Vanity (Al-Zukhruf)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
Ha-Mim. 1 By the Book that makes things clear,- 2 Indeed, We have made it an Arabic Qur'an that you might understand. 3 And surely it is in the original of the Book with Us, truly elevated, full of wisdom. 4 Shall We then take away the Message from you and repel (you), for that ye are a people transgressing beyond bounds? 5 How many a prophet did We send among the men of old! 6 And there came not to them a prophet but they mocked at him. 7 and so, [in the end,] We destroyed them [even though they were] of greater might than these: and the [very] image of those people of old became a thing of the past. 8 If you ask them, "Who has created the heavens and the earth?", they will surely answer, "The Almighty, the All Knowing One has created them." 9 He it is who has made the earth a cradle for you, and has provided for you ways [of livelihood] thereon, so that you might follow the right path. 10 He Who sent down water from the sky in a determined measure, and thereby We revived a dead land: likewise will you be raised up (from the earth) -- 11 And Who has created all the pairs and has appointed for you ships and cattle on which you ride, 12 That ye mount firmly on the backs thereof, and then may remember the favour of your Lord when ye mount thereon, and may say: hallowed be He Who hath subjected this unto us, and we for it were not fit. 13 "And to our Lord, surely, must we turn back!" 14 Yet they assign to some of His slaves a share with Him (by pretending that He has children, and considering them as equals or co-partners in worship with Him). Verily, man is indeed a manifest ingrate! 15