The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Alif-Lam-Ra. [These letters are one of the miracles of the Quran, and none but Allah (Alone) knows their meanings]. These are the Verses of the Book, and a plain Quran. 1 The disbelievers will ardently wish that if only they had been Muslims! (At the time of death / in their graves / on the Day of Resurrection.) 2 Leave them thou to eat and to enjoy, and let vain hope divert them; presently they will know. 3 We never destroyed a village whose term had not already been decreed. 4 No people can outstrip the term for its destruction nor can it delay it. 5 And they say: "O you (Muhammad SAW) to whom the Dhikr (the Quran) has been sent down! Verily, you are a mad man. 6 Why do you not bring to us the angels if you are of the truthful ones? 7 But We send down the angels only to bring justice and then they will not be reprieved. 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 We had also sent apostles to people of earlier persuasions. 10 And there never came an apostle to them but they mocked him. 11 This is how We cause the hearts of the guilty ones to behave. 12 they believe not in it, though the wont of the ancients is already gone. 13 Yet even had We opened to them a gateway to heaven and they had ascended, on and on, up to it, 14 They would say: Our sight is wrong - nay, but we are folk bewitched. 15