Vanity (Al-Zukhruf)
In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful
Ha-Meem. (Alphabets of the Arabic language – Allah, and to whomever He reveals, know their precise meanings.) 1 I call to witness the lucent Book, 2 That We made it a distinctly lucid Qur'an that you may understand. 3 And verily it is, in the Original Book before Us, indeed exalted. 4 Shall We utterly ignore you because ye are a wanton folk? 5 And how many a prophet We sent among the former peoples, 6 And never came there unto them a prophet but they used to mock him. 7 so We destroyed men stronger in valour than they, and the example of the ancients passed away. 8 If thou wert to question them, 'Who created the heavens and the earth?' They would be sure to reply, 'they were created by (Him), the Exalted in Power, Full of Knowledge';- 9 (It is) He who made the earth to be a cradle for you and made in it ways for you, in order that you are guided. 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 He who created pairs of everything, and fashioned for you boats and beasts on which you ride, 12 in order that you might gain mastery over them, and that, whenever you have mastered them, you might remember your Sustainer's blessings and say: "Limitless in His glory is He who has made [all] this subservient to our use - since [but for Him,] we would not have been able to attain to it. 13 And lo! unto our Lord we surely are returning. 14 Yet they make some of His creatures His offspring! Man is surely most ungrateful. 15