| | Aisha Bewley rendition of Surah The Ant, The Ants(an-Naml)
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| 27:1 | | Ta Sin. Those are the Signs of the Qur´an and a Clear Book. |
| 27:2 | | It is guidance and good news for the muminun, |
| 27:3 | | those who establish salat and pay zakat and are certain about the Next World. |
| 27:4 | | As for those who do not have iman in the Next World. We have made their actions appear good to them and they wander about blindly. |
| 27:5 | | Such people will receive an evil punishment and will be the greatest losers in the Next World. |
| 27:6 | | You receive the Qur´an directly from One who is All-Wise, All-Knowing. |
| 27:7 | | When Musa said to his people, ´I can make out a fire. I will bring you news from it or at least a burning brand so that hopefully you will be able to warm yourselves.´ |
| 27:8 | | But when he reached it, a voice called out to him, ´Blessed be Him who is in the Fire and all who are around it. Glory be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds! |
| 27:9 | | Musa, I am Allah, the Almighty, the All-Wise. |
| 27:10 | | Throw down your staff.´ Then when he saw it slithering like a snake he turned and fled and did not turn back again. ´Have no fear, Musa. In My Presence the Messengers have no fear — |
| 27:11 | | except for one who did wrong and then changed evil into good — for I am Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. |
| 27:12 | | Put your hand inside your shirt front. It will emerge pure white, yet quite unharmed — one of nine Signs to Pharaoh and his people. They are a people of deviators.´ |
| 27:13 | | When Our Signs came to them in all their clarity, they said, ´This is downright magic,´ |
| 27:14 | | and they repudiated them wrongly and haughtily, in spite of their own certainty about them. See the final fate of the corrupters. |
| 27:15 | | We gave knowledge to Dawud and Sulayman who said, ´Praise be to Allah who has favoured us over many of His slaves who are muminun.´ |
| 27:16 | | Sulayman was Dawud´s heir. He said, ´Mankind! we have been taught the speech of birds and we have been given everything. This is indeed clear favour.´ |
| 27:17 | | Sulayman´s troops, made up of jinn and men and birds, were assembled for him, paraded in tight ranks. |
| 27:18 | | Then, when they reached the Valley of the Ants, an ant said, ´Ants! enter your dwellings so that Sulayman and his troops do not crush you unwittingly.´ |
| 27:19 | | He smiled, laughing at its words, and said, ´My Lord, keep me thankful for the blessing You have bestowed on me and on my parents, and keep me acting rightly, pleasing You, and admit me, by Your mercy, among Your slaves who are righteous.´ |
| 27:20 | | He inspected the birds and said, ´How is it that I do not see the hoopoe? Or is it absent without leave? |
| 27:21 | | I will certainly punish it most severely or slaughter it if it does not bring me clear authority.´ |
| 27:22 | | However, it was not long delayed, and then it said, ´I have comprehended something you have not and bring you accurate intelligence from Sheba. |
| 27:23 | | I found a woman ruling over them who has been given everything. She possesses a mighty throne. |
| 27:24 | | I found both her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of Allah. Shaytan has made their actions seem good to them and debarred them from the Way so they are not guided |
| 27:25 | | and do not prostrate to Allah, Who brings out what is hidden in the heavens and the earth, and knows what you conceal and what you divulge. |
| 27:26 | | Allah — there is no god but Him — the Lord of the Mighty Throne.´ |
| 27:27 | | He said, ´We will soon see if you have told the truth or are a liar. |
| 27:28 | | Take this letter of mine and deliver it to them and then withdraw from them a little and see how they respond.´ |
| 27:29 | | She said, ´Council! a noble letter has been delivered to me. |
| 27:30 | | It is from Sulayman and says: "In the name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful. |
| 27:31 | | Do not rise up against me, but come to me in submission."´ |
| 27:32 | | She said, ´Council! give me your opinion about this matter. It is not my habit to make a final decision until I have heard what you have to say.´ |
| 27:33 | | They said, ´We possess strength and we possess great force. But the matter is in your hands so consider what you command.´ |
