Lord of us all, and taken Him alone as God. So bear witness to this, you too.”

Thereupon his people resolved to kill him, and his Lord gave him the good news of Paradise, saying, “Enter My Paradise.” And he lamented, “If only my people could understand that my Lord has forgiven me and rewarded me.”

After that believer was killed, We did not send down an army from the sky against them. They were simply destroyed by a terrible sound and were gone.

Woe to these people! Whenever a messenger comes to them, inviting them to live the life that is the reason for their creation, they at once call him a liar and mock him.

Do those who persist in behaving this way never consider how those before them were destroyed, and learn a lesson from it? They, too, and those before them and those after them, will all be brought before Us when the time comes, to give account.

O people! When you see how We revive the dead earth with rain and bring forth from it crops, palm groves, vineyards, and much else besides, and the springs We make gush forth amid gardens, and although you enjoy these blessings that you did not create with your own hands, will you be ungrateful instead of giving thanks to your Lord?

Infinite are the knowledge and power of your Lord, who created in pairs all the plants on earth, human beings, and things of which human beings as yet know nothing; He alone is the Exalted.

There are lessons to be drawn from the night too, which is a proof of the perfect working of Allah’s order in the universe. When We withdraw the light of day from it, everything is suddenly left in darkness.

The way the sun and the moon run their courses, in orbits appointed for them within the bounds of the laws of the order Allah has established, shows those who reflect how perfect Allah’s order is. Within this order the moon, as it runs along its appointed orbit, changes its shape until it looks like a curved palm stalk. The sun cannot overtake the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day. All of them keep revolving within the bounds of the laws to which they are bound.

There are lessons, too, for those who use their reason, in the order We have established on the seas, by which you carry your offspring and your cargo in ships, and in Our having created you with the ability to build similar means of transport. If We willed, We could sink the ships along with those on board; no one could come to their aid, and no one could prevent it. It is We alone who keep them alive for as long as We will.

When those who stubbornly refuse to live by the Islamic system of life, which is Allah’s call, are warned and told, “Beware of the rebellion and denial that will bring punishment upon you in this world and the Hereafter! Follow the call being made in Allah’s name, so that you may attain His mercy, compassion, and forgiveness,” all they do is turn away and turn their backs.

When such people are told, “Spend in the way of Allah’s call from the blessings Allah has given you, and give to those in need,” they say to the believers who tell them this, “What? Are we to feed people whom Allah could easily feed, and make owners of wealth and property, if He so willed? You have plainly lost your way.”

And they also turn to the believers and say: “Tell us, then, when will this promised Last Hour and time of reckoning come?” While they go on arguing about it, when the time your Lord has set arrives and the cry of that calamitous Day is heard, they will be able neither to go back nor to leave any last will. That Hour will come upon them all of a sudden.

Then, when the Trumpet is blown after it, they will all at once be brought out of their graves and rush toward their Lord, saying as they go, “Alas for us! Who has raised us from where we lay, and why?” And answering their own question, they will say, “This must be what the Most Gracious promised; so what the prophets said was true.”

That is what will happen on That Day. Everyone will be raised to life by that sound and gathered in their Lord’s presence to give account. No one will be wronged in the least; everyone will be held responsible for what they did, and for what they failed to do when they should have done it.

On that Day the people of Paradise will attain the finest blessings; in delight and happiness, in the Paradise promised them, they will begin their life of peace upon couches, together with the spouses promised them. This is a reward to them from their Lord, whose mercy is infinite.

And to those who turned away from His call Allah will say: “O you sinners! Did I not tell you, ‘Satan is your enemy; never follow him, or you will deserve Hell’? Now you have come face to face with it. And We had also sent prophets and books to warn you, telling you to follow your Lord’s call so that you would not be among the ungrateful, the wrongdoers, and those who associate partners with Allah. Why did you not learn a lesson from what befell those who went after Satan? Should you not have come to your senses? Now, as the recompense for this, enter Hell, which you have deserved. This is the very place you were promised.”

On That Day their making up excuses, whining, and complaining will count for nothing. For their mouths will be sealed, their hands will speak, and their feet will bear witness to what they did.

Had We not wanted people to grasp the truth and turn to Our call, We would not have created them with faculties to understand what they see and hear. They would then have been left bewildered and could never have reached what is right. Had We willed, We would have created them with a different nature for a different purpose.

O people! Whomever We grant a long life, We also diminish and reduce, as he grows old, the strength and abilities We granted him. So reflect on these truths you are living through, and before you reach that time and grow frail, strive to be among those who are saved by responding to the call made in Allah’s name and who are worthy of reward.

We did not teach the Prophet poetry. He invites you not to the words of a poet but to live, through your Lord’s Book, by the system of life that is the purpose of your creation. He is a messenger who counsels and warns with the Quran; being a poet and composing poetry do not befit him.

It is those who are truly alive, who use their reason and reflect, that benefit from the warnings the Prophet gives with the Quran. That is what the Quran has been sent down for.

Should those who deny the truth not give thanks to Allah and turn to Him when they look at the animals He has created, whose flesh, milk, and strength He lets them benefit from, and which He has made ready to do their bidding? Despite all this, hoping for more help from them, they turn to others besides Allah almost as if in worship, enter their service, and take them as gods.

So do not let the words of these ungrateful, unruly, insolent people grieve you. We know very well both what they intend and what they openly declare.

Shall We let the human being, whom We created from a drop of fluid and endowed with so many blessings, get away with being ungrateful to Us and rising up in rebellion? Instead of sitting down to consider how and why he was created and reflecting on how he should live, he goes so far as to say, “Who will give life to bones that have rotted and mixed with the soil, and raise them up again?” Say to that man who associates partners with Allah and denies the truth: “The One who created them in the first place will raise them to life again when the day comes.” Allah’s knowledge and power suffice to create anything He wills; there is no limit to His knowledge.

It is Allah who brings forth fire for you from the lush green tree, and you make use of it.

Allah, who created the heavens and the earth, surely has the knowledge and power to create the like of them anew. He is the only Creator, possessing knowledge of everything.

When Allah, with His matchless knowledge and power of creation, wills to create something, He only says to it “Be!”, and at once it enters the process of coming into being, and it is.

Absolute authority and sovereignty over all He has created belong to Allah alone, the Most High, and in the end you too will be returned to Him.