The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Alif Lam Ra. Those are the signs of the Book and of a manifest Koran. 1 And it will come to pass that those who are [now] bent on denying this truth will wish that they had surrendered themselves to God [in their life time]. 2 leave them to eat, and to take their joy, and to be bemused by hope; certainly they will soon know! 3 And never have We destroyed any community [for its wrongdoing] unless a divine writ had [previously] been made known to it; 4 No group may advance its appointed promise nor postpone it. 5 And yet they say: "You, to whom this Exposition has been sent are surely possessed of the Devil. 6 "Why do you not bring angels to us if you are of the truthful ones?" 7 We send not the angels down save with judgment, and then they would not be respited. 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 there never came an apostle to them but they mocked him. 11 This is how We cause the hearts of the guilty ones to behave. 12 They do not believe in the Truth and they exactly follow the tradition of the ancient (unbelievers) 13 Had We opened a door for them in the sky through which they could easily pass, 14 still they would say: 'Our eyes were dazzled; truly, we must have been a bewitched people' 15