The Resurrection

[And yet, O man, thine end comes hourly] nearer unto thee, and nearer –

and ever nearer unto thee, and nearer!

Was he not once a [mere] drop of sperm that had been spilt,

DOES MAN, then, think that he is to be left to himself to go about at will?

NAY! I call to witness the Day of Resurrection!

But nay! I call to witness the accusing voice of man's own conscience!

Does man think that We cannot [resurrect him and] bring his bones together again?

Yea indeed, We are able to make whole his very finger-tips!

None the less man chooses to deny what lies ahead of him,

asking [derisively], "When is that Resurrection Day to be?"

But [on that Day,] when the eyesight is by fear confounded,

and the moon is darkened,

and the sun and the moon are brought together

on that Day will man exclaim "Whither to flee?"

But nay: no refuge [for thee, O man]!

With thy Sustainer, on that Day, the journey's end will be!

Man will be apprised, on that Day, of what he has done and what he has left undone:

nay, but man shall against himself be an eye-witness,

even though he may veil himself in excuses.

MOVE NOT thy tongue in haste, [repeating the words of the revelation:]

for, behold, it is for Us to gather it [in thy heart,] and to cause it to be read [as it ought to be read].

Thus, when We recite it, follow thou its wording [with all thy mind]:

and then, behold, it will be for Us to make its meaning clear.

NAY, but [most of] you love this fleeting life,

and give no thought to the life to come [and to Judgment Day]!

Some faces will on that Day be bright with happiness,

looking up to their Sustainer;

and some faces will on that Day be overcast with despair,

knowing that a crushing calamity is about to befall them.

NAY, but when [the last breath] comes up to the throat [of a dying man],

and people ask, "Is there any wizard [that could save him]?"

the while he [himself] knows that this is the parting,

and is enwrapped in the pangs of death

at that time towards thy Sustainer does he feel impelled to turn!

[Useless, though, will be his repentance: for [as long as he was alive] he did not accept the truth, nor did he pray [for enlightenment],

but, on the contrary, he gave the lie to the truth and turned away [from it],

and then went arrogantly back to what he had come from.

and thereafter became a germ-cell - whereupon He created and formed [it] in accordance with what [it] was meant to be,

and fashioned out of it the two sexes, the male and the female?

Is not He, then; able to bring the dead back to life?