IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God.
By those who tear out violently!
And by those who gaily release 1!
And by those who float through the air!
And the preceders who precede 2!
[5] And those who manage the affair!
On the day when the quaking 3 quakes which the following one shall succeed! Hearts on that day shall tremble; eyes thereon be humbled!
[10] They say, 'Shall we be sent back to our old course?--What! when we are rotten bones?' they say, 'That then were a losing return!'
But it will only be one scare, and lo! they will be on the surface!
[15] Has the story of Moses 4 come to you? when his Lord addressed him in the holy valley of Tuvâ, 'Go unto Pharaoh, verily, he is outrageous; and say, "Hast thou a wish to purify thyself, and that I may guide thee to thy Lord, and thou mayest fear?"'
[20] So he showed him the greatest signs; but
he called him a liar and rebelled. Then he re-treated hastily, and gathered, and proclaimed, and said, 'I am your Lord most High!' [25] but God seized him with the punishment of the future life and of the former.
Verily, in that is a lesson to him who fears!
Are ye harder to create or the heaven that He has built? He raised its height and fashioned it; and made its night to cover it, and brought forth its noonday light; [30] and the earth after that He did stretch out. He brings forth from it its water and its pasture.
And the mountains He did firmly set, a provision for you and for your cattle.
And when the great predominant calamity shall come, [35] on the day when man shall remember what he strove after, and hell shall be brought out for him who sees!
And as for him who was outrageous and preferred the life of this world, verily, hell is the resort!
[40] But as for him who feared the station of his Lord, and prohibited his soul from lust, verily, Paradise is the resort!
They shall ask thee about the Hour, for when it is set. Whereby canst thou mention it? Unto thy Lord its period belongs.
[45] Thou art only a warner to him who fears it. On the day they see it, it will be as though they had only tarried an evening or the noon thereof.
318:1 Referring to the angel of death and his assistants, who tear away the souls of the wicked violently, and gently release the souls of the good.
318:2 The angels who precede the souls of the righteous to Paradise.
318:3 The trumpet blast at the last day, which shall make the universe quake.
