The Dunes (Al-Ahqaaf)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Ha-Meem. (Alphabets of the Arabic language – Allah, and to whomever He reveals, know their precise meanings.) 1 THE BESTOWAL from on high of this divine writ issues from God, the Almighty, the Wise. 2 We did not create the heavens and the earth and what is between them two save with truth and (for) an appointed term; and those who disbelieve turn aside from what they are warned of. 3 Say: "Have you thought of those you invoke apart from God? Show me what they have created of the earth, or, do they have a share in the heavens? Bring me an earlier Book than this, or inherited knowledge, if you are truthful." 4 And who could be more astray than one who invokes, instead of God, such as will not respond to him either now or on the Day of Resurrection, and are not even conscious of being invoked? 5 And on the day when people are gathered, they will become their enemies, and will reject their worshippers. (The idols will give testimony against the polytheists.) 6 But whenever Our messages are conveyed to them in all their clarity, they who are bent on denying the truth speak thus of the truth as soon as it is brought to them: "This is clearly nothing but spellbinding eloquence!" 7 Say they: he hath fabricated it. Say thou: if I have fabricated it, then ye cannot avail me against Allah in aught. He is the Knower of that which ye utter thereof; He sufficeth as a witness between me and you; and He is Forgiving, Merciful. 8 Say, “I am not something new* among the Noble Messengers, nor do I know (on my own) what will happen to me** or with you; I only follow that which is divinely revealed to me, and I am purely a Herald of clear warning. (* I am like the earlier ones. ** My knowledge comes due to divine revelations.) 9 Say: 'Have you considered? If it be from God, and you disbelieve in it, and a witness from among the Children of Israel hears witness to its like, and believes, and you wax proud, God guides not the people of the evildoers. 10