The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ ALIF LAM RA. These are the verses of the Book and the perspicuous oration. 1 Perchance the unbelievers will wish that they had surrendered: 2 leave them to eat, and to take their joy, and to be bemused by hope; certainly they will soon know! 3 And never did We destroy a town but it had a term made known. 4 No nation can outstrip its term, nor do they put it back. 5 (The unbelievers have said), "You to whom the Quran has been revealed are insane. 6 Why dost thou not bring before us angels, if thou art a man of truth? 7 We send not the angels down except for just cause: if they came (to the ungodly), behold! no respite would they have! 8 It is We who sent down the Koran, and We watch over it. 9 We had also sent apostles to people of earlier persuasions. 10 And there never came an apostle to them but they mocked him. 11 Thus do We insert denial into the hearts of the criminals. 12 They will not believe in it, while there has already occurred the precedent of the former peoples. 13 Though We opened to them a gate in heaven, and still they mounted through it, 14 they would have said, "Our eyes are bewildered and we have been affected by magic." 15