Part 22 of 30

But whoever of you is obedient to God and His Apostle, and does the right, will be given a two-fold reward by Us; and We have a rich provision in readiness for her.

O wives of the Prophet, you are not like other women. If you are mindful of God, do not be too obliging in your speech, lest some one sick of heart should covet your person; so say only customary things.

Stay at home, and do not deck yourselves with ostentation as in the days of paganism; fulfil your devotional obligations, pay the zakat, and obey God and His Apostle. God desires to remove impurities from you, O inmates of this house, and to cleanse and bring out the best in you.

Remember God's revelations and the wisdom that are recited in your homes. God is indeed all perceiving, well-informed.

Verily men and women who have come to submission, men and women who are believers, men and women who are devout, truthful men and truthful women, men and women with endurance, men and women who are modest, men and women who give alms, men and women who observe fasting, men and women who guard their private parts, and those men and women who remember God a great deal, for them God has forgiveness and a great reward.

No believing men and women have any choice in a matter after God and His Apostle have decided it. Whoever disobeys God and His Apostle has clearly lost the way and gone astray.

When you said to him who had been favoured by God and was favoured by you: "Keep your wife to yourself and fear God," you were hiding something God was about to bring to light, for you had fear of men, though you should fear God more. And when Zaid was through with her, We gave her to you in marriage, so that it may not remain a sin for the faithful (to marry) the wives of their adopted sons when they are through with them. God's command is to be fulfilled.

There is no constraint on the Prophet in what God has decreed for him. This has been the way of God with (apostles) who have gone before you, and God's command is a determined act.

(For) those who convey the messages of God, and fear Him and no one else, God is sufficient to keep account.

Muhammad is not the father of any man among you, but a messenger of God, and the seal of the prophets. God has knowledge of everything.

O you who believe, remember God a great deal,

And sing His praises morning and evening.

It is He who sends His blessings on you, as (do) His angels, that He may lead you out of darkness into light, for He is benevolent to the believers.

Their greeting on the day they meet Him will be: "Peace;" and He has a generous reward ready for them.

O Prophet, We have sent you as a witness and a bearer of happy tidings and an admonisher,

And to call (men) to God by His leave, and as a lamp resplendent.

Give glad tidings to the believers that there is great bounty for them from God.

Do not listen to the unbelievers and the hypocrites. Ignore what they do to hurt you, and put your trust in God. God is sufficient as protector.

O you who believe, when you marry believing women then divorce them before having (sexual) contact with them, you have no right to demand observance of the 'waiting period' of them. But provide suitably for them, and let them go with honour.

We have made lawful for you, O Prophet, wives to whom you have given their dower, and God-given maids and captives you have married, and the daughters of your father's brothers and daughters of your father's sisters, and daughters of your mother's brothers and sisters, who migrated with you; and a believing woman who offers herself to the Prophet if the Prophet desires to marry her. This is a privilege only for you and not the other believers. We know what We have ordained for them about their wives and maids they possess, so that you may be free of blame, for God is forgiving and kind.

You may defer the turn of any of your wives you like, and may take any other you desire. There is no harm if you take any of those (whose turn) you had deferred. This would be better as it would gladden their hearts and they will not grieve, and each will be happy with what you have given her. God knows what is in your heart, for He is all-wise and benign.

No other women are lawful for you after this except those you have married, nor to change your present wives for other women even though their beauty should appeal to you. God is watchful of everything.

O you who believe, do not enter the houses of the Prophet for a meal without awaiting the proper time, unless asked, and enter when you are invited, and depart when you have eaten, and do not stay on talking. This puts the Prophet to inconvenience, and he feels embarrassed before you; but God is not embarrassed in (saying) the truth. And when you ask his wife for some thing of utility, ask for it from behind the screen. This is for the purity of your hearts and theirs. It does not behove you to annoy the prophet of God, or to ever marry his wives after him. This would indeed be serious in the sight of God.

Whether you discuss a thing or conceal it, surely God has knowledge of everything.

There is no harm if they come before their fathers or their sons, or their brothers and their brothers' and sisters' sons, or their women folk or captive maids they possess. Follow the commands of God. Verily God is witness to everything.

God and His angels shower their blessings on the Prophet. O believers, you should also send your blessings on him, and salute him with a worthy greeting.

