Vanity (Al-Zukhruf)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Ha-Meem. (Alphabets of the Arabic language – Allah, and to whomever He reveals, know their precise meanings.) 1 By the Book that makes things clear, 2 Lo! We have appointed it a Lecture, in Arabic that haply ye may understand. 3 And Lo! in the Source of Decrees, which We possess, it is indeed sublime, decisive. 4 Should We divert this Good Counsel from you because you are a people immersed in extravagance? 5 And how many a prophet We sent among the former peoples, 6 But never yet came a prophet to them without their deriding him 7 And We destroyed greater than them in [striking] power, and the example of the former peoples has preceded. 8 (Muhammad), if you ask them, "Who has created the heavens and the earth?" They will certainly say, "The Majestic and All-knowing God has created them". 9 He it is who has made the earth a cradle for you, and has provided for you ways [of livelihood] thereon, so that you might follow the right path. 10 It is He who sends water down from the sky in due measure, We revive dead land with it and likewise you will be resurrected from the grave, 11 He Who created these pairs, all of them, and provided you ships and cattle on which you ride, 12 That ye may mount upon their backs, and may remember your Lord's favour when ye mount thereon, and may say: Glorified be He Who hath subdued these unto us, and we were not capable (of subduing them); 13 And lo! unto our Lord we surely are returning. 14 And they appoint for Him from His bondmen a part! Verily man is an ingrate manifest. 15