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 (of) a Quran that makes (things) clear. 1 The unbelievers would haply like to wish that they had submitted (and become Muslim). 2 Leave them to feast and revel, beguiled by hope; they will come to know soon. 3 We never destroyed any town without pre-ordaining the fate of its people. 4 No people can hasten or delay the term already fixed for them. 5 And they say, "O you upon whom the message has been sent down, indeed you are mad. 6 Why bringest thou not angels unto us, if thou art of the truthful? 7 We send not the angels down except for just cause: if they came (to the ungodly), behold! no respite would they have! 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 but there was never a messenger who came 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 it. This has been the wont of people of this kind from ancient times. 13 Yet even had We opened to them a gateway to heaven and they had ascended, on and on, up to it, 14 still they would say: 'Our eyes were dazzled; truly, we must have been a bewitched people' 15