Those who offend God and His Prophet will be damned in this world and the next. There is a shameful punishment ready for them.

Those who slander believing men and women for what they have not done, will bear the burden of calumny and clear iniquity.

O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters, and the women of the faithful, to draw their wraps a little over them. They will thus be recognised and no harm will come to them. God is forgiving and kind.

If the hypocrites and perverts, and the rumour-mongers of Madinah, do not desist even now, We shall rouse you against them, so they would not be able to live but a short time in the city with you.

Accursed, they would be seized wherever found, and slain mercilessly.

Such was the law of God among those before you; and you will not find any change in the law of God.

People ask you about the Hour (of the great change). Say: "Only God has knowledge of it. Who knows? The Hour may be close at hand."

Verily God has cursed the infidels, and prepared a blazing fire for them.

They will live in it for ever, and will find no saviour or helper.

The day their faces would be turned on the fire (as on a spit), they will say: "Alas! If only we had obeyed God, and obeyed the Prophet."

They will say: "O our Lord, we obeyed our leaders and the elders, but they only led us astray.

O Lord, give them a double punishment, and put a grievous curse upon them."

O you who believe, do not be like those who maligned Moses, whilst God cleared him of what they alleged; and he was held in high esteem with God.

O you who believe, obey the commands of God, and say straightforward things

That He may straighten your affairs for you and forgive your sins; and he who obeys God and His Prophet will be successful.

We had offered the Trust (of divine responsibilities) to the heavens, the earth, the mountains, but they refrained from bearing the burden and were frightened of it; but man took it on himself. He is a faithless ignoramus.

So that God punishes men and women hypocrites, the idolaters and idolatrous women, but He turns to faithful men and women in forgiveness, for God is forgiving and kind.

ALL PRAISE BE to God to whom belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and the earth, and His the praise in the world to come. He is all-wise and all-knowing.

He knows whatever goes into the earth and whatsoever issues from it, whatsoever comes down from the sky, and whatsoever goes up to it. He is all-merciful, all-forgiving.

The unbelievers say: "There is no coming of the Hour for us." Say: "Why not? By my Lord, the knower of the unknown, it will certainly come for you. Not even an atom's weight in the heavens and the earth, or something smaller or greater than it, is hidden from Him, and which is not recorded in the all-too-manifest Book,

In order that He may recompense those who have believed and done the right. For them will be forgiveness and worthy sustenance.

As for those who try to subvert Our signs, there is a punishment of painful torment.

Those who have been given knowledge realise what has been revealed by the Lord is the truth, and leads to the path of the mighty and praiseworthy (God).

The disbelievers say: "Shall we tell you of a man who prophesies that when you are reduced to particles and vanished in the dust, you will become a new creation

Has he fabricated a lie about God, or is he possessed?" Not so; but those who believe not in the Hereafter are themselves afflicted and far astray.

Do they not see what is before them and what is behind them of the heavens and the earth? We could cleave the earth and sink them, if We pleased, or drop a fragment of the sky upon them. There is surely a sign in this for every penitent creature.

We favoured David with excellence, (and commanded): "O Jibal and Tair, glorify the greatness of God with him." And We made iron pliable for him.

"Make long coats of mail," (We said), "and fix their links, and do the right. I surely see whatsoever you do."

We (subjugated) the wind to Solomon. Its morning's journey took one month, and the evening's one month. We made a spring of molten brass to flow for him; and many jinns laboured for him by the will of his Lord. Anyone of them who turned from Our command was made to taste the torment of blazing fire.

They made for him whatever he wished, synagogues and statues, dishes large as water-troughs, and cauldrons firmly fixed (on ovens; and We said): "O House of David, act, and give thanks." But few among My creatures are thankful.

When We ordained (Solomon's) death, none but the weevil, that was eating away his staff (on which he rested), pointed out to them that he was dead. When he fell down (dead) the jinns realised that if they had knowledge of the Unknown they would never have suffered demeaning labour.

There was a sign for the people of Saba in their habitations: Two gardens, on the right and left. (And they were told:) "Eat of what your Lord has given you and be thankful. Fair is your land, and forgiving your Lord."

But they turned away. So We let loose on them the inundation of (the dyke of) al-'Arim, replacing their gardens with two other gardens which bore only bitter gourd, and tamarisks and a few sparse lote-trees.

