The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most 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 Let them eat and enjoy; and let their hopes deceive them, soon they shall know. 3 We never destroyed any town without pre-ordaining the fate of its people. 4 No nation can outstrip its term, nor do they put it back. 5 And yet they say: "You, to whom this Exposition has been sent are surely possessed of the Devil. 6 Why bringest thou not angels unto us, if thou art of the truthful? 7 We do not send the angels but with truth, 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 Indeed, We sent Messengers before you (O Muhammad SAW) amongst the sects (communities) of old. 10 And there never came an apostle to them but they mocked him. 11 thus We cause this [habit of mocking] to enter into the hearts of the sinful. 12 They believe not therein, though the example of the men of old hath gone before. 13 And [even] if We opened to them a gate from the heaven and they continued therein to ascend, 14 They would surely say: "Our eyes have been (as if) dazzled. Nay, we are a people bewitched." 15