Vanity (Al-Zukhruf)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Ha-Mim. [These letters are one of the miracles of the Quran, and none but Allah (Alone) knows their meanings]. 1 By the Book that makes things clear, 2 That We made it a distinctly lucid Qur'an that you may understand. 3 It (the Quran) exists in the original Book with Us which is certainly Most Exalted, full of wisdom and (beyond linguistic structures). 4 Should We withdraw the admonition from you because you are a people far gone in transgression? 5 How many a Prophet We sent among the ancients, 6 And never came there a Prophet to them but they used to mock 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 Yet, if you ask them who created the heavens and the earth, they will answer: 'The Almighty, the Knower created them' 9 The One Who made the earth a bed for you, and made roads for you in it, so that you may be guided. 10 And He Who sends down water from the cloud according to a measure, then We raise to life thereby a dead country, even thus shall you be brought forth; 11 And who created the species, all of them, and has made for you of ships and animals those which you mount. 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 surely to our Lord we must return. 14 And from* His bondmen, they appointed a portion for Him; man is indeed an open ingrate. (* Appointed some of His creation as His sons and daughters). 15