The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Alif. Lam. Ra. THESE ARE MESSAGES of revelation - of a discourse clear in itself and clearly showing the truth. 1 Soon will the time come when the unbelievers will wish they were Muslims. 2 leave them to eat, and to take their joy, and to be bemused by hope; certainly they will soon know! 3 Never did We destroy a population that had not a term decreed and assigned beforehand. 4 No community precedeth the term thereof nor doth it fall behind. 5 They say, "You to whom the Reminder [the Quran] has been sent down, you are surely possessed. 6 Why do you not bring down the angels if what you say is true". 7 We do not send down the angels (in frivolity); and when We do send them down, We do so with Truth; then people are granted 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 no messenger would come to them except that they ridiculed him. 11 Thus do We make it to enter into the hearts of the guilty; 12 They would not believe in it (the Quran), and already the example of (Allah's punishment of) the ancients (who disbelieved) has gone forth. 13 Even if We open a door in the heavens and they ascend through it in broad daylight, 14 they would have said, "Our eyes are bewildered and we have been affected by magic." 15