| | Sayyid Qutb rendition of Surah The Criterion, The Standard(al-Furqan)
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| 25:1 | | Blessed is He who from on high bestowed upon His servant the do standard to discern the true from the false, so that it might be a warning to all the worlds: |
| 25:2 | | He to whom belongs the dominion over the heavens and the earth, and who begets no off- spring, and has no partner in His dominion. It is He who has created all things and ordained them in due proportions. |
| 25:3 | | Yet, some choose to worship, instead of Him, deities that cannot create anything but are themselves created, and have it not in their power to avert harm from, or bring benefit to, themselves, and have no power over death, life or resurrection. |
| 25:4 | | The unbelievers say: 'This [Qur'Än] is nothing but a lie which he has devised with the help of other people.' In truth, it is they who have perpetrated an inequity and a falsehood. |
| 25:5 | | And they say: 'Fables of ancient times which he has caused to be written down, so that they might be read out to him morning and evening.' |
| 25:6 | | Say: 'This [Qur'Än] is bestowed from on high by Him who knows the secrets of the heavens and the earth. He is indeed Much-Forgiving, Merciful.' |
| 25:7 | | They also say: 'What sort of messenger is this, who eats food and goes about in the market- places? Why has not an angel been sent down to him to give warning alongside him? |
| 25:8 | | Or why has not a treasure been granted to him? Or he should have a garden to provide his sustenance.' The wrongdoers say: 'The man you follow is certainly bewitched.' |
| 25:9 | | See to what they liken you. They have certainly gone astray and are unable to find a way back [to the truth]. |
| 25:10 | | Blessed is He who, if it be His will, shall give you better things than these; gardens through which running waters flow, and shall give you palaces too. |
| 25:11 | | Nay! It is the Last Hour that they deny. For those who deny the Last Hour We have prepared a blazing fire. |
| 25:12 | | When it sees them from a far-off place, they will hear its fury and its raging sigh. |
| 25:13 | | And when, chained together, they are flung into a tight space within, they will pray for extinction there and then. |
| 25:14 | | [But they will be told]: 'Do not pray today for one single extinction, but pray for many extinctions!' |
| 25:15 | | Say: 'Which is better: that, or the paradise of eternity which the God-fearing have been promised as their reward and their ultimate abode?' |
| 25:16 | | There they will have all they wish for, abiding there forever. It is a promise given by your Lord, always to be prayed for. |
| 25:17 | | On the day He gathers them with all those they worship instead of God, He will ask: 'Was it you who led these My servants astray, or did they by themselves stray from the right path?' |
| 25:18 | | They will say: 'Limitless are You in Your glory! It was never proper for us to take for our masters anyone but Yourself. But You allowed them and their fathers to enjoy [the pleasures of] life, until they forgot the Reminder. For they were people devoid of all good.' |
| 25:19 | | [Then God will say]: 'Now have they denied all your assertions, and you can neither avert [your punishment] nor obtain help. Whoever of you does wrong, him shall We cause to taste grievous suffering.' |
| 25:20 | | Even before you, We never sent messengers other than [men] who indeed ate food and went about in the market-places. We have made some of you a means of testing others. Are you able to endure with patience? Surely your Lord sees all. |
| 25:21 | | Those who entertain no hope of meeting Us say: 'Why have no angels been sent down to us?' or, 'Why do we not see our Lord?' Indeed, they are far too proud of themselves and they have been insolently overbearing. |
| 25:22 | | On the day when they shall see the angels, the sinners will receive no happy news then, and they will say: 'a forbidding ban!' |
| 25:23 | | We shall turn to whatever deeds they have done, and We shall transform it all into scattered dust. |
| 25:24 | | On that day, those destined for paradise will be graced with the best of abodes and the fairest place of repose. |
| 25:25 | | On the day when the skies shall be rent asunder with clouds, and the angels shall be sent down [in ranks]. |
| 25:26 | | On that day, true sovereignty belongs to the Most Merciful [alone]. It will be a day of dire distress for the unbelievers. |
| 25:27 | | On that day the wrongdoer will bite his hands and say: 'Would that I had followed the path shown to me by the Messenger. |
| 25:28 | | Oh, woe is me! Would that I had never taken so- and-so for a friend! |
| 25:29 | | He surely led me astray from the Reminder after it had come to me!.' Satan is ever treacherous to man. |
| 25:30 | | And the Messenger will say: 'My Lord! My people have regarded this Qur'Än as something to be discarded!' |
| 25:31 | | Thus against every prophet We have set up enemies from among those who are guilty. Sufficient is your Lord to provide guidance and support. |
| 25:32 | | The unbelievers ask: 'Why has not the Qur'Än been revealed to him all at once?' Thus [it has been revealed] so that We might strengthen your heart with it, and We have imparted it to you by gradual revelation. |
| 25:33 | | Whenever they come to you with an argument, We shall reveal to you the truth and the best explanation. |
| 25:34 | | Those who will be gathered to hell on their faces they will be worst in station and still farther away from the [right] path. |
| 25:35 | | Indeed, We gave the book to Moses, and appointed his brother Aaron to help him to bear his burden. |
| 25:36 | | And We said: 'Go you both to the people who denied Our signs,' and then We utterly destroyed those people. |
