The Dawn

CONSIDER the daybreak

and the ten nights!

Consider the multiple and the One!

Consider the night as it runs its course!

Considering all this - could there be, to anyone endowed with reason, a [more] solemn evidence of the truth?

ART THOU NOT aware of how thy Sustainer has dealt with [the tribe of] ‘Ad,

[the people of] Iram the many-pillared,

the like of whom has never been reared in all the land? –

and with [the tribe of] Thamud, who hollowed out rocks in the valley? –

and with Pharaoh of the [many] tent-poles?

[It was they] who transgressed all bounds of equity all over their lands,

and brought about great corruption therein:

and therefore thy Sustainer let loose upon them a scourge of suffering:

for, verily, thy Sustainer is ever on the watch!

BUT AS FOR man, whenever his Sustainer tries him by His generosity and by letting him enjoy a life of ease, he says, "My Sustainer has been [justly] generous towards me";

whereas, whenever He tries him by straitening his means of livelihood, he says, "My Sustainer has disgraced me!"

But nay, nay, [O men, consider all that you do and fail to do:] you are not generous towards the orphan,

and you do not urge one another to feed the needy,

and you devour the inheritance [of others] with devouring greed,

and you love wealth with boundless love!

Nay, but [how will you fare on Judgment Day,] when the earth is crushed with crushing upon crushing,

and [the majesty of] thy Sustainer stands revealed, as well as [the true nature of] the angels; rank upon rank?

And on that Day hell will be brought [within sight]; on that Day man will remember [all that he did and failed to do]: but what will that remembrance avail him?

He will say, "Oh, would that I had. provided beforehand for my life [to come]!"

For, none can make suffer as He will make suffer [the sinners] on that Day,

and none can bind with bonds like His.

[But unto the righteous God will say,] "O thou human being that hast attained to inner peace!

Return thou unto thy Sustainer, well-pleased [and] pleasing [Him]:

enter, then, together with My [other true] servants –

yea, enter thou My paradise!"