The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Alif Lam Ra. Those are the signs of the Book and of a manifest Koran. 1 A time will surely come when those who are bent on denying the truth will wish that they had surrendered themselves to God, 2 Leave them that they may eat and enjoy themselves and (that) hope may beguile them, for they will soon know. 3 And We destroyed no township but there was a known decree for it. 4 No people can hasten or delay the term already fixed for them. 5 And they say, "O you upon whom the message has been sent down, indeed you are mad. 6 If you are a man of truth, why can't you bring the angels to us?" 7 We do not send down the angels except with truth; and the disbelievers would not then be reprieved. 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 Indeed, We sent Messengers before thee, among the factions of the ancients, 10 And no messenger would come to them except that they ridiculed him. 11 Thus do We make it traverse the hearts of the guilty: 12 That they should not believe in the (Message); but the ways of the ancients have passed away. 13 If We opened a gate in the heaven and they kept ascending through it, 14 they would surely have said, "It is only our eyes that are spellbound! Nay, we have been bewitched! 15