Dawn (Al-Fajr)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
I CALL TO witness the dawn 1 By the Nights twice five; 2 by the even, and the odd, 3 And by oath of the night when it recedes 4 Indeed in that there is an oath for a man of sense. 5 ART THOU NOT aware of how thy Sustainer has dealt with [the tribe of] 'Ad, 6 Of Eram with lofty pillars (erected as signposts in the desert), 7 Like whom no one else was born in the cities. 8 And (with) Thamud (people), who cut (hewed) out rocks in the valley (to make dwellings)? 9 And (with) Fir'aun (Pharaoh), who had pegs (who used to torture men by binding them to pegs)? 10 Who terrorised the region, 11 And who then spread a lot of turmoil in them. 12 and therefore thy Sustainer let loose upon them a scourge of suffering: 13 indeed, your Lord is ever watchful. 14 Now, as for man, when his Lord trieth him, giving him honour and gifts, then saith he, (puffed up), "My Lord hath honoured me." 15 But when he tries him and stints for him his provision, then he says, 'My Lord has despised me.' 16 Nay! But you treat not the orphans with kindness and generosity (i.e. you neither treat them well, nor give them their exact right of inheritance)! 17 Nor do you urge one another to feed the poor, 18 And you eat away the heritage, devouring (everything) indiscriminately, 19 And ye love riches with exceeding love. 20 Nay, but when the earth is ground to atoms, grinding, grinding, 21 And comes your Lord, and angels row on row, 22 And Hell, that Day, is brought (face to face),- on that Day will man remember, but how will that remembrance profit him? 23 He will say: "Oh, would that I had provided beforehand for my life [to come]!" 24 Upon that day none shall chastise as He chastises, 25 and Allah will bind as none other can bind. 26 (It will be said to the pious): "O (you) the one in (complete) rest and satisfaction! 27 Return unto thy Lord, content in His good pleasure! 28 "Enter then among My votaries, 29 "Yea, enter thou My Heaven! 30