23:1  The believers have already attained success.

23:2  The ones who in their prayers are humbly devoted.

23:3  And the ones who shun the frivolous

23:4  and are at work for the giving out of alms,

23:5  and the ones who guard their modesty,

23:6  —except with respect to their spouses or those their right hands had possessed. For indeed then, they do not incur blame.

23:7  And so, whoever seeks beyond that, then those are the transgressors.

23:8  And [the believers are] those who tend to their trusts and their promise,

23:9  And the ones who are conscientious about their prayers,

23:10  Those are the inheritors.

23:11  The ones to inherit paradise— abiders therein.

23:12  WE did create man from a strain of clay.

23:13  Then WE placed him as a drop in an ingrained lodgment

23:14  Thereafter WE made the drop into a leech-like clot. Therefrom WE made the leech-like clot into an embryo. Therefrom WE made the embryo bony. Then WE clothed the bones with flesh. Thence WE raised it into another being. So then, Allah is the Source of all blessings, the best of the creators.

23:15  Then after that you are to surely die.

23:16  Then, on the Day of Judgment you are to be resurrected.

23:17  And WE did create seven processes above you, and WE were not ever remiss about Creation.

23:18  WE have sent down water from the sky with measure, then securely lodged it in the ground. And of certain, WE categorically have almighty control over its withdrawal.

23:19  WE have raised for you thereby, gardens with palms and vines. For you, therein are delicious fruits in abundance, and of them you consume.

23:20  And a tree issuing from Mount Sinai, bearing the oil [you use] and a condiment for those who relish it.

23:21  And in the cattle too, there is a definite lesson for you. WE give you to drink from that which is in their internal cisterns and in them are many continuing benefits for you, and from among them you consume as food.

23:22  And upon them and upon the [travel worthy] vessels are you carried.

23:23  And WE did send Noah to his people, and likewise he said, “O my people worship Allah. You do not have any god, other than HIM. Will you then not be conscious [of HIM]?”

23:24  Said the influentials, the ones from his people who had disbelieved, “Not is this [man] except a mortal like you. HE desires to claim superiority over you and if Allah had willed, HE could certainly have sent down angels. We heard not any of this from our foremost fathers!

23:25  He is not but a man possessed. So, bear with him for a while.”

23:26  He said, “My Rabb, help me, for they have denied me.”

23:27  So, then WE directed inspiration toward him: Assemble a vessel under OUR eyes and OUR inspiration. Then when OUR command comes, and the kiln has gushed forth, board therein of all paired mates and your family, except those of them for whom their sentence has anteceded. And do not appeal to ME concerning those who were unjust. Surely, they are to die of drowning.

23:28  So, when you have settled yourself and those with you, on the vessel, say, “Praise belongs to Allah—the ONE who delivered us from the unjust people.”

23:29  And say, “My Rabb set me down on a blessed landing. YOU are the best giver of landings.

23:30  Surely, in that are instructive signs, and indeed WE do ever test [you all].

23:31  Then after them WE brought forth another generation:

23:32  Then [again] WE sent a messenger in their midst, from among them, with the message: “Worship Allah. You do not have any god other than HIM. Will you not be conscious of HIM?”

23:33  Said the influentials of his people, those who had disbelieved and had rejected the meeting of the Hereafter, while WE had given them the affluence in earthly life, “Not is this [man] but a mortal like you. He eats of what you eat, and he drinks of what you drink!

23:34  If you do obey a mortal like yourselves, you then are certain to be the definite losers.

23:35  Does he promise you that after you are dead, and you are dust and bones, you are to emerge resurrected?

23:36  Preposterous, utterly preposterous, is what you are being promised.

23:37  There is nothing save our life of this world. We are to die, and [for now] we live, and not are we to be raised again.

23:38  He is nothing but a man who invents a lie against Allah. And we shall not anywise be believers for his sake.”

23:39  He said, “My Rabb, help me for they have denied me.”

