36:1  Y. (Ya), S. (Seen), the Surah opens with these introductory letters from the Arabic Alphabet to draw attention to the miracle of the Quran which though written in the people’s tongue, cannot be emulated

36:2  And by the Quran, the prime source of wisdom

36:3  You Muhammad are indeed one of the Messengers chosen to relate Allah’s divine message

36:4  And you are pursuing the path of righteousness

36:5  A disclosure of divine knowledge sent down from the realm of heaven by the command of the AL-Aziz (the Almighty), AL-Rahim

36:6  And you shall use it O Muhammad as the divine law expressing the will of Allah to warn a people whose fathers received no Messenger as a spectacle and a warning before; and they are oblivious of what they owe to Allah, to themselves and to the people at large

36:7  The prophecy of their aversion to the divine message by the majority has been fulfilled, for they decline to accept it

36:8  We have surrounded their necks with chains drawn up to their chins restraining the movement of their heads and riveting their eyes and their minds away from the truth

36:9  And We erected a barrier before them and a barrier behind them to eclipse their minds' eyes to deny them forethought and foresight; and Allah's marvels around them and in themselves they fail to see

36:10  Such persons O Muhammad whether you warn them of impending danger and misfortunes or you do not, it is one and the same; they counsel deaf and will not open their hearts' ears nor their minds’ eyes

36:11  Your voice can be heard only by those who hear the voice of Allah expressing His will in the Quran and keep in awe of Him albeit not apprehending Him by sight. Announce to them joyful tidings of Allah’s forgiveness and an imposing reward

36:12  It is We Who raise the dead and record all they have advanced to their credit or debit-of deeds, acts, thoughts and actions and the aftermath of their doings. And all in all have We registered in a prototype, the archetypal Book

36:13  And cite to them the inhabitants of the town to whom We sent Our Messengers, an example by way of a parable, by which moral and spiritual relations are typically set forth

36:14  We sent to them two of Our envoys whom they declined to accept and accused them of falsehood. We sustained them by a third who together with the other two assured them thus: "We have been commissioned by Allah". they said, "and entrusted with His divine message which we relate to you"

36:15  But the inhabitants said: "But you are simply mortals like us and never did Allah, AL-Rahman, disclose divine knowledge or anything else to a mortal: "You are indeed liars."

36:16  And there, the messengers said: " Indeed, does Allah, our Creator, know that we have been entrusted with His divine message to relate it to you"

36:17  "And we are responsible only for proclaiming His divine message distinctly expressing all that is meant, leaving nothing merely implied"

36:18  But again the people said to the Messengers: "We augur from you and we esteem you as omens presaging some direful calamity, therefore unless you stop holding discourse of this faked message, we will pelt you with stones and you shall suffer grievously at our hands"

36:19  The Messengers said: "You augur well or ill according to your disposition and your intentions, and the mould of your fortune is in yourselves and the event is only sanctioned by Allah". And do you people, they added, "consider the spirit of truth that guides into all truth a presage of evil! You are but a people characterized by disobedience and transgression"

36:20  And there came a man from the far end of the city, moved with compassion for his fellow men who rejected what he knew to be the truth, to say to them: "O my people, obey them, they are Messengers entrusted with the spirit of truth- that guides into all truth"

36:21  "Obey them", he added, "they do not ask you for a price or anything in return, they themselves are guided into all truth and wish to relate it to you"

36:22  "And why should I not regard Allah with extreme devotion", he said, "and adore Him with appropriate acts and rites when it is He Who brought me into being and caused me to exist and He is the end and the purpose for which We are destined and to Him shall all of us return"

36:23  "Therefore, would I take besides Him gods whose intercession, if ever permitted, is valueless nor can they protect me or save me from harm should He, AL-Rahman, mean to befall me with a misfortune or wed me to a calamity!"

