Surah Saba English Translation & Transliteration

¹All praise belongs to Allah, the true Owner of everything in the heavens and on the earth. And in the Hereafter, too, all praise will belong to Him. For it is He whose every judgment is right and who is aware of everything.

²For He knows all that goes into the earth and all that comes out of it, all that comes down from the sky and all that ascends to it. He is the infinite source of mercy, matchless in forgiveness.

³The disbelievers who do not believe in the reality that the Hour, the end of this world, will come said: —The Hour will not come upon us. Say to them: —No! I swear by my Lord, who knows all that is to come, that the Hour will surely come upon you. For nothing in the heavens or on the earth, even the weight of an atom, is outside His knowledge. Whether smaller than that or larger, all of it is recorded under a clear law.

⁴So that Allah may reward those who believe and do right and good deeds. Boundless forgiveness and provision of indescribable beauty await them.

⁵As for those who strive to render Our verses void, for them there is a painful and wretched punishment.

⁶Those who understand and grasp the truth that has come to them know that this Quran sent down to you from your Lord is a true Book, and that it shows people the path of Allah, who is absolutely supreme and worthy of all praise.

⁷The disbelievers who cover up the truths say: —Shall we show you a man who claims that you will be raised again after you have been torn to pieces and scattered?

⁸Has he invented this claim and slandered Allah, or is he a madman in touch with the jinn? No! The real slanderers and madmen are those who, not believing in the Hereafter, are sunk in the mire of torment and misguidance.

⁹Do they not see that the sky and the earth surround them on every side? If We wished, We could make the earth swallow them up or rain stones down on their heads from the sky. In this there is surely a lesson for every servant who turns to Allah with his whole being.

¹⁰Indeed, We bestowed a great favor from Ourselves on David, granting him revelation and kingship. We said: —O mountains, glorify Allah together with David; and you birds, join him! And We taught him to melt iron.

¹¹And so We commanded: "Make from that iron coats of mail, neither too thin nor too thick, fitting the body; and you, O family of David, work to do good and beautiful deeds!" For I see what you do.

¹²And to Solomon We granted the use of the power of the wind, so that in the morning he traveled a month's journey and in the evening returned from a month's journey. We also granted him wide means of making use of copper. By his Lord's leave, certain jinn worked under his command. Whoever of them strayed from Our command We punished with a painful punishment.

¹³Those master craftsmen made for Solomon whatever he wished: temples, statues, great bowls like basins, and fixed cauldrons. O family of David! Work to give thanks/to give the blessings their due, for few of My servants give the blessings their due and are grateful.

¹⁴At last, when We brought Solomon's rule to an end, he did not notice that his state, on which he relied, was being gnawed away from within as if by a worm and was collapsing. It became clear that, had the jinn known the future, they would not have gone on laboring at those degrading heavy tasks.

¹⁵Indeed, there are many lessons in the homeland of the people of Sheba: those lovely gardens stretching all along the right and left sides of the valley! It was as if they were saying: —Eat of the provision your Lord has bestowed on you, and give thanks to Him; see what a fine land you have, and what a forgiving Lord!

¹⁶But they turned away from gratitude. So We sent upon them a violent flood that destroyed their dams. As a result, We turned those lovely gardens of theirs into barren land covered with bitter-fruited shrubs and tamarisks, with a few lote trees (sidr) among them.

¹⁷That is how We punished them for their ingratitude. Do We punish any but ungrateful disbelievers?

¹⁸Between the homeland of the people of Sheba and the towns whose lands We had blessed, We had placed villages close to one another and within sight of each other, and stopping places, and made travel between them easy and safe: "Travel among them in safety by night and by day!"

¹⁹Yet in their ingratitude they came close to saying: "Our Lord, lengthen the distances between our stopping places on our journeys!" and so they wronged and harmed themselves. So after the flood We broke them up and scattered them, and turned them into legends of the past. In this there are many lessons for those who endure hardships patiently and are grateful for blessings.

²⁰Indeed, Iblis's claim about human beings thus came true in the people of Sheba. For all but a few believers followed him.

²¹Yet Iblis had no real power over them. The reason We gave him this opportunity was to bring to light those who believe wholeheartedly in the Hereafter and those who are in doubt about it. Do not forget that everything is under your Lord's watch.

²²Say: —Go on, call in prayer on those you place between yourselves and Allah. They do not possess even an atom's weight of power in the heavens or on the earth. For they have no share in the heavens or the earth, and Allah has not appointed any of them as His helper.

²³In Allah's presence intercession benefits no one except those He permits. At last, when the fear is removed from their hearts, they say: —What did your Lord say? And they say: "We have now understood the truth: that He is the most exalted of all and the greatest of the great."

²⁴Say: —Who provides for you from the heavens and the earth? Say: —Allah. So either we are on the right path or you are! Either you are in clear misguidance or we are.