| 27:34 | | She said, ´When kings enter a city, they lay waste to it and make its mightiest inhabitants the most abased. That is what they too will do. |
| 27:35 | | I will send them a gift and then wait and see what the messengers bring back.´ |
| 27:36 | | When it reached Sulayman he said, ´Would you give me wealth when what Allah has given me is better than what He has given you? No, rather it is you who delight in your gift. |
| 27:37 | | Return to them. We will come to them with troops they cannot face and we will expel them from it abased and humiliated.´ |
| 27:38 | | He said, ´Council! who among you will bring me her throne before they come to me in submission?´ |
| 27:39 | | An ifreet of the jinn said, ´I will bring it to you before you get up from your seat. I am strong and trustworthy enough to do it.´ |
| 27:40 | | He who possessed knowledge of the Book said, ´I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you.´ And when he saw it standing firmly in his presence, he said, ´This is part of my Lord´s favour to test me to see if I will give thanks or show ingratitude. Whoever gives thanks only does so to his own gain. Whoever is ungrateful, my Lord is Rich Beyond Need, Generous.´ |
| 27:41 | | He said, ´Disguise her throne. We shall see whether she is guided or someone who is not guided.´ |
| 27:42 | | Then when she came, she was asked, ´Is your throne like this?´ She said, ´It is exactly like it.´ ´We were given knowledge before her and were already Muslims, |
| 27:43 | | but what she worshipped besides Allah impeded her. She was from an unbelieving people.´ |
| 27:44 | | She was told: ´Enter the courtyard,´ but when she saw it she supposed it to be a pool and bared her legs. He said, ´It is a courtyard paved with glass.´ She said, ´My Lord, I have wronged myself but I have submitted with Sulayman to the Lord of all the worlds.´ |
| 27:45 | | To Thamud We sent their brother Salih telling them to worship Allah, and straightaway they divided in two, arguing with one another. |
| 27:46 | | He said, ´My people, why are you so anxious to hasten the bad before the good? If only you would ask for forgiveness from Allah, so that mercy might perhaps be shown to you.´ |
| 27:47 | | They said, ´We see you, and those with you, as an evil omen.´ He said, ´No, your evil omen is with Allah; you are merely a people undergoing a trial.´ |
| 27:48 | | There was a group of nine men in the city causing corruption in the land and not putting things right. |
| 27:49 | | They said, ´Let us make an oath to one another by Allah that we will fall on him and his family in the night and then say to his protector, "We did not witness the destruction of his family and we are telling the truth."´ |
| 27:50 | | They hatched a plot and We hatched a plot while they were not aware. |
| 27:51 | | So look at the end result of all their plotting; We utterly destroyed them and their whole people! |
| 27:52 | | These are the ruins of their houses because of the wrong they did. There is certainly a Sign in that for people with knowledge. |
| 27:53 | | We rescued those who had iman and who had taqwa. |
| 27:54 | | And when Lut said to his people: ´Do you approach depravity with open eyes? |
| 27:55 | | Do you come with lust to men instead of women? You are a people who are deeply ignorant.´ |
| 27:56 | | the only response of his people was to say: ´Drive the family of Lut out of your city! They are people who keep themselves pure!´ |
| 27:57 | | So We rescued him and his family — except for his wife. We ordained her to be one of those who stayed behind. |
| 27:58 | | We rained down a rain upon them. How evil is the rain of those who are warned! |
| 27:59 | | Say: ´Praise be to Allah and peace be upon His slaves whom He has chosen.´ Is Allah better, or what you associate with Him? |
| 27:60 | | He Who created the heavens and the earth and sends down water for you from the sky by which We make luxuriant gardens grow — you could never make their trees grow. Is there another god besides Allah? No indeed, but they are people who equate others with Him! |
| 27:61 | | He Who made the earth a stable dwelling place and appointed rivers flowing through its midst and placed firmly embedded mountains on it and set a barrier between the two seas. Is there another god besides Allah? No indeed, but most of them do not know it! |
