ق

1Qaf. CONSIDER this sublime Qur’an!

2But nay - they deem it strange that a warner should have come unto them from their own midst; and so these deniers of the truth are saying, “A strange thing is this!

3Why - [how could we be resurrected] after we have died and become mere dust? Such a return seems far-fetched indeed!”

4Well do We know how the earth consumes their bodies, for with Us is a record unfailing.

5Nay, but they [who refuse to believe in resurrection] have been wont to give the lie to this truth whenever it was proffered to them; and so they are in a state of confusion.

6Do they not look at the sky above them - how We have built it and made it beautiful and free of all faults?

7And the earth - We have spread it wide, and set upon it mountains firm, and caused it to bring forth plants of all beauteous kinds,

8thus offering an insight and a reminder unto every human being who willingly turns unto God.

9And We send down from the skies water rich in blessings, and cause thereby gardens to grow, and fields of grain,

10and tall palm-trees with their thickly-clustered dates,

11as sustenance appor­tioned to men; and by [all] this We bring dead land to life: [and] even so will be [man’s] coming-forth from death.

12[Long] before those [who now deny resur­rection] did Noah’s people give the lie to this truth, and [so did] the folk of Ar-Rass, and [the tribes of] Thamud

13and Ad, and Pharaoh, and Lot’s brethren,

14and the dwellers of the wooded dales [of Madyan], and the people of Tubba: they all gave the lie to the apostles - and thereupon that whereof I had warned [them] came true.

15Could We, then, be [thought of as being] worn out by the first creation? Nay - but some people are [still] lost in doubt about [the possibility of] a new creation!