Vanity (Al-Zukhruf)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
Ha. Mim. 1 By the Clear Book 2 behold, We have made it an Arabic Koran; haply you will understand; 3 Indeed it is transcribed in the Original Book with Us; sublime and full of wisdom. 4 [O YOU who deny the truth!] Should We, perchance, withdraw this reminder from you altogether, seeing that you are people bent on wasting your own selves? 5 How many a Prophet did We send to the earlier peoples! 6 no Prophet came to them except that they mocked him, 7 So We destroyed (them)- stronger in power than these;- and (thus) has passed on the Parable of the peoples of old. 8 And if you should ask them, "Who has created the heavens and the earth?" they would surely say, "They were created by the Exalted in Might, the Knowing." 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 He Who sent down water from the sky in a determined measure, and thereby We revived a dead land: likewise will you be raised up (from the earth) -- 11 And Who hath treated the pairs, all of them, and appointed for you from ships and cattle things whereon ye ride. 12 in order that you might gain mastery over them, and that, whenever you have mastered them, you might remember your Sustainer's blessings and say: "Limitless in His glory is He who has made [all] this subservient to our use - since [but for Him,] we would not have been able to attain to it. 13 "And to our Lord, surely, must we turn back!" 14 Yet they assign to some of His slaves a share with Him (by pretending that He has children, and considering them as equals or co-partners in worship with Him). Verily, man is indeed a manifest ingrate! 15