The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful
۞ Alif-Lam-Ra. These are the verses of the Book, and a Qur'an luminous. 1 How strongly the unbelievers will wish that they had been Muslims. 2 Let them eat and enjoy life, and let (false) hope beguile them. They will come to know! 3 Never a city have We destroyed, but it had a known decree, 4 No community precedeth the term thereof nor doth it fall behind. 5 And they said, “O you upon whom the Qur’an has been sent, you are indeed insane.” 6 Why dost thou not bring the angels unto us, if thou speakest truly?' 7 We do not send down the angels (in frivolity); and when We do send them down, We do so with Truth; then people are granted no respite. 8 Indeed We have sent down the Qur’an, and indeed We Ourselves surely are its Guardians. (This is one of the miracles of the Qur’an – no one has been able to change even one letter of its text, despite every effort. It has remained in its original form since the 6th Century (A. D) and will remain so forever. Other Holy Books such as the Torah and the Bible have lost their originality.) 9 And We had certainly sent [messengers] before you, [O Muhammad], among the sects of the former peoples. 10 And no messenger would come to them except that they ridiculed him. 11 This is how We make the mocking* enter the hearts of the guilty. (* The acts of disbelief.) 12 They do not believe in him, and the tradition of earlier nations has passed. 13 Though We opened to them a gate in heaven, and still they mounted through it, 14 They will say all the same: "Our eyes were dazed (and clouded over). We were a people ensorcelled." 15