The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ ALIF LAM RA. These are the verses of the Book and the perspicuous oration. 1 Perhaps those who disbelieve will wish that they had been Muslims. 2 so leave them to eat and enjoy themselves and let them be beguiled by vain hopes; for soon they will realise [the truth]. 3 And never did We destroy a town but it had a term made known. 4 and no nation outstrips 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 bringest thou not angels unto us, if thou art of the truthful? 7 We do not send down the angels except with truth; and the disbelievers would not then be reprieved. 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 No Messenger went to them whom they did not mock. 11 This is how We cause the hearts of the guilty ones to behave. 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 If We were even to open for them a way to the heavens, and they could continually climb up to it in broad daylight, 14 they would still say, "Our eyes have been dazzled. We are bewitched." 15