The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Alif Lam Ra. Those are the signs of the Book and of a manifest Koran. 1 How strongly the unbelievers will wish that they had been Muslims. 2 Leave them thou to eat and to enjoy, and let vain hope divert them; presently they will know. 3 And We destroyed no township but there was a known decree for it. 4 No nation will precede its term, nor will they remain thereafter. 5 They say: 'Thou, upon whom the Remembrance is sent down, thou art assuredly possessed! 6 Why do you not bring down the angels, if what you say is true' 7 We do not send angels except with the truth. Then they shall have 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 certainly We sent (apostles) before you among the nations of yore. 10 But never once an apostle came to them at whom they did not scoff. 11 This is how We cause the hearts of the guilty ones to behave. 12 they do not believe in it. This has been the wont of people of this kind from ancient times. 13 If We opened a gate in the heaven and they kept ascending through it, 14 They would only say: "Our eyes have been intoxicated: Nay, we have been bewitched by sorcery." 15