The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Alif Lam Ra. Those are the signs of the Book and of a manifest Koran. 1 The unbelievers would haply like to wish that they had submitted (and become Muslim). 2 Leave them to eat and enjoy, and for aspiration to involve them in play – so they will shortly come to know. 3 And We destroyed no township but there was a known decree for it. 4 Neither can a people anticipate its term, nor delay it. 5 They say: "O you to whom the Admonition has been revealed, you are surely crazed. 6 Why do you not bring us the angels, if you should be among 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 We verily sent (messengers) before thee among the factions of the men of old. 10 But no Messenger came to them except he was mocked. 11 Thus do We make it traverse the hearts of the guilty: 12 So, they will not believe in it: The example of former people is there. 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 still say, "Our eyes have been dazzled. We are bewitched." 15