The Hidden Secret (Al-Muddath-thir)
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
O THOU [in thy solitude] enfolded! 1 Arise and warn! 2 And thy Lord do thou magnify! 3 cleanse your clothes, 4 And pollution shun. 5 And show not favour, seeking wordly gain! 6 And be patient for the sake of your Lord (i.e. perform your duty to Allah)! 7 For when the trumpet shall sound, 8 Truly, that Day will be a Hard Day. 9 For the disbelievers - not easy. 10 Leave him to Me, the one whom I created single. 11 To whom I granted resources in abundance, 12 and sons standing before him, 13 I made things smooth and easy for him, 14 Yet he wants that I should give him more. 15 Never. He is refractory of Our signs. 16 [and so] I shall constrain him to endure a painful uphill climb! 17 For lo! he did consider; then he planned - 18 and woe to him; how he plotted! 19 Again, may he be cursed how he plotted; 20 Then he looked, 21 then frowned and scowled; 22 and in the end he turns his back [on Our message,] and glories in his arrogance, 23 Then he said: "This is nothing but magic from that of old; 24 “This is nothing but the speech of a man.” 25 I shall make him suffer the torment of hell. 26 And what have you understood, what hell is! 27 It neither spares, nor releases, 28 It shrivelleth the man. 29 Over it are nineteen keepers. 30 We have appointed none but angels as the keepers of the Fire, and We have not made their number but as a trial for the unbelievers so that those who have been endowed with the Book will be convinced and the believers' faith will increase, and neither those who have been endowed with the Book nor the believers will fall into any doubt. As for those in whose hearts there is a sickness as well as the unbelievers, they will say: “What did Allah aim at by this strange parable?” Thus does Allah let whomsoever He pleases to go astray, and directs whomsoever He pleases to the Right Way. And none knows the hosts of your Lord but He. (And Hell has only been mentioned here) that people may take heed. 31