That is how We requited them for their ingratitude. We only punish those who are ungrateful.

Between them and the cities We had blessed We placed towns along the highway, and made them stages on their journey, (saying): "Travel between them in safety by day or by night."

But they said: "O Lord, make the distance between the stages of our journeys longer;" but (by doing so) they wronged themselves. So We turned them into bygone tales, and dispersed them, scattered in all directions. Surely there are signs in this for those who endeavour and are grateful.

Thus Iblis found his supposition about them to be true; and except for a section of believers they follow him.

He had no authority over them save for the purpose of Our knowing who believed in the world to come, and who doubted it. For your Lord keeps a watch over everything.

Say: "Call on those you imagine are gods apart from God. They are not masters even of an atom's weight in the heavens and the earth, nor do they have a share in them, nor is any one of them a helper (of God).

No intercession avails with Him except his He allows, so that when their hearts are freed of fear, they ask (one another): "What did your Lord say?" They will answer: "What is expedient. He is the all-mighty and supreme."

Say: "Who gives you food from the heavens and the earth?" Say: "God. Surely either you or we are on guidance, or are lost in clear error."

Say: "You will not be questioned about the sins that we have committed, nor shall we be questioned about your deeds."

Say: "Our Lord will gather us together and judge between us equitably, for He is the Judge all-knowing."

Say: "Just show me those you associate with Him as compeers." No, (you cannot), for He is God, the all-mighty and all-wise."

We have sent you only as a bearer of good tidings and admonisher for all mankind; yet most people do not understand.

Instead they say: "When is this promise going to be, if you speak the truth?"

Say: "Determined is the day of the promise, which you can neither put back nor advance an hour.''

The unbelievers say: "We do not believe in this Qur'an, nor in what was (sent) before it." If only you could see the sinners when they are made to stand before their Lord, blaming one another! Those who were weak will say to those who were arrogant: "But for you we would have certainly been believers."

The arrogant will say to the weak: "Did we hold you back from guidance after it had come to you? Certainly not. In fact you were yourselves guilty."

But the weak will say to the arrogant: "Not in the least. It was your plotting night and day when you ordered us to disbelieve in God and associate compeers with Him." When they see the punishment they will express repentance. But We shall put iron collars round the necks of infidels. Will they be requited for anything but what they did?

We never sent an admonisher to a habitation but its well-to-do people said: "We do not believe in what you have brought."

And (further): "We have far more wealth and children (than you), and we are not the ones to be punished."

Say: "Verily my Lord increases or restricts the provision of whosoever He will;" but most men do not understand.

It is not your wealth and children that will bring you closer to Us, except those who believe and do the right. These will be given a two-fold reward for their deeds, and will dwell in peace in the high empyrean.

But those who try to subvert Our signs will be given over to punishment

Say: "Verily my Lord increases or restricts the provision of any of His creatures as He will, and repays whatsoever you spend. He is the best of all providers."

The day He will gather all of them together, He will ask the angels: "Did they worship you?"

"God forbid!" (they will answer). "You are our protector not they. In fact, they worshipped the devils. Most of them believed in them."

That day you will have no power to profit or harm each other; and We shall say to the sinners: "Taste the punishment of Fire which you had denied."

When Our clear revelations are read out to them, they say: "This is only a man who wants to turn you away from what your fathers used to worship." And they say: "This is nothing but a fabricated lie." And those who do not believe say of the truth when it has reached them: "This is nothing but pure sorcery."

We did not give them any scripture to study, nor sent any warner before you.

Those before them had also denied, and they could not reach a tenth of (the possibilities) We had given them, and still they called My apostles liars. How great was the change that I wrought in their condition then!

Say: "I urge upon you only one thing: Stand up for God two by two or one by one, and think and reflect!" There is no madness about your companion. He is a warner against the dreadful affliction (that awaits).

Say: "The reward I ask is for yourself. My reward is due from none but God; and He is witness over everything."

Say: "My Lord casts the truth: He is the knower of things unknown."

Say: "The truth has come, and falsehood had neither precedence nor will reappear."

Say: "If I am in error it is to my own loss; if I am on guidance that is so because of what my Lord reveals to me. He is all-hearing and all-too-near."

