32al-SajdahProstrationسُورَةُ السجدة

Alif-Lām-Mīm [A-L-M].

[Thus, with such letters of the alphabet], is the inclining [prompting] of this Scripture, about which there is no doubt, from the Sustainer of the worlds.

And yet they [the mushriks] say, “He [Muhammad] fabricated it [the Qur’an]!” Rather it is [the word of] truth and justice from your Sustainer so that you [Muhammad] may be able to warn a people to whom no warner had come before you, [and] so that they may be properly guided.

[It is] Allah who created the heavens and the earth and everything in between them in six eras, and is established on the throne [of His glory and almightiness]. Besides Him you [people] have no [reliable] superior ally [to relegate your affairs to] and no corresponding-other [to intercede for you]: will you not be attentive [to these facts]?

He manages the affair of all phenomena from heaven to earth; and in the end all will ascend to Him in a day — [a day] in the order of one thousand years of your reckoning.

That is [He] who knows the world of the unspecified and the world identified — the Grand, the Very Merciful,

[The One] who perfected everything He created. And [likewise] He initiates the creation of social beings from mud;

Then He composes his progeny from a bloodline [made] of low-down fluid;

Then He adjusts and attunes him; and He breathes into him of His rūḥ (life-force) — and [thus, O man] He arranges for you the capacity to hear and to see [and perceive], and [to have] thoughtful passions: not often, though, are you grateful.

And they [the deniers of resurrection] said, “You mean to tell us that if we were lost into the particles of earth [the disintegration of our bodies after death], we will certainly come into a new [and renewed] life!?” Rather, they are in denial of [ever] meeting their Sustainer.

Say [O Muhammad, to them], “The malak of death who has been assigned to you will cause you to expire and then you will be returned to your Sustainer.”

And if you could only see the criminal [kāfirs on the Day of Accountability] stooping their heads in front of their Sustainer [saying], “O our Sustainer! Now we see and understand and now we hear and listen! [Please] have us return back [to worldly life] so that we may get on with doing what is right and righteous. [Now] we are definitely certain [of the truth and the facts].”

And had We willed it We could have enforced Our guidance into every living being; but it is [the freedom of choice We have granted everyone that brings to fruition] My word, “I shall definitely pack Hell with invisible beings and communal beings, all together.”

[And word goes out to these God-deniers], “Therefore, due to your obliviousness of the encounter of this Day, do have a taste [of its rough treatment] — for, indeed, We have disregarded you. And do have a taste of eternal punishment because of what you were doing [in your worldly life].”

Only they commit to Our power presentations who, when they are reminded of them, go down, without hesitation, into prostra tion formation and extol the admirations of their Sustainer and are not arrogant;1

[And] whose body elements [sides] eschew [the comfort of] beds as they call upon their Sustainer through [life’s] phases of fear and aspiration; and who spend out of the sustenance We have provided them.

No living being has any knowledge of what has been concealed from them [those who committed to Allah] of the soothing delights [of the life to come], as a compensation for what they had done [in their worldly lifetime].

Is he who was committed to Allah [to be considered] on par with he who was deteriorating away [from Allah’s authority]? [But, no] they are not equivalents.

As for those who committed their lives to Allah and did what was right and rightful — for them there shall be gardens of residency and abode in exchange for what they were doing [in prior life].

But as for those who lived a life of deteriorating degeneracy, their dwelling shall be the Fire: every time they attempt to leave it they will be returned to it, and they will be told, “Taste the chastisement of the Fire that you [in your previous life] disputed.”

And We will most certainly make them experience an immediate torment [in this world, such as ailments, depression, physical or psychological anguish] short of the all-consuming torment [in the life to follow] — so that they may [reconsider their God-denial and] return [to their life-Sustainer].

And who could be more obnoxious than he who is reminded of his Sustainer’s power demonstrations, and thereupon looks askance [as if Allah does not exist]? We shall, indeed, inflict Our retribution upon those who are [such] criminals.

And [know, O Muhammad, that] We granted Mūsā the scripture [the Torah — and all the difficulties that went with it —] so have no second thoughts about encountering its [the Qur’an’s] reception [— and all the difficulties that went with it]. And We rendered it [the Torah] a guidance to the Children of Israel.

And We set up leaders from among them [the committed Children of Israel] who, so long as they persevered [in obeying Us] and were absolutely certain of Our power presence, would guide [others] in accordance with Our concern.

Indeed, your Sustainer will sort them out on the Day of Resurrection pertaining to issues that they disputed among themselves [during their worldly tenure].

Have they [who are denying Allah] not been guided by the fact that many generations before them were devastated by Us — generations that moved in and out of their own dwellings? Indeed, in that there are Godly power manifestations. Are they not tuned in?

Can they not see [and take into account] how We channel water to barren lands out of which vegetation grows, from which their cattle munches as well as they themselves? Do they not see [and get the message]?

But they will say [to the committed muslims], “When will this decisive breakthrough [of truth over untruth] happen, if you [committed muslims] are to be trusted?”

Say [O Muhammad], “On the Day of that decisive breakthrough, an [overdue] God-commitment will be of no value to the God-deniers; and [furthermore], they will not be granted a respite!”

Therefore, stay away from them [O Muhammad] and await [the actualization of the eventual truth in man’s social and otherworldly life], as they [in their own way] are killing time.