The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Alif-Lam-Ra. [These letters are one of the miracles of the Quran, and none but Allah (Alone) knows their meanings]. These are the Verses of the Book, and a plain Quran. 1 It could be that those who disbelieve will wish that they were Muslims. 2 so leave them to eat and enjoy themselves and let them be beguiled by vain hopes; for soon they will realise [the truth]. 3 Never did We destroy a population that had not a term decreed and assigned beforehand. 4 No group may advance its appointed promise nor postpone it. 5 And they say: O thou unto whom the admonition hath been sent down! verily thou art possessed. 6 Why do you not bring down the angels, if what you say is true' 7 We do not send the angels but with truth, and then they would not be respited. 8 Behold, it is We Ourselves who have bestowed from on high, step by step, this reminder; and behold, it is We who shall truly guard it [from all corruption]. 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 Even so we make a way for it in the hearts of the culprits. 12 They will not believe in it, though they have before them the example of former peoples, 13 And if We opened upon them a door of the heaven, and they passed the day mounting thereto. 14 They would say: Our sight is wrong - nay, but we are folk bewitched. 15