The Dunes (Al-Ahqaaf)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Ha-Meem. (Alphabets of the Arabic language – Allah, and to whomever He reveals, know their precise meanings.) 1 The revelation of the Scripture is from Allah the Mighty, the Wise. 2 We have not created the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them but with a purpose for an appointed time. Yet the unbelievers turn away from the warning. 3 Say: "Have you [really] given thought to what it is that you invoke instead of God? Show me what these [beings or forces] have created anywhere on earth! Or had they, perchance, a share in [creating] the heavens? [If so,] bring me any divine writ preceding this one, or any [other] vestige of knowledge - if what you claim is true!" 4 And who could be more astray than one who invokes, instead of God, such as will not respond to him either now or on the Day of Resurrection, and are not even conscious of being invoked? 5 such as, when all mankind is gathered [for judgment,] will be enemies unto those [who worshipped them,] and will utterly reject their worship? 6 And when Our manifest revelations are rehearsed unto them those who disbelieve say of the truth when it hath come to them: this is magic manifest. 7 Nay! they say: He has forged it. Say: If I have forged it, you do not control anything for me from Allah; He knows best what you utter concerning it; He is enough as a witness between me and you, and He is the Forgiving, the Merciful. 8 Say: "I am not the first of [God's] apostles; and [like all of them,] I do not know what will be done with me or with you: for I am nothing but a plain warner." 9 Say: "Tell me! If this (Quran) is from Allah, and you deny it, and a witness from among the Children of Israel ('Abdullah bin Salam) testifies that this Quran is from Allah [like the Taurat (Torah)], so he believed (embraced Islam) while you are too proud (to believe)." Verily! Allah guides not the people who are Zalimun (polytheists, disbelievers and wrong-doing). 10