Vanity (Al-Zukhruf)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Ha Mim 1 By this luminous Book. 2 That We made it a distinctly lucid Qur'an that you may understand. 3 and behold, it is in the Essence of the Book, with Us; sublime indeed, wise. 4 [O YOU who deny the truth!] Should We, perchance, withdraw this reminder from you altogether, seeing that you are people bent on wasting your own selves? 5 And how many a prophet We sent among the former peoples, 6 But there would not come to them a prophet except that they used to ridicule him. 7 We therefore destroyed the people who were more forceful than these, and the example of the earlier ones has already gone by. 8 If thou wert to question them, 'Who created the heavens and the earth?' They would be sure to reply, 'they were created by (Him), the Exalted in Power, Full of Knowledge';- 9 Who hath made for you the earth a bed, and hath made for you paths therein that haply ye may be directed. 10 That sends down (from time to time) rain from the sky in due measure;- and We raise to life therewith a land that is dead; even so will ye be raised (from the dead);- 11 and who created the pairs, all of them, and appointed for you ships and cattle such as you ride, 12 So that when you sit astride of them and think of the bounties of your Lord, you may say: "All glory to Him who subjugated these for us. We were incapable of doing so. 13 Hence, verily, it is unto Him that we must always turn." 14 And they appoint for Him from His bondmen a part! Verily man is an ingrate manifest. 15