The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Alif Lam Ra. Those are the signs of the Book and of a manifest Koran. 1 Perhaps those who disbelieve will wish that they had been Muslims. 2 Let them eat and enjoy life, and let (false) hope beguile them. They will come to know! 3 We never destroyed any town without pre-ordaining the fate of its people. 4 No group may advance its appointed promise nor postpone it. 5 And yet they say: "You, to whom this Exposition has been sent are surely possessed of the Devil. 6 Why do you not bring down the angels upon us, if you are truthful?" 7 We do not send angels except with the truth. Then they shall have no respite. 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 AND, INDEED, [O Prophet,] even before thy time did We send [Our apostles] unto communities of old 10 but there was never a messenger who came to them but they mocked him: 11 Even so We make a way for it (that is, the Admonition) in the hearts of the culprits (like a hot rod); 12 they believe not in it, though the wont of the ancients is already gone. 13 And [even] if We opened to them a gate from the heaven and they continued therein to ascend, 14 still they would say: 'Our eyes were dazzled; truly, we must have been a bewitched people' 15