If you could see when they are gripped by terror without any escape, and are seized from close at hand

They will say: "We believe in it." How could they reach it from a place of no return?

They had surely denied it before and aimed without seeing from so far away.

A barrier shall be raised between them and what they desired, as was done with their partisans before. They too were filled with disquieting doubt.

ALL PRAISE BE to God, the originator of the heavens and the earth, who appointed angels as His messengers, with wings, two, three and four. He adds what He pleases to His creation. He has certainly power over everything.

There is none who can take away the favours He bestows on man; and there is none apart from Him to restore what He has withheld. He is all-mighty and all-wise.

O you people, remember the favours of God to you. Is there any creator other than God who gives you food from the heavens and the earth? There is no god but He: How then can you turn aside?

If they call you a liar, so have other messengers been denied before you. But all things will be brought back to God.

O you people, the promise of God is true. So do not let the life of this world delude you, nor let that (arch) deceiver deceive you about God.

Satan is certainly your enemy, so hold him as a foe. He only calls his faction to be the residents of Hell.

For those who are unbelievers, there is severe punishment; but for those who believe and do the right is forgiveness and a great reward.

Can he, the evil of whose deed is made to look attractive to him so that he considers it good, (be like him who is guided)? God leads whosoever He please astray and guides whosoever He will. So do not waste away your self with grief for them. God is indeed cognisant of things they do.

It is God who sends the winds that raise the clouds. Then We drive the clouds towards the land that was dead, and restore the earth to life after it had died. So will be the Resurrection.

Whosoever desires honour (should remember) that all honour is with God. All good words ascend to Him, and all good deeds He exalts. As for those who are plotting evil, there is severe punishment for them, and their plots will be fruitless.

It is God who created you from dust, then from a sperm, then formed you into pairs. Neither does a female conceive nor gives birth without His knowledge; nor do the old grow older or become younger in years but in accordance with the law (of nature). Indeed the law of God works inevitably.

Alike are not two bodies of water: This one is sweet and fresh and pleasant to drink, and this one brine and bitter; yet you get fresh meat to eat from both, and take out ornaments to wear. You see how the ships churn through them so that you may seek of His bounty and, perhaps, give thanks.

He makes night run into day, the day run into night, and has harnessed the sun and the moon so that each runs to its determined course. This is God your Lord; His is the kingdom; and those you invoke apart from Him are not masters even of the film on a date-palm stone.

You pray to them, but they do not hear your call; and even if they heard you, they could not answer your prayer; and on the Day of Resurrection they will deny your having worshipped them. None can acquaint you (with the reality) as He who is informed of everything.

O men, it is you who stand in need of God. As for God, He is above all need, worthy of praise.

He could take you away if He pleased and bring a new creation (in your place).

This is well within the power of God.

No one who carries a burden bears another's load; and even if the burdened soul cry out for help none will carry the least of its burden, however close a relative it may be. You can only warn those who fear their Lord in secret and fulfil their devotional obligations. Whoever grows in goodness does so for himself. To God is the journeying back.

Equal are not the blind and those who can see,

Nor darkness and light,

Nor shade and heat of sunshine.

Equal are not the living and the dead. Verily God makes those He will to listen; but you cannot make those hear who are in their graves.

You are only a bearer of warnings.

We have sent you with the truth, to give glad tidings and to warn. Never has there been a community to which an admonisher was not sent.

If they call you a liar, so had those before them called their apostles liars, who had come to them with clear proofs, scriptures and the splendent Book.

So We seized the unbelievers. How great was the change I wrought in their condition then!

Do you not see how God sends water from the sky, then We produce fruits from it variegated in colour; and on mountains are tracts of red and white, in different shades and raven black.

And so are among men, beasts and cattle, different shades. Only those of His creatures fear God who have knowledge. Verily He is all-mighty and forgiving.

Surely those who read the Book of God, are firm in devotion, and spend of what We have given them in secret or openly, can hope for a commerce that will not decline,

So that He may reward them in full, and give them a greater increase by His grace. He is verily forgiving and rewarding.

What We have revealed to you of the Book is the truth, and proves (what has been sent) before it to be true. Verily God is informed of His creatures and sees everything.

