الفجر

1CONSIDER the daybreak

2and the ten nights!

3Consider the multiple and the One!

4Consider the night as it runs its course!

5Considering all this - could there be, to anyone endowed with reason, a [more] solemn evidence of the truth?

6ART THOU NOT aware of how thy Sustainer has dealt with [the tribe of] ‘Ad,

7[the people of] Iram the many-pillared,

8the like of whom has never been reared in all the land? –

9and with [the tribe of] Thamud, who hollowed out rocks in the valley? –

10and with Pharaoh of the [many] tent-poles?

11[It was they] who transgressed all bounds of equity all over their lands,

12and brought about great corruption therein:

13and therefore thy Sustainer let loose upon them a scourge of suffering:

14for, verily, thy Sustainer is ever on the watch!

15BUT 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";

16whereas, whenever He tries him by straitening his means of livelihood, he says, "My Sustainer has disgraced me!"

17But nay, nay, [O men, consider all that you do and fail to do:] you are not generous towards the orphan,

18and you do not urge one another to feed the needy,

19and you devour the inheritance [of others] with devouring greed,

20and you love wealth with boundless love!

21Nay, but [how will you fare on Judgment Day,] when the earth is crushed with crushing upon crushing,

22and [the majesty of] thy Sustainer stands revealed, as well as [the true nature of] the angels; rank upon rank?

23And 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?