Surah Luqman English Translation & Transliteration

¹Alif Lam Mim.

²These are the verses of the Book/the Quran, which contains absolutely true knowledge and admonitions.

³It is a guide to the right path and a mercy for those who wish to fulfill their duty of servanthood in the best way,

⁴who perform the prayer and give the zakat; it is they who believe in the Hereafter without any doubt.

⁵These are on the right path shown by their Lord, and it is they who will attain salvation.

⁶But among people there are some who, without knowledge, put forward idle discourses to lead others astray from Allah's path and to render the verses void. For such people there is a ruinous and humiliating punishment.

⁷When Our verses are recited to such a person, he turns away as if there were a weight of lead in his ears and he had not heard them at all. So warn such a person of a painful punishment.

⁸But as for those who believe and do good deeds befitting their faith, for them there are gardens full of blessings,

⁹and, what is more, they will abide there. This is Allah's promise, the truth/reality. For He is absolutely supreme, and His every judgment is right.

¹⁰It is Allah who created the heavens without any pillars that you can see, set on the earth firm, immovable mountains lest it shake with you, and caused every kind of living creature to breed and multiply on it. And We send down water from the sky and with it cause every beautiful kind of plant to grow in pairs.

¹¹This is Allah's creation. Now show me what those they place between themselves and Allah have created! No! They cannot show it; the wrongdoers who persist in error are in clear misguidance.

¹²Indeed, We revealed this wisdom to Luqman: "Always give thanks to Allah! For whoever gives thanks does so only for his own good, and whoever is ungrateful, let him know well that Allah has no need of anyone's gratitude and is worthy of all praise."

¹³And Luqman, admonishing his son with this wisdom, said: —My dear son, never associate partners with Allah; shirk is a most terrible wrong.

¹⁴We have commanded the human being to treat his mother and father well. For his mother carried him in her womb, enduring hardship upon hardship, and his weaning took two years. So give thanks to Me and to your mother and father; do not forget that in the end the return is to Me!

¹⁵But if they try to force you to associate with Me as partners things of which you have no proof, never obey them! Yet still treat them kindly in this worldly life. Always follow the way of those who turn to Me wholeheartedly, for in the end your return will be to Me, and I will inform you, one by one, of what you did.

¹⁶—My dear son, even if a good or evil deed you do is as small as a mustard seed, and is hidden inside a rock or lost in the depths of the heavens or the earth, Allah will bring it out. For Allah penetrates everything with His knowledge and is aware of everything.

¹⁷—My dear son, perform the prayer, command what is good, prevent what is evil, and endure patiently the hardships that befall you. For these are matters that require resolve and perseverance.

¹⁸—Do not turn away from people in arrogance, and do not walk the earth with a swagger! For Allah does not love the conceited and boastful.

¹⁹—Be modest in your walk and always measured in your conduct. And do not raise your voice when you speak! For the ugliest of voices is the braying of the donkey.

²⁰Do you not see that Allah has placed everything in the heavens and on the earth at your service, and has immersed you in so many blessings, seen and unseen? Yet among people there are some who talk recklessly and dispute about Allah without any knowledge, divine guidance, or illuminating book.

²¹When such people are told: —Follow the Book/the Quran that Allah has sent down, they say: —No, we follow whatever we saw our forefathers doing. What, even if Satan was calling their forefathers to the punishment of Hell?

²²Whoever submits his whole self to Allah with sincerity and devotion has grasped a firm handhold. Do not forget that all matters in the end come back to Allah.

²³But whoever covers up the truths, do not let his disbelief grieve you. In the end their return will be to Me, and I will inform them, one by one, of what they did. For Allah knows the most intimate secrets of the hearts.

²⁴We let those ungrateful ones enjoy worldly blessings for a little while, then We drive them into a very heavy punishment.

²⁵If you ask them: —Who created the heavens and the earth? they will certainly say: "Allah." Say: —Praise be to Allah! But even so, most of them do not know this truth.

²⁶For whatever is in the heavens and on the earth belongs to Allah. Allah surely needs nothing and is worthy of all praise.

²⁷If all the trees on the earth were pens and the seas were ink, and even if seven more seas were added to them, Allah's words would still not be exhausted in the writing. For Allah is perfect in all He does, and His every judgment is right.

²⁸Creating you all and raising you all again is as easy for Allah as creating and raising a single person. Allah surely hears everything and sees everything.

²⁹Do you not see that Allah shortens the night and adds it to the day, and shortens the day and adds it to the night, and that He has placed the sun and the moon at your service, each flowing on in its own orbit until an appointed time? Allah is aware of everything you do.

³⁰This is because Allah is the Truth itself, and what they place between themselves and Allah and implore in prayer is falsehood, and because Allah is the most exalted of all and the only one who is truly Great.

³¹Do you not see the ships gliding through the sea by Allah's grace, so that He may lay His proofs before your eyes? In this there are many messages for those who are very patient in hardship and who give the blessings their due and are grateful.

³²When waves, each like a mountain, surround them on every side, they implore Allah alone, purified of shirk. But when Allah saves them and brings them to land, some of them take a middle course between tawhid and shirk. And none knowingly refuses to believe in Our verses but the ungrateful disbelievers.

³³So, O people, guard yourselves against defying your Lord, and fear the terror of that day when no child can benefit his father, nor any father his child! Know that Allah's promise will surely be fulfilled; so do not let this fleeting worldly life deceive you. And do not let the great deceiver deceive you about Allah!

³⁴Know well that the knowledge of when the final Hour, the end of this world, will come rests with Him alone. It is Allah who sends down the rain. He knows the state of the embryos in the womb. No one knows what he will earn tomorrow or what will befall him. Nor does anyone know where he will die. It is surely Allah who knows everything and is aware of everything.