The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Alif-Lam-Ra. These are the verses of the Book, and a Qur'an luminous. 1 Often will those who disbelieve wish that they had been Muslims. 2 Leave them to eat and enjoy life and let false hopes amuse them. They will soon come to know. 3 We have never destroyed a township without a definite decree having been issued; 4 No people can hasten or delay the term already fixed for them. 5 And they say: O thou unto whom the admonition hath been sent down! verily thou art possessed. 6 Why bringest thou not angels unto us if thou art of the truthtellers! 7 We do not send the angels but with truth, 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 We sent Noble Messengers before you, to the former nations. 10 And not an apostle came unto them but at him they were wont to mock. 11 Thus do We make it to enter into the hearts of the guilty; 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 And even if We open to them a gateway of heaven, so that they ascend into it all the while, 14 still they would say: 'Our eyes were dazzled; truly, we must have been a bewitched people' 15