١CONSIDER the daybreak
٢and the ten nights!
٣Consider the multiple and the One!
٤Consider the night as it runs its course!
٥Considering all this - could there be, to anyone endowed with reason, a [more] solemn evidence of the truth?
٦ART THOU NOT aware of how thy Sustainer has dealt with [the tribe of] ‘Ad,
٧[the people of] Iram the many-pillared,
٨the like of whom has never been reared in all the land? –
٩and with [the tribe of] Thamud, who hollowed out rocks in the valley? –
١٠and with Pharaoh of the [many] tent-poles?
١١[It was they] who transgressed all bounds of equity all over their lands,
١٢and brought about great corruption therein:
١٣and therefore thy Sustainer let loose upon them a scourge of suffering:
١٤for, verily, thy Sustainer is ever on the watch!
١٥BUT AS FOR man, whenever his Sustainer tries him by His generosity and by letting him enjoy a life of ease, he says, "My Sustainer has been [justly] generous towards me";
١٦whereas, whenever He tries him by straitening his means of livelihood, he says, "My Sustainer has disgraced me!"
١٧But nay, nay, [O men, consider all that you do and fail to do:] you are not generous towards the orphan,
١٨and you do not urge one another to feed the needy,
١٩and you devour the inheritance [of others] with devouring greed,
٢٠and you love wealth with boundless love!
٢١Nay, but [how will you fare on Judgment Day,] when the earth is crushed with crushing upon crushing,
٢٢and [the majesty of] thy Sustainer stands revealed, as well as [the true nature of] the angels; rank upon rank?
٢٣And on that Day hell will be brought [within sight]; on that Day man will remember [all that he did and failed to do]: but what will that remembrance avail him?