| | Aisha Bewley rendition of Surah The Thunder(ar-Ra`d)
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| 13:1 | | Alif Lam Mim Ra. Those are the Signs of the Book. And what has been sent down to you from your Lord is the Truth. But most people have no iman. |
| 13:2 | | Allah is He who raised up the heavens without any support — you can see that — and then established Himself firmly on the Throne. He made the sun and moon subservient, each running for a specified term. He directs the whole affair. He makes the Signs clear so that hopefully you will be certain about the meeting with your Lord. |
| 13:3 | | It is He who stretched out the earth and placed firmly embedded mountains and rivers in it and made two types of every kind of fruit. He covers over day with night. There are Signs in that for people who reflect. |
| 13:4 | | In the earth there are diverse regions side by side and gardens of grapes and cultivated fields, and palm-trees sharing one root and others with individual roots, all watered with the same water. And We make some things better to eat than others. There are Signs in that for people who use their intellect. |
| 13:5 | | If you are surprised at their blindness, what could be more surprising than their words: ´What, when we are turned to dust, shall we then be created all anew?´ These are the people who reject their Lord. Such people have iron collars round their necks. Such people are the Companions of the Fire, remaining in it timelessly, for ever. |
| 13:6 | | They want you to hasten the bad rather than the good when examples of punishment are there before them in the past. Your Lord has forgiveness for people for their wrongdoing; but your Lord is also severe in retribution. |
| 13:7 | | Those who are kafir say, ´If only a Sign could be sent down to him from his Lord!´ You are only a warner. Every people has a guide. |
| 13:8 | | Allah knows what every female bears and every shrinking of the womb and every swelling. Everything has its measure with Him, |
| 13:9 | | the Knower of the Unseen and the Visible, the Most Great, the High-Exalted. |
| 13:10 | | It makes no difference whether you keep secret what you say or voice it out loud, whether you hide in the night or go out in the day. |
| 13:11 | | Everyone has a succession of angels in front of him and behind him, guarding him by Allah´s command. Allah never changes a people´s state until they change what is in themselves. When Allah desires evil for a people, there is no averting it. They have no protector apart from Him. |
| 13:12 | | It is He Who shows you the lightning, striking fear and bringing hope; it is He Who heaps up the heavy clouds. |
| 13:13 | | The thunder glorifies His praise, as do the angels, out of fear of Him. He discharges the thunderbolts, striking with them anyone He wills. Yet still they argue about Allah when He is inexorable in His power! |
| 13:14 | | The call of truth is made to Him alone. Those they call upon apart from Him do not respond to them at all. It is like someone stretching out his cupped hands towards water to convey it to his mouth: it will never get there. The call of the kuffar only goes astray. |
| 13:15 | | Everyone in heaven and earth prostrates to Allah willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows in the morning and the evening. |
| 13:16 | | Say: ´Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth?´ Say: ´Allah.´ Say: ´So why have you taken protectors apart from Him who possess no power to help or harm themselves?´ Say: ´Are the blind and seeing equal? Or are darkness and light the same? Or have they assigned partners to Allah who create as He creates, so that all creating seems the same to them?´ Say: ´Allah is the Creator of everything. He is the One, the All-Conquering.´ |
| 13:17 | | He sends down water from the sky and river-beds fill up and flow according to their size, and the floodwater carries with it an increasing layer of scum; a similar kind of scum comes from what you heat up in the fire, when you desire to make jewellery or other things. That is how Allah depicts the true and the false. As for the scum, it is quickly swept away. But as for that which is of use to people, it remains behind in the ground. That is a metaphor which Allah has made |
| 13:18 | | Those who respond to their Lord will receive the best. But as for those who do not respond to Him, even if they owned everything on the earth and the same again with it, they would offer it as a ransom. They will receive an evil Reckoning. Their shelter will be Hell. What an evil resting-place! |
| 13:19 | | Is he who knows that what has been sent down to you from your Lord is the truth like him who is blind? It is only people of intelligence who pay heed: |