23:40  HE said, “Shortly hereafter they will most definitely become remorseful.”

23:41  The blast seized them with full right, and WE made them into stubble—an untraceable end to the wrongful people.

23:42  Then WE brought forth other generations after them.

23:43  No community can outstrip its term nor lag behind.

23:44  Then WE sent OUR messengers in succession. Whenever a community’s messenger came to them, they rejected him. Hence, WE made some of them follow [the fate of] others and rendered them as tales for telling— an untraceable end to a people who do not believe.

23:45  Then WE sent Moses and his brother Aaron with OUR messages and evident authority,

23:46  to Pharaoh and his notables—they arrogantly defied. They were a supremacist people.

23:47  They said, “Shall we believe in two mortals like us, while their people are slaves unto us?”

23:48  Thus, they rejected the two of them. So thus, they were of the ones destroyed.

23:49  WE did give Moses the timeless Book, to enable them to acquire guidance.

23:50  WE made the son of Mary and his mother a sign, and WE entrusted their shelter unto a lofty ground, endowed with lodgment and a spring in plain view.

23:51  “O Messengers, partake of the pristine [and wholesome] and do right. Verily, I have complete knowledge of what you do.

23:52  This creed of yours is one creed and I am your Rabb. So be ever conscious of ME.”

23:53  Still, [their followers] split their common undertaking into sheets of scripture. Each faction exulting in what is in their domain.

23:54  So, leave them in their exuberance for a while.

23:55  Do they figure that by the wealth and children which WE extend to them—

23:56  WE are hurrying with the boons for them! Nay! They lack consciousness.

23:57  Surely, the ones who from awe of their Rabb are reverent—

23:58  And the ones who believe in the signs of their Rabb—

23:59  And the ones who associate none with God—

23:60  And the ones who give what they give, with their hearts in trepidation, [in the knowledge] of their impending return to their Rabb—

23:61  It is they who race in doing virtuous works and they are the front-runners for them.

23:62  WE do not task a soul beyond its capacity and with US is the record which reports with truth. And they will not be wronged.

23:63  Nay! [The disbelievers’] hearts are in a dizzy exuberance from this [worldly prize], and for them are labors other than that for which [the believers] labor.

23:64  Until when WE seize the affluent among them with punishment —that is when they supplicate.

23:65  “Do not supplicate this day. Verily, from US it is: You will not to be helped.”

23:66  With purpose were MY verses recited to you—but you would turn about on your heels,

23:67  in arrogant defiance, ready commentators about it, keeping away.

23:68  Do they not ponder the Word? Or [ponder that] something has come to them which had not come to their ancestral fathers?

23:69  Or do they not know their messenger, and so [for that reason] they are unacknowledging of him?

23:70  Or do they say, ‘Possessed is he? In fact, he has come to them with the Truth, while most of them are indisposed to the Truth.

23:71  Were the truth to conform to their whims, the heavens, and the earth and whatever is in them would be in rot. Nay! WE have [already] given them their reminder, so it is they who turn dismissively away from their reminder.

23:72  Or do you ask them for a tribute? So then [do they not know that] the tribute of your Rabb is the best, and HE is the best of providers!

23:73  And certainly, you do call them to a timelessly straight path.

23:74  And of certain, those who do not believe in the Hereafter are categorical deviants from the Path.

23:75  And if WE were to be merciful to them, and remove the distress which afflicts them, they would continue to wander blindly in their uncontained transgression.

23:76  WE did seize them with the chastisement, but they did not yield to their Rabb, nor do they beseech—

23:77  [Not will they change] until WE open upon them a gate of intense punishment. Then therein, they will be dumbstruck with grief.

23:78  It is HE WHO has created the facility of hearing, and sight, and intellect, for you —scarcely ever are you grateful.

23:79  It is HE WHO has made you to flourish on earth, and unto HIM are you to be gathered.