36:24  "For then the work of the devil will have been manifest in me and I would have been led by the nose to the loss in the maze of error"

36:25  "Hear me", he said, "as I declare that I have acknowledged Allah, your Creator, and accepted His system of faith and worship with a consenting mind and you shall bear witness to this declaration here and Hereafter"

36:26  (The man might have suffered martyrdom at their hands) Received with gracious and hearty welcome and great honour in heaven’s Realm, he was ushered to Paradise and there he exclaimed: "I wish my people knew"

36:27  How has Allah, my Creator, received me, forgiven me and united me with those who are highly esteemed and greatly honoured

36:28  We did not follow this incident by sending down a host from heaven against his people nor was it necessary to mobilize Our angels

36:29  All it took was a single direful cry from heaven’s realm that stirred up a merciless blast extinguishing them and blotting them out of existence

36:30  A great pity upon intellectual animate beings and servants! No Messenger do they receive as an envoy of Allah but they bombard him with foul epithets, mock him and laugh him to scorn

36:31  Do they not perceive by sight, apprehend by thought and learn by reading how many generations who existed before them We have destroyed and they had gone whence they shall not return

36:32  And that they together with their predecessors and their predominant partners and those they incorporated with Allah shall be brought back to Us and be gathered for Judgement

36:33  A blessing is being extended to them to contemplate, an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace: "the dead land which We revive and from its soil We cause grain to spring out for them to eat"

36:34  And We furnished the land out with orchards of date-palms and vines and gave vent to affluence of flowing springs

36:35  So that they eat of their flowers when they come to be fruits and grow ripe. It Is all replete with choice of all delights. And none of these natural products was nor will it be of their own making or their handiwork All natural objects, animal, vegetable and mineral are Allah’s handiwork. And so, will they not impel themselves with the feeling of gratitude

36:36  Glory be to Him and extolled are His glorious attributes Who created all the sexual pairs of such things as the earth produces and of themselves – mankind – and of what they do not know – and yet to know and of what is beyond their mental perception and recognition

36:37  Another outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. is the night which We strip of daylight and there, they are driven into darkness

36:38  And the sun runs its course and describes its orbit, sited in a settled position, belonging, as determined by AL-Aziz, AL-'Alim

36:39  And for the moon We have determined mansions or divisions of the ecliptic which it occupies on 28 successive days and there it falls in a swoon and be like a shriveled and withered date-stalk

36:40  The sun ought not gain impetus more than the limit designated so that it does not catch up the moon or overtake it in motion nor does the night outrun the day and each describes its own orbit

36:41  Another outward and visible sign reflecting for them an inward and spiritual grace is that We carried their descendants in the loaded ark

36:42  And We created for them the like thereof for their transport

36:43  And if We willed We could drown them and no one would be there to hear their yelling nor would there be an expected rescue

36:44  Unless We extend to them Our mercy and let them enjoy life up to a predetermined point of time

36:45  And when they are told: "Fear for your irreverence to Allah and regard with fear the retributive punishment which you might encounter here. Fear also what awaits you Hereafter which is indeed grievous and really severe so that you might hopefully be recipients of Allah’s mercy"

36:46  And no divine sign of Allah's marvels be presented to them but they meet with aversion and oppose it with repugnance

36:47  And when told to spend in benevolence of what Allah has bestowed them and given them of His bounty, the infidels express their thoughts in words and pitifully say: "Shall we feed him whom Allah can feed if He will! You must be deviated in mind and have wandered from the path of righteousness!"

36:48  "And incidentally" they add: " When does that alleged promise – Hereafter – fall due, if indeed you are declaring the truth?"

36:49  Do they mean to wait until a merciless blast seizes them while they are more ready to argue than to obey

36:50  And then it is too late to act nor do they have the chance to settle or dispose of their affairs verbally or in writing nor to their people will they return

36:51  Then the trumpet is sounded and there they egress from the graves and toward Allah, their Creator, they move with impetuousity

36:52  Wherefore they exclaim: "woe betide us! Who has awakened us from our resting site?" This is, they are told, "what Allah had promised and the verity which the truthful Messengers had related"

36:53  Then, there is only one single loud call which raises alarm and incites to action and there they are assembled before Us for Judgement

36:54  This Day shall no soul suffer injustice or be wronged in the least and you – people– shall only be requited with what is commensurate with your deeds

36:55  And this Day shall those destined to the abode in Paradise be preoccupied with the world of supreme blessedness in which they do rejoice beyond a common joy

36:56  And together with their mates they shall be reclining on luxurious couches in the shades afforded by trees and overshadowing foliage

36:57  Wherein they shall enjoy fruits as well as all that they think of and whatever they ask for

36:58  They shall be greeted with the expression of good will "Peace" from Allah, the Creator, Who is indeed Rahimun

36:59  And the infidels are addressed, thus: "Excluded and confined you are, O you transgressors of the divine law and offenders against Allah"

36:60  In reproach they are told; "Did I not," says Allah "enjoin you children of Adam to reject AL-Shaytan (Satan) and those with characteristics befitting him and to refuse credence to them, for he was indeed your avowed enemy and deadly foe"

36:61  "And I prescribed for you authoritatively and with emphasis that you worship Me, for this was indeed the path of righteousness, the path that leads directly to Me."

