The Hidden Secret (Al-Muddath-thir)
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
O you who covers himself [with a garment], 1 Arise and warn! 2 Thy Lord magnify, 3 And thine inner self purify! 4 and defilement flee! 5 Do not bestow favours in expectation of return, 6 And persevere in the way of your Lord. 7 For when the trumpet is sounded, 8 That will be- that Day - a Day of Distress,- 9 It will not be easy for those who deny the truth. 10 Leave Me alone with he whom I created 11 And gave him vast wealth. 12 And sons present by his side. 13 And spread [everything] before him, easing [his life]. 14 Yet he wants that I should give him more. 15 Never will he receive more. He has been hostile to Our revelations. 16 I shall soon constrain him to a hard ascent. 17 For he thought and he plotted;- 18 So let him be cursed! How he plotted! 19 Then may he be destroyed [for] how he deliberated. 20 Then he looked round; 21 Then he frowned and he looked in a bad tempered way; 22 and he turned his back and behaved arrogantly 23 and said: “This (Qur'an) is merely a sorcery of yore; 24 'this is nothing but mortal speech.' 25 [Hence,] I shall cause him to endure hell-fire [in the life to come]! 26 Would that you really knew what hell is! 27 It does not allow anyone to live, and neither does it leave anyone to die; 28 It glows and burns the skin. 29 Over it are nineteen (angels guarding). 30 We have appointed none but angels as the keepers of the Fire, and We have not made their number but as a trial for the unbelievers so that those who have been endowed with the Book will be convinced and the believers' faith will increase, and neither those who have been endowed with the Book nor the believers will fall into any doubt. As for those in whose hearts there is a sickness as well as the unbelievers, they will say: “What did Allah aim at by this strange parable?” Thus does Allah let whomsoever He pleases to go astray, and directs whomsoever He pleases to the Right Way. And none knows the hosts of your Lord but He. (And Hell has only been mentioned here) that people may take heed. 31