The Announcement

Whereof do they question one another?

(It is) of the awful tidings,

Concerning which they are in disagreement.

Nay, but they will come to know!

Nay, again, but they will come to know!

Have We not made the earth an expanse,

And the high hills bulwarks?

And We have created you in pairs,

And have appointed your sleep for repose,

And have appointed the night as a cloak,

And have appointed the day for livelihood.

And We have built above you seven strong (heavens),

And have appointed a dazzling lamp,

And have sent down from the rainy clouds abundant water,

Thereby to produce grain and plant,

And gardens of thick foliage.

Lo! the Day of Decision is a fixed time,

A day when the trumpet is blown and ye come in multitudes,

And the heaven is opened and becometh as gates,

And the hills are set in motion and become as a mirage.

Lo! hell lurketh in ambush,

A home for the rebellious.

They will abide therein for ages.

Therein taste they neither coolness nor (any) drink

Save boiling water and a paralysing cold:

Reward proportioned (to their evil deeds).

For lo! they looked not for a reckoning;

They called Our revelations false with strong denial.

Everything have We recorded in a Book.

So taste (of that which ye have earned). No increase do We give you save of torment.

Lo! for the duteous is achievement -

Gardens enclosed and vineyards,

And voluptuous women of equal age;

And a full cup.

There hear they never vain discourse, nor lying -

Requital from thy Lord - a gift in payment -

Lord of the heavens and the earth, and (all) that is between them, the Beneficent; with Whom none can converse.

On the day when the angels and the Spirit stand arrayed, they speak not, saving him whom the Beneficent alloweth and who speaketh right.

That is the True Day. So whoso will should seek recourse unto his Lord.

Lo! We warn you of a doom at hand, a day whereon a man will look on that which his own hands have sent before, and the disbeliever will cry: "Would that I were dust!"