The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ ALIF LAM RA. These are the verses of the Book and the perspicuous oration. 1 How strongly the unbelievers will wish that they had been Muslims. 2 leave them to eat, and to take their joy, and to be bemused by hope; certainly they will soon know! 3 We never destroyed any town without pre-ordaining the fate of its people. 4 No community precedeth the term thereof nor doth it fall behind. 5 They say: 'You to whom the Remembrance is sent down, you are indeed mad. 6 If you are a man of truth, why can't you bring the angels to us?" 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 We verily sent (messengers) before thee among the factions of the men of old. 10 and never yet came an apostle to them without their deriding him. 11 So We make it enter the hearts of the sinners. 12 they do not believe in it. This has been the wont of people of this kind from ancient times. 13 Even if We opened out to them a gate from heaven, and they were to continue (all day) ascending therein, 14 They would certainly say: Only our eyes have been covered over, rather we are an enchanted people. 15