36:62  "Indeed AL-Shaytan had succeeded in misleading you in great numbers. Did you have no sense to realize and confess yourselves mistaken!"

36:63  "This, as you can see, is Hell which you had been promised"

36:64  "As of this Day you will suffer its scorching effect and the torment that it lays upon the damned in requital of your disobedience, your denial of the truth and of your intentional assertion of falsehood"

36:65  In this Day –of Judgement*– We will seal their lips and endow their hands with voice and together with their feet shall evidence all they had done or left undon

36:66  And had it been Our will We would have eclipsed their eye sight and their minds' eyes, then they would have competed with each other for finding their way, but how could they have been able to see it

36:67  And had We willed We would have transmuted them and frozen them physically and spiritually in their unprivileged site, then they would have been unable to move forward to repent and do good nor backward to do evil

36:68  Do they not ponder that he whom We carry through the stealing steps of age to advanced life, We cause to relapse into a degenerate and degraded state of mind, activity, knowledge, strength and status and make him lose the qualities and attributes he once possessed. Do they not deviate into sense and contemplate this fact

36:69  And We did not teach him poetry nor did We instruct him to play the poet or compose poetry nor does it befit him as a Messenger of Allah. What he discourses is indeed a divine message and nothing but a Quran that is intelligible, imparting illumination and enlightenment

36:70  To use it as the means for a profitable end and to exhort those who are living and spiritually receptive to Allah's commands and to warn those who are spiritually dead to alter their irreverent course of action when warned of its danger, wherefore infidelity shall be justly laid to their charge

36:71  Do the infidels not see that besides Our handiwork We have created for them cattle and made them the owners and the masters thereof

36:72  And We made them –the cattle– subservient to them in one way or other; some of them do they ride and of others they eat

36:73  And they order them in subservience to their profitable end and design – skin for leather, fur for warmth – and of their milk they drink. Do they not feel obligated and in consequence impel themselves to gratitude and gratefulness

36:74  Yet they take besides Allah other deities whom or which they regard, with extreme devotion and adore with appropriate acts and rites that they might hopefully afford them help

36:75  When in fact the false gods have no power to be of avail to them ever, not to mention their total inability to afford them help. On the contrary it is the infidels who afford them protection and round about them they are garrisoned like a camp of faithful soldiery

36:76  Therefore, let not their vain and unreasonable discourse O Muhammed grieve you at heart. We do know what they converse secretly or whisper under their breath and what they suggest secretly to the mind and all that their breasts store of thoughts and feelings. And We are well acquainted with all that they utter loudly and with all that is being said

36:77  Does man not perceive mentally and by visual tokens that We brought him into being from a seed -the constituent part of emitted fluid!- Yet he sets himself against Allah and displays his thought in his actions

36:78  And he draws meaningless parallels and sets forth to Us comparisons and he expresses his thoughts in words, thus: "Who shall restore life", he asks, "to these bones when they have undergone morbid changes and degeneracy?"

36:79  Say to him: "He Who brought them into being in the beginning when He started creation from nothingness shall restore them to life, and He is AL-'Alim of the whole and of all in all"

36:80  Who rendered for you from the green trees fuel for fire-wood, coal, oil, gas – and you cause it to burn

36:81  Is He Who has created the heavens and the earth not able to create their likes anew! Indeed He is. And He is the Creator Supreme, AL-'Alim of all

36:82  Whenever it is His will to bring, anything (animate or inanimate) into being, all it takes is to say "Be" and "it is"

36:83  Wherefore. blessed be He and praise to Him Who has the glorious attributes, in whose hands reside the Sovereign Authority and the supreme controlling power of the whole and of all in all and back to Him shall all of you return