The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Alif. Lam. Ra. THESE ARE MESSAGES of revelation - of a discourse clear in itself and clearly showing the truth. 1 Perchance the unbelievers will wish that they had surrendered: 2 Let them eat and enjoy themselves and be diverted by [false] hope, for they are going to know. 3 Never a city have We destroyed, but it had a known decree, 4 No nation can outstrip its term nor can they lag behind. 5 They say: "O thou to whom the Message is being revealed! truly thou art mad (or possessed)! 6 "Why do you not bring angels to us if you are of the truthful ones?" 7 We send not the angels down save with judgment, and then they would not be respited. 8 Behold, it is We Ourselves who have bestowed from on high, step by step, this reminder; and behold, it is We who shall truly guard it [from all corruption]. 9 And We had certainly sent [messengers] before you, [O Muhammad], among the sects of the former peoples. 10 And there never came an apostle to them but they mocked him. 11 Even so do We [now] cause this [scorn of Our message] to pervade the hearts of those who are lost in sin, 12 they believe not in it, though the wont of the ancients is already gone. 13 If We opened a gate in the heaven and they kept ascending through it, 14 yet would they say, 'Our eyes have been dazzled; nay, we are a people bewitched!' 15