| 25:37 | | When the people of Noah rejected their messengers, We caused them to drown, and made of them an example for mankind. For the wrongdoers We have prepared grievous suffering. |
| 25:38 | | And also the `Ād and Thamūd, and the people of al-Rass, and many generations in between. |
| 25:39 | | To each of them did We proffer lessons, and each of them did We utterly annihilate. |
| 25:40 | | They must have surely passed by the town which was rained upon with a shower of evil. Have they, then, never seen it? But nay, they would not believe in resurrection. |
| 25:41 | | When they see you, they make you a target of their mockery, [saying]: 'Is this the one whom God has sent as His emissary? |
| 25:42 | | He could almost have led us astray from our deities, had we not been steadfastly attached to them!' But in time, when they see the suffering, they will come to know who it was that went farthest astray. |
| 25:43 | | Have you considered the one who makes his desires his deity? Could you, then, be held responsible for him? |
| 25:44 | | Or do you think that most of them listen and use their reason? They are but like cattle. Nay, they are even far worse astray. |
| 25:45 | | Do you not see how your Lord causes the shadow to lengthen when, had He so willed, He could have indeed made it stand still? But then We have made the sun its guide. |
| 25:46 | | And then, little by little, We draw it in towards Ourselves. |
| 25:47 | | He it is who makes the night a garment for you, and sleep a repose. He makes every day a resurrection. |
| 25:48 | | And He it is who sends forth the winds as heralds of His coming grace. And We cause pure water to descend from the skies, |
| 25:49 | | so that with it We may bring dead land to life and give drink to a countless number of Our creation, beasts as well as human. |
| 25:50 | | Many times have We explained this [in the] Qur'Än to them, so that they may take it to heart, but most people refuse to be anything but unbelievers. |
| 25:51 | | Had We so willed, We could have sent a warner to every city. |
| 25:52 | | Do not obey the unbelievers, but strive most vigorously against them with this Qur'Än. |
| 25:53 | | He it is who has brought the two bodies of water to meet; the one sweet and thirst-quenching, and the other salty and bitter. Yet between them He has made a barrier and a forbidding ban. |
| 25:54 | | And He it is who has created man from water and established for him bonds of lineage and marriage. All-Powerful is your Lord. |
| 25:55 | | Yet people worship, instead of God, things that can neither benefit nor harm them. An unbeliever always gives support against his Lord. |
| 25:56 | | We have sent you only as a herald of good news and a warner. |
| 25:57 | | Say: 'No reward do I ask of you for this. All I ask is that he who so wills may find a way leading to his Lord.' |
| 25:58 | | Hence, place your trust in the Living One who does not die, and extol His limitless glory and praise. Sufficient is it that He is well aware of his servants' sins. |
| 25:59 | | He it is who has created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six days, and is established on the throne of His Almightiness, the Most Merciful. Ask, then, about Him, the One who knows everything. |
| 25:60 | | Yet when they are told, 'Prostrate yourselves before the Most Merciful,' they ask, 'What is the Most Merciful? Are we to prostrate ourselves before whatever you bid us?' And they grow more rebellious. |
| 25:61 | | Blessed is He who has set up in the skies great constellations, and has placed among them a lamp and a light-giving moon. |
| 25:62 | | And He it is who causes the night and the day to succeed one another; [a clear sign] for him who would take heed or would show gratitude. |
| 25:63 | | The true servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk gently on earth, and who, whenever the ignorant address them, say: 'Peace' |
| 25:64 | | who stay up far into the night in adoration of their Lord, prostrating themselves and standing; |
| 25:65 | | who pray: 'Our Lord, avert from us the suffering of hell, for the suffering it causes is indeed a dire torment; |
| 25:66 | | it is indeed an evil abode and a terrible station; |
| 25:67 | | and who, whenever they put their money to use, are neither wasteful nor niggardly, but always maintain a just mean between the two; |
| 25:68 | | and who never invoke any deity side by side with God, and do not take any human being's life [the life] which God has willed to be sacred except for a just cause, and do not commit adultery. Whoever does any of this will face punishment, |
| 25:69 | | and on the Day of Resurrection his suffering will be doubled, and he will abide therein in ignominy. |
| 25:70 | | Excepted, however, shall be they who repent, attain to faith and do righteous deeds, for God will transform their bad deeds into good ones. God is indeed Much- Forgiving, Merciful. |
| 25:71 | | Whoever repents and does what is right has truly turned to God by [his act of] repentance. |
| 25:72 | | [And the true servants of God are] those who never bear witness to what is false, and whenever they pass by [people engaged in] frivolity, pass on with dignity; |
| 25:73 | | and who, whenever they are reminded of their Lord's signs, do not fall deaf and blind to them; |
| 25:74 | | and who pray: 'Our Lord! Grant us spouses and offspring who will be a joy to our eyes, and cause us to be foremost among the God- fearing.' |
| 25:75 | | These will be rewarded for all their patient endurance [in life] with a high station in heaven, and will be met there with a greeting of welcome and peace, |
| 25:76 | | and there they shall abide; how goodly an abode and how high a station; |
| 25:77 | | Say: 'No weight or value would my Lord attach to you were it not for you calling out [to Him]. You have indeed denied [His message], and in time this [sin] will cleave unto you.' |
