89al-FajrThe Daybreakسُورَةُ الفجر

By the break of day!

And by nights amounting to ten!1

And by the combined [accountability] and the separate [accountability]!

And by the night [of the unknown] as it moves on!

[Given all this], could there be, for anyone of cogent intellectual control, a [more evidential] declaration of the truth therein?

Can you not observe what your Sustainer did to [the society of] ‘Ād;2

[And the people of] Iram — known for their [monumental] columns,

The likes of which were never structured in [any] land;

And with the [society] of Thamūd, who hewed the rocks in the valley [into inhabitable quarters];

And with Pharaoh of the earthbound anchors [pyramids]?

[It was they] who concentrated and abused power in [their] countries,

And increased [and aggravated] regression in it [their lands] —

For which your Sustainer released a scourge of suffering upon them:

For, verily, your Sustainer is ever on the lookout [to thwart their abuse of power].

But as for [the attitude of] social beings [man], whenever his Sustainer puts him through trying times and honors him with bounties and provisions, he says, “My Sustainer has honored me!” —

But, then, whenever He puts him through trying times and supplies him sparingly with resources [and livelihood], he says, “My Sustainer has demeaned me!”

No, no, no! Rather, you [as societies] do not bestow honor [and generosity] upon the orphan [in society],

And you are not motivated in a collective corroborative way to feed the dispossessed,

And you fool away [in crass consumption what is your] gross estate,

And you love money [and wealth] with infatuated affection!

No [it is you who are in the wrong]! [Give careful consideration to] when the earth shall be pounded and pulverized,

And your Sustainer shall come, along with the angelic attendance in lines and ranks.

On that Day, Hell shall be motioned into existence; on that Day the social being shall become conscious: but what shall the possession of that consciousness do for him [on that Day]?

He will say, “Oh me! I wish I had something to offer [from my worldly life for the afterlife]!

On that Day no one’s affliction [endured] can measure up to His [punishment for sinners],

And no one’s detention [endured] can match His [detainment of sinners].

[And for all to hear, Allah will say to those who committed to His power and authority], “O living being! In your serenity!

“Return to your Sustainer being pleased with Him and pleasing [unto Him],

“Thereupon get in with My subjects,

“And come into My Paradise!”