23:80  It is HE WHO gives you your life, and HE gives you death, and to HIM belongs the contrast of the night and the day. Will you then not seek to understand?

23:81  But rather, they say the like of what was said by the former ones:

23:82  They said, “What! After we have died and become dust and bones, shall we then really be resurrected?

23:83  We indeed have been promised this before— we and our forefathers. This is nothing but mere fables of the former ones.”

23:84  Say, “To whom does the earth and whoever is on it belong, if you do know?”

23:85  They will say, “To Allah.” Say, “Will you then not mindfully reflect?”

23:86  Say, “Who is the Rabb of the seven heavens and the Rabb of the transcendent Throne?”

23:87  They will say, “[They belong] to Allah.” Say, “Will you then not be conscious of HIM?”

23:88  Say, “Who is HE in whose hands is the dominion over all things, and HE who protects, and against Whom none can be protected, if you do know?”

23:89  They will say, “[All belongs] to Allah.” Say, “So then, why and [by what] are you spellbound?”

23:90  Nay! WE have brought the Truth to them, while they are categorical liars.

23:91  Not has Allah taken any son and not is there any deity alongside HIM. Were that to be the case, every deity would then have carved out a claim for what it created, enabling some of them to be above others. Limitless is the glory of Allah, far beyond anything they depict.

23:92  Knower of the unseeable and the witnessed, exalted is HE, limitlessly beyond anything they associate with HIM.

23:93  Say, “O my Rabb whether YOU show me what they are forewarned of,

23:94  my Rabb— place me not amongst the unjust.”

23:95  And indeed, over OUR showing you what WE have forewarned them of WE are almightily able.

23:96  Repel the foul deed with that which is higher in goodness. WE have full knowledge of what they depict.

23:97  And say, “O my Rabb, I seek refuge in YOU against the goading of the satanic entities.

23:98  And I seek refuge in YOU, my Rabb, lest they lurk around me.”

23:99  [They disbelievers persist] until when death approaches one of them, he says, “My Rabb send me back

23:100  so, I may do right in all that I left untended.” No way! These are mere words he utters. A Barzakh is behind them until the day they are raised again—

23:101  For when [the souls] are blown into the forms, no relationships are to be between them that day, and neither will they ask of each other.

23:102  Then he whose scales are heavy; those are the successful ones.

23:103  And he whose scales are light; those very ones have lost their souls, abiders in Jahannam

23:104  The fire will scorch their faces, while they grimace therein.

23:105  [God asked], “Were not MY verses recited to you, and despite that you were denying them?”

23:106  [They said], “Our Rabb, our depravity prevailed over us, and we were a people gone astray.

23:107  Our Rabb, get us out from it. If then we revert [to our sinning ways], we would then be definite wrongdoers.”

23:108  HE said, “Begone into it and do not speak to ME.

23:109  Surely, there was a distinct group of MY devotees praying, ‘Our Rabb, WE have believed. So, forgive us and bestow mercy on us. YOU are the best of the merciful.’

23:110  [In denial] you took them as targets of mockery, to the point where they made you lose sight of MY Reminder, and you were laughing at their expense.

23:111  Surely, this day I have rewarded them for their patient perseverance: they are the successful ones.”

23:112  HE asked, “How many seasons did you tarry on earth?”

23:113  They said, “We tarried a day or part of a day— yet ask those who keep the count.”

23:114  HE said, “You did not tarry but a little. If that you— you had known!”

23:115  Did you figure that WE created you without purpose and that you were not returning to US?

23:116  Ever exalted is Allah, the Real Sovereign. There is no god except HIM. HE is the Rabb of the Noble Throne.

23:117  And whoso invokes, alongside Allah, another god, without him having any proof of it, his reckoning is deservedly with his Rabb. Surely, the disbelievers will not prosper.

23:118  Say, “My Rabb, forgive and show mercy, for YOU are the best of the merciful.”