The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Alif. Lam. Ra. These are verses of the Scripture and a plain Reading. 1 Perhaps those who disbelieve will wish that they had been Muslims. 2 Leave them to eat and enjoy, and for aspiration to involve them in play – so they will shortly come to know. 3 Never a city have We destroyed, but it had a known decree, 4 Neither can a people anticipate its term, nor delay it. 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, INDEED, [O Prophet,] even before thy time did We send [Our apostles] unto communities of old 10 and not a single Messenger came to them, but they mocked at him; 11 Thus do We make it traverse the hearts of the guilty: 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 Yet even had We opened to them a gateway to heaven and they had ascended, on and on, up to it, 14 They would say: Our sight is wrong - nay, but we are folk bewitched. 15