Vanity (Al-Zukhruf)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
Ha-Mim. [These letters are one of the miracles of the Quran, and none but Allah (Alone) knows their meanings]. 1 By the manifest Book (that makes things clear, i.e. this Quran). 2 behold, We have caused it to be a discourse in the Arabic tongue, so that you might encompass it with your reason. 3 And Verily, it (this Quran) is in the Mother of the Book (i.e. Al-Lauh Al-Mahfuz), before Us, indeed Exalted, full of Wisdom. 4 Should We divert this Good Counsel from you because you are a people immersed in extravagance? 5 And how many a prophet We sent among the ancients. 6 No Prophet came to them whom they did not mock. 7 We utterly destroyed them although they were greater in might than these. The examples of ancient peoples have gone before. 8 And if you should ask them, Who created the heavens and the earth? they would most certainly say: The Mighty, the Knowing One, has created them; 9 He Who made the earth a resting-place for you, and made in it ways for you that you may go aright; 10 And (it is He), who sends down water from the sky in its measure thereby We revive the land that was dead, as such you shall be brought forth. 11 And He it is who has created all opposites. And He [it is who] has provided for you all those ships and animals whereon you 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 lo! unto our Lord we surely are returning. 14 AND YET, they attribute to Him offspring from among some of the beings created by Him! Verily, most obviously bereft of all gratitude is man! 15