| 27:62 | | He Who responds to the oppressed when they call on Him and removes their distress, and has appointed you as khalifs on the earth. Is there another god besides Allah? How little you pay heed! |
| 27:63 | | He Who guides you in the darkness of land and sea and sends out the winds bringing advance news of His mercy. Is there another god besides Allah? May Allah be exalted above what they associate with Him! |
| 27:64 | | He Who originates creation and then regenerates it and provides for you from out of heaven and earth. Is there another god besides Allah? Say: ´Bring your proof if you are being truthful.´ |
| 27:65 | | Say: ´No one in the heavens and the earth knows the Unseen except Allah.´ They are not aware of when they will be raised. |
| 27:66 | | No, their knowledge stops short of the Next World. In fact they have doubts about it. In fact they are blind to it. |
| 27:67 | | Those who are kafir say, ´When we and our fathers are turned to dust will we then be brought forth again? |
| 27:68 | | We have been promised this before, we and our fathers. This is nothing but myths and legends of previous peoples.´ |
| 27:69 | | Say: ´Travel about the earth and see the final fate of the evildoers.´ |
| 27:70 | | Do not grieve over them and do not let the plots they make distress you. |
| 27:71 | | They say, ´When will this promise be fulfilled if you are telling the truth?´ |
| 27:72 | | Say: ´It may well be that some of what you are anxious to hasten is right on your heels.´ |
| 27:73 | | Allah shows favour to mankind but most of them are not thankful. |
| 27:74 | | Certainly your Lord knows what their hearts keep hidden and what they divulge. |
| 27:75 | | Certainly there is no hidden thing in either heaven or earth which is not in a Clear Book. |
| 27:76 | | Certainly this Qur´an narrates to the tribe of Israel most of the things about which they differ. |
| 27:77 | | Certainly it is guidance and a mercy for the muminun. |
| 27:78 | | Certainly your Lord will decide between them with His just judgement. He is the Almighty, the All-Knowing. |
| 27:79 | | So put your trust in Allah. You are clearly on a path of truth. |
| 27:80 | | You will not make dead men hear and you will not make deaf men hear the call when they turn their backs in flight. |
| 27:81 | | You will not guide blind men out of their error. You will not make anyone hear except for those who have iman in Our Signs and so are Muslims. |
| 27:82 | | When the Word is justly carried out against them, We will produce a Beast from the earth which will speak to them. Truly mankind had no certainty about Our Signs. |
| 27:83 | | On that Day We will collect from every community a crowd of those who denied Our Signs, paraded in tight ranks. |
| 27:84 | | Then when they arrive He will say, ´Did you deny My Signs even though you did not have proper knowledge of them. What were you doing?´ |
| 27:85 | | The Word will be carried out against them for the wrong they did and they will not speak. |
| 27:86 | | Do they not see that We have made the night for them to rest in and the day for seeing? There are certainly Signs in that for people who have iman. |
| 27:87 | | On the Day the Trumpet is blown and everyone in the heavens and everyone on the earth is terrified — except those Allah wills, everyone will come to Him abject. |
| 27:88 | | You will see the mountains you reckoned to be solid going past like clouds — the handiwork of Allah who gives to everything its solidity. He is aware of what you do. |
| 27:89 | | Those who perform good actions will receive better than them and will be safe that Day from terror. |
| 27:90 | | Those who perform bad actions will be flung head first into the Fire: ´Are you being repaid for anything other than what you did?´ |
| 27:91 | | ´I have simply been ordered to worship the Lord of this land which He has declared sacred — everything belongs to Him — and I have been ordered to be one of the Muslims |
| 27:92 | | and to recite the Qur´an.´ Whoever is guided is only guided to his own good; if someone is misguided just say, ´I am only a warner.´ |
| 27:93 | | Say: ´Praise be to Allah. He will show you His Signs and you will recognise them. Your Lord is not unaware of what you do.´ |