So We made those of Our creatures whom We had chosen, heirs to the Book; but some of these exceed themselves, and some follow the middle course, and some surpass others in goodness by God's will, which is the greatest blessing.

They will enter the gardens of Eden, where they will be adorned with bracelets of gold and pearls, and of silk will be their garments.

They will say: "All praise be to God who has removed all care from us. Indeed our Lord is forgiving and rewarding,

Who has settled us by His grace in the mansions of eternal rest, where there is no labour for us, nor does weariness come upon us."

As for the unbelievers, there is the fire of Hell. It will neither consume them wholly that they should die, nor will its torment be lessened for them. That is how We requite the ungrateful.

There they will cry for help: "O Lord, get us out that we may do the right, and not what we used to do." Did We not give you a long enough span of life so that he who remembered may reflect? And did not the warner come to you? So now taste (the punishment). The iniquitous will have none to help them.

Verily God knows the unknown of the heavens and the earth. Indeed He knows what lies in the hearts of men.

He is the one who made you trustees on the earth. So he who disbelieves, will bear the consequence of his unbelief. but their unbelief will only increase disgust for unbelievers in the sight of their Lord; and their unbelief will only lead the unbelievers to greater loss.

Say: "Look at the compeers you invoke apart from God. Show me, what of the earth have they created, or what share have they in the heavens?" Or have We given them a Book whose testimony they possess? Not in the least. What the unbelievers have been promising one another is nothing but deceit.

Verily God holds the heavens and the earth in position lest they deviate; and if they deviated there will be none to hold them in place, apart from Him He is sagacious and forgiving.

The unbelievers swore on oath emphatically that if an admonisher came to them they would be guided better than the other communities. But when the admonisher came to them their aversion for the truth increased,

As did their arrogance in the land, and their plotting of evil. But their evil plots will turn back on the plotters themselves. So can they expect any thing but what befell the earlier people? You will not find any change in the law of God, nor will you find divine law mutable.

Have they not journeyed in the land and seen how the end of those before them, who were far more powerful, came about? There is nothing in the heavens and the earth that can defeat (the law of) God. He is all-knowing and all-powerful.

If God were to seize men for their doings, not a living being would be left upon the earth. But He gives them respite for a time ordained. When their time is come, surely God will keep (the interest of) His creatures in view.

YA SIN.

I call to witness the Qur'an, custodian of all laws, --

That you are indeed one of those sent

On a path that is straight, --

A revelation from the mighty, ever-merciful (God),

That you may warn a people whose ancestors had never been warned, who are therefore heedless.

The sentence is surely justified against most of them, for they do not believe.

We will certainly put iron collars on their heel's which will come up to their chins, so that they will not be able to raise their heads.

And We shall raise a barrier in front of them and a barrier behind them, and cover them over so that they will not be able to see.

Whether you warn them or do not warn, it is all the same; they will not believe.

You can only warn him who listens to the warning and fears Ar-Rahman secretly. So give him good news of forgiveness and a generous reward.

It is We indeed who bring back the dead to life, and write down what they send ahead (of their deeds), and traces that they leave behind. We keep an account of all things in a lucid register.

Narrate to them the example of the people of the city when the messengers came to it.

When We sent two of them they called them liars; so We sent a third to strengthen them. "We have been sent to you," they said.

"You are only men like us," they replied; "Ar-Rahman has not sent down any thing. You are speaking only lies."

(The messengers) said: "Our Lord knows that we have been sent to you.

Our duty is to convey the message clearly."

They rejoined: "We feel you augur ill. If you do not desist, we shall stone you to death, and inflict a grievous punishment on you."

(The messengers) said: "The augury is within your own selves. Do you (consider it a bad omen) that you should be warned? You are a people guilty of excess."

Then a man came running from the other side of the city. "O my people," he said, "follow the messengers.

Follow those who do not ask for any recompense of you, and are rightly guided.

Why should I not worship Him who brought me into being, to whom you will be brought back in the end?

Should I take other gods apart from Him, who would neither be able to intercede for me nor save me if Ar-Rahman brings me harm?

In that case I would surely be in clear error.

I believe in your Lord, so listen to me."

(But they stoned him to death.) It was said to him: "Enter Paradise;" and he said: "If only my people knew

How my Lord has forgiven me and made me one of those who are honoured!"