Surah Al-Fajr (الفجر)

In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.

CONSIDER the daybreak

and the ten nights!

Consider the multiple and the One!

Consider the night as it runs its course!

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

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

[the people of] Iram the many-pillared,

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

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

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

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

and brought about great corruption therein:

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

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

BUT 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";

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

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

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

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

and you love wealth with boundless love!

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

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

And 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?

He will say, "Oh, would that I had. provided beforehand for my life [to come]!"

For, none can make suffer as He will make suffer [the sinners] on that Day,

and none can bind with bonds like His.

[But unto the righteous God will say,] "O thou human being that hast attained to inner peace!

Return thou unto thy Sustainer, well-pleased [and] pleasing [Him]:

enter, then, together with My [other true] servants –

yea, enter thou My paradise!"