Vanity (Al-Zukhruf)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Ha-Meem. (Alphabets of the Arabic language – Allah, and to whomever He reveals, know their precise meanings.) 1 CONSIDER this divine writ, clear in itself and clearly showing the truth: 2 Lo! We have appointed it a Lecture, in Arabic that haply ye may understand. 3 And verily, it is in the Mother of the Book, in Our Presence, high (in dignity), full of wisdom. 4 What! shall We then turn away the reminder from you altogether because you are an extravagant people? 5 And how many a prophet have We sent among the ancients. 6 But never yet came a prophet to them without their deriding him 7 so We destroyed men stronger in valour than they, and the example of the ancients passed away. 8 Yet, if you ask them who created the heavens and the earth, they will answer: 'The Almighty, the Knower created them' 9 Who made the earth a resting-place for you, and placed roads for you therein, that haply ye may find your way; 10 And Who sendeth down water from the sky in (due) measure, and We revive a dead land therewith. Even so will ye be brought forth; 11 And He Who created pairs of all things, and made for you of the ships and the cattle what you ride on, 12 that you may be seated on their backs and then remember your Lord's blessing when you are seated on them, and say, 'Glory be to Him, who has subjected this to us, and we ourselves were not equal to it; 13 To our Lord we shall all return". 14 And they appoint for Him from His bondmen a part! Verily man is an ingrate manifest. 15