The Hidden Secret (Al-Muddath-thir)
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
O thou enveloped in thy cloak, 1 stand up, deliver your warning, 2 And proclaim the Purity of your Lord. 3 And your garments purify! 4 And all defilement shun! 5 And give not a thing in order to have more (or consider not your deeds of Allah's obedience as a favour to Allah). 6 but unto thy Sustainer turn in patience. 7 When the trumpet is sounded,. 8 It will be a day of distress, 9 and it will not be easy for the unbelievers. 10 Leave Me alone with he whom I created 11 whom I have endowed with abundant riches, 12 And gave him sons present before him. 13 And I adjusted affairs for him adjustably; 14 And yet he desires that I should add more! 15 Never. He is refractory of Our signs. 16 I shall inflict on him hardship, 17 For he thought and he plotted -- 18 So may he be destroyed [for] how he deliberated. 19 Again, may he be cursed how he plotted; 20 May he be condemned again for his schemes! He looked around, 21 then he frowned and scowled, 22 then he retreated, and waxed proud. 23 and says, "All this is mere spellbinding eloquence handed down [from olden times]! 24 "This is nothing but the word of a mortal!" 25 I shall surely roast him in Sakar; 26 And what could make thee conceive what hell-fire is? 27 Naught doth it permit to endure, and naught doth it leave alone!- 28 It strips away the hide of man. 29 Over it are nineteen keepers. 30 We have appointed none but angels as the keepers of the Fire, and We have not made their number but as a trial for the unbelievers so that those who have been endowed with the Book will be convinced and the believers' faith will increase, and neither those who have been endowed with the Book nor the believers will fall into any doubt. As for those in whose hearts there is a sickness as well as the unbelievers, they will say: “What did Allah aim at by this strange parable?” Thus does Allah let whomsoever He pleases to go astray, and directs whomsoever He pleases to the Right Way. And none knows the hosts of your Lord but He. (And Hell has only been mentioned here) that people may take heed. 31