The letter Qaaf

[And] He will say: “Contend not before Me, [O you sinners,] for I gave you a forewarning [of this Day of Reckoning].

[every] withholder of good [and] sinful aggressor [and] fomentor of distrust [between man and man – everyone]

who has set up another deity beside God: cast him, then, cast him into suffering severe!”

Man’s other self’ will say: “O our Sustainer! It was not I that led his conscious mind into evil [nay,] but it had gone far astray [of its own accord]!

Qaf. CONSIDER this sublime Qur’an!

But nay - they deem it strange that a warner should have come unto them from their own midst; and so these deniers of the truth are saying, “A strange thing is this!

Why - [how could we be resurrected] after we have died and become mere dust? Such a return seems far-fetched indeed!”

Well do We know how the earth consumes their bodies, for with Us is a record unfailing.

Nay, but they [who refuse to believe in resurrection] have been wont to give the lie to this truth whenever it was proffered to them; and so they are in a state of confusion.

Do they not look at the sky above them - how We have built it and made it beautiful and free of all faults?

And the earth - We have spread it wide, and set upon it mountains firm, and caused it to bring forth plants of all beauteous kinds,

thus offering an insight and a reminder unto every human being who willingly turns unto God.

And We send down from the skies water rich in blessings, and cause thereby gardens to grow, and fields of grain,

and tall palm-trees with their thickly-clustered dates,

as sustenance appor­tioned to men; and by [all] this We bring dead land to life: [and] even so will be [man’s] coming-forth from death.

[Long] before those [who now deny resur­rection] did Noah’s people give the lie to this truth, and [so did] the folk of Ar-Rass, and [the tribes of] Thamud

and Ad, and Pharaoh, and Lot’s brethren,

and the dwellers of the wooded dales [of Madyan], and the people of Tubba: they all gave the lie to the apostles - and thereupon that whereof I had warned [them] came true.

Could We, then, be [thought of as being] worn out by the first creation? Nay - but some people are [still] lost in doubt about [the possibility of] a new creation!

NOW, VERILY, it is We who have created man, and We know what his innermost self whispers within him: for We are closer to him than his neck-vein.

[And so,] whenever the two demands [of his nature] come face to face, contending from the right and from the left,

not even a word can he utter but there is a watcher with him, ever-present.

And [then,] the twilight of death brings with it the [full] truth that [very thing, O man,] from which thou wouldst always look away! –

and [in the end] the trumpet [of resurrection] will be blown: that will be the Day of a warning fulfilled.

And every human being will come forward with [his erstwhile] inner urges and [his] conscious mind,

[and will be told:] “Indeed, unmindful hast thou been of this [Day of Judgment]; but now We have lifted from thee thy veil, and sharp is thy sight today!”

And one part of him will say: “This it is that has been ever-present with me!”

[Whereupon God will command:] “Cast, cast into hell every [such] stubborn enemy of the truth,

The judgment passed by Me shall not be altered; but never do I do the least wrong unto My creatures!”

On that Day We will ask hell, “Art thou filled?”- and it will answer, “[Nay,] is there yet more [for me]?”

And [on that Day] paradise will be brought within the sight of the God-conscious, and will no longer be far away; [and they will be told:]

“This is what you were promised - [promised] unto every­one who was wont to turn unto God and to keep Him always in mind –

[everyone] who stood in awe of the Most Gracious although He is beyond the reach of human perception, and who has come [unto Him] with a heart full of contrition.

Enter this [paradise] in peace; this is the Day on which life abiding begins!”

In that [paradise] they shall have whatever they may desire - but there is yet more with Us.

AND HOW MANY a generation have We destroyed before those [who now deny the truth] people of greater might than theirs; but [when Our chastise­ment befell them,] they became wanderers on the face of the earth, seeking no more than a place of refuge

In this, behold, there is indeed a reminder for everyone whose heart is wide-awake -that is, [every­one who] lends ear with a conscious mind -

and [who knows that] We have indeed created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six aeons, and [that] no weariness could ever touch Us.

HENCE, [O believer,] bear thou with patience what­ever they may say, and extol thy Sustainer’s limit­less glory and praise before the rising of the sun and before its setting;

and in the night, too, extol His glory, and at every prayer’s end.

And [always] listen for the day when He who issues the call [of death] shall call [thee] from close-by;

[and bethink thyself, too, of] the Day on which all [human beings] will in truth hear the final blast - that Day of [their] coming-forth [from death].

Verily, it is We who grant life and deal death; and with Us will be all journeys’ end

on the Day when the earth is riven asunder all around them as they hasten forth [towards God’s judgment]: that gathering will be easy for Us [to encompass].

Fully aware are We of what they [who deny resurrection] do say; and thou canst by no means force them [to believe in it]. Yet none the less, remind, through this Qur’an, all such as may fear My warning.