50:1  Qaf. CONSIDER this sublime Qur’an

50:2  But nay - they deem it strange that a warner should have come unto them from their own midst; and so these deniers of the truth are saying, “A strange thing is this

50:3  Why - [how could we be resurrected] after we have died and become mere dust? Such a return seems far-fetched indeed!”

50:4  Well do We know how the earth consumes their bodies, for with Us is a record unfailing

50:5  Nay, but they [who refuse to believe in resurrection] have been wont to give the lie to this truth whenever it was proffered to them; and so they are in a state of confusion

50:6  Do they not look at the sky above them - how We have built it and made it beautiful and free of all faults

50:7  And the earth - We have spread it wide, and set upon it mountains firm, and caused it to bring forth plants of all beauteous kinds

50:8  thus offering an insight and a reminder unto every human being who willingly turns unto God

50:9  And We send down from the skies water rich in blessings, and cause thereby gardens to grow, and fields of grain

50:10  and tall palm-trees with their thickly-clustered dates

50:11  as sustenance apportioned to men; and by [all] this We bring dead land to life: [and] even so will be [man’s] coming-forth from death

50:12  [Long] before those [who now deny resurrection] did Noah’s people give the lie to this truth, and [so did] the folk of