²⁵Say: —You will not be called to account for the crimes we commit, nor will we be called to account for the crimes you commit.

²⁶Say: —For our Lord will gather us all together before Him, and then judge between us with truth. For it is He who judges with justice and knows all things.

²⁷Say: —Show me those you have accepted as His partners and associated with Him! No indeed—they have no such quality at all! The truth is that it is Allah who is absolutely supreme and exalted and who does everything in its proper place.

²⁸We have sent you only as a bearer of good news and a warner to all humanity. But most of them do not even know this.

²⁹And they even go so far as to say: —If you are truthful in your claim, then tell us, when will this promise you threaten us with come?

³⁰Say to them: —Every promise made to you has its appointed hour. You can neither delay it by a single moment nor bring it forward by a single moment.

³¹The disbelievers who cover up the truths said: —We will never believe in this Quran, nor in the revelations that came before it. If only you could see the moment when these wrongdoers who do not believe in this revelation are held before their Lord, blaming one another! Those who were kept weak and deceived will say to their leaders who acted arrogantly and deceived them: —Had it not been for you, we would surely have been believers.

³²Those who acted arrogantly will say to those they kept weak: —Was it we who forcibly kept you away from the guide, the Quran, after it had come to you? No, it is you who are the guilty ones.

³³Then the weak will say to the arrogant: —No, it was your scheming and plotting night and day, by which you imposed on us that we become estranged from Allah and set up others as His equals. They will feel the deepest remorse in the depths of their hearts when they see the punishment awaiting them. And We will put iron rings around the necks of those disbelievers. Is there any other recompense for what they did?

³⁴Whenever We sent a messenger to any land, its pampered rich said: —We do not believe in what you have brought.

³⁵—Besides, we have more wealth, property, and children than you, so we will not be punished at all, they say.

³⁶Say: —My Lord expands provision for whoever makes the necessary effort and gives it in measure. But most people do not know this truth.

³⁷It is neither your wealth nor your lineage that will bring you near to Us. But whoever believes and does good and beautiful deeds—these will be given a reward many times over for what they did. They will live in peace and security in the mansions of Paradise.

³⁸But as for those who strive to render Our verses void—they will be cast into Hell.

³⁹Say: —My Lord surely expands provision for whoever among His servants makes the necessary effort, and gives it to him in measure. Know that whatever you spend, He promptly replaces it. For He is the best of providers.

⁴⁰On the Day of Gathering Allah will gather them all before Him and ask the angels: —Was it you these people used to serve?

⁴¹The angels will say: —Far be it! You are exalted; we declare You free of all imperfection. You are our Protector, not they. Rather, they used to serve the jinn, for most of them believed in the jinn.

⁴²On that day We will say to the wrongdoers who persisted in error: —Today you are in no position to benefit or harm one another. So taste the punishment of Hell, about which you clung to lies and which you did not take into account!

⁴³For when Our clear verses were conveyed to them, they said: —This man only wants to keep you from what our forefathers served. And this Quran is not Allah's word but a pack of fabricated nonsense. Yes, when the Quran, which is the truth, was explained to these disbelievers, they said: "This is nothing but plain sorcery."

⁴⁴Yet We had given them, too, a Book from which to learn, and had sent them a warner before you.

⁴⁵Moreover, those before them also denied the truth. Yet these do not have even a tenth of the power and blessings We gave those. Yes, they accused My messengers of lying, but in the end, how was My punishment?

⁴⁶Say: —I have only one request of you: whether you gather and consult together or give your views one by one, think it over and weigh it carefully for Allah's sake. You will see that there is no trace of madness in your companion. He is only a messenger warning you before a severe punishment.

⁴⁷Say also: —I ask of you no wage for this message; keep it for yourselves. My wage will be given by Allah, and He is witness to all things.

⁴⁸Say: —There is no doubt that my Lord will do away with falsehood by means of the truth. For He knows all that is hidden.

⁴⁹Say: —For the eternal truth, the Quran, has come. Now falsehood can neither bring forth anything new nor regain its former strength.

⁵⁰Say: —If, despite this, I have fallen into misguidance, the burden of it is on my own neck. But if I have found the right path, it is thanks to the Quran my Lord has revealed to me. For He hears everything and is very near to the human being.

⁵¹If only you could see how terrified they are when they are seized and arrested from a place nearby, from which they cannot escape!

⁵²There they cry out, "We believe!"—but how could they now, when it is too late, believe and attain salvation from so far away?

⁵³Yet they had clung to lies in the face of these truths, and from as far away as the world they used to throw slurs at the Hereafter.

⁵⁴In the end, a barrier has been placed in the way of their wish to return, just as was done to their likes who came and went before them. For in the world they were in deep doubt about the truths they now say they believe in.