The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Alif-Lam-Ra; these are verses of the Book and the bright Qur’an. 1 Perhaps those who disbelieve 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 never did We destroy a township but there was a known decree for it. 4 No people can hasten or delay the term already fixed for them. 5 They say: "O thou to whom the Message is being revealed! truly thou art mad (or possessed)! 6 Why do you not bring down the angels if what you say is true". 7 We send not the angels down except with the truth (i.e. for torment, etc.), and in that case, they (the disbelievers) would 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 We have sent forth before you Messengers among the factions of the ancients. 10 And never came a Messenger to them but they did mock him. 11 This is how We cause the hearts of the guilty ones to behave. 12 who do not believe in it, although the way which those [evildoers] of olden times had to go has long been within their ken. 13 And even if We open to them a gateway of heaven, so that they ascend into it all the while, 14 still they would say: 'Our eyes were dazzled; truly, we must have been a bewitched people' 15