| 13:20 | | those who fulfil Allah´s contract and do not break their agreement; |
| 13:21 | | those who join what Allah has commanded to be joined and are afraid of their Lord and fear an evil Reckoning; |
| 13:22 | | those who are steadfast in seeking the face of their Lord, and establish salat and give from the provision We have given them, secretly and openly, and stave off evil with good, it is they who will have the Ultimate Abode — |
| 13:23 | | Gardens of Eden which they will enter, and all of their parents, wives and children who were righteous. Angels will enter in to welcome them from every gate: ´Peace be upon you because of your steadfastness! |
| 13:24 | | How wonderful is the Ultimate Abode!´ |
| 13:25 | | But as for those who break Allah´s contract after it has been agreed and sever what Allah has commanded to be joined, and cause corruption in the earth, the curse will be upon them. They will have the Evil Abode. |
| 13:26 | | Allah expands provision to anyone He wills and restricts it. They rejoice in the life of this world. Yet the life of this world, compared to the Next World, is only fleeting enjoyment. |
| 13:27 | | Those who are kafir say, ´Why has a Sign not been sent down to him from his Lord?´ Say: ´Allah misguides whoever He wills and guides to Himself all who turn to Him: |
| 13:28 | | those who have iman and whose hearts find peace in the remembrance of Allah. Only in the remembrance of Allah can the heart find peace.´ |
| 13:29 | | Those who have iman and do right actions, happiness will be theirs and a wonderful Homecoming. |
| 13:30 | | In the same way We have sent you among a nation before which other nations passed away, to recite to them what We have revealed to you. Yet they still reject the All-Merciful. Say: ´He is my Lord; there is no god but Him. I put my trust in Him and I turn to Him.´ |
| 13:31 | | Even if there was a Qur´an which moved mountains, or split the earth open or spoke to the dead . . .! On the contrary! The affair is Allah´s altogether. Do those who have iman not know that if Allah had wanted to He could have guided all mankind? Those who are kafir will not cease to be struck by disaster for what they have done — or a disaster will happen close to their homes — until Allah´s promise is fulfilled. Allah will not fail to keep His promise. |
| 13:32 | | Messengers before you were mocked. I gave those who were kafir a little more time and then I seized them. How terrible was My retribution! |
| 13:33 | | What then of Him who is standing over every self seeing everything it does? Yet still they associate others with Allah! Say: ´Name them! Or would you inform Him of something in the earth He does not know, or are they words which are simply guesswork on your part?´ However, the plotting of those who are kafir seems good to them and they bar the way. Anyone misguided by Allah has no guide. |
| 13:34 | | They will receive punishment in the life of this world and the punishment of the Next World is harsher still. They have no defender against Allah. |
| 13:35 | | What is the Garden promised to those who have taqwa like? It has rivers flowing under it and its foodstuffs and cool shade never fail. That is the final fate of those who have taqwa. But the final fate of the kuffar is the Fire. |
| 13:36 | | Those to whom We gave the Book rejoice at what has been sent down to you but some of the parties refuse to acknowledge part of it. Say: ´I have only been ordered to worship Allah and not to associate anything with Him. I summon to Him and to Him I will return.´ |
| 13:37 | | Accordingly We have sent it down as a judgement in Arabic. If you followed their whims and desires after the knowledge that has come to you, you would have no protector or defender against Allah. |
| 13:38 | | We sent Messengers before you and gave them wives and children. Nor was any Messenger able to bring a Sign except by Allah´s permission. There is a prescribed limit to every term. |
| 13:39 | | Allah erases whatever He wills or endorses it. The Master Copy of the Book is in His Hands. |
| 13:40 | | Whether We show you something of what We have promised them or We take you back to Us, your responsibility is transmission and the Reckoning is Ours. |
| 13:41 | | Do they not see how We come to the land eroding it at its extremities. Allah judges and there is no reversing His judgement. He is swift at reckoning. |
| 13:42 | | Those before them plotted but all plotting belongs to Allah. He knows what each self earns, and the kafir will soon know who has the Ultimate Abode. |
| 13:43 | | Those who are kafir say, ´You are not a Messenger.´ Say: ´Allah is a sufficient witness between you and me, and anyone else who has knowledge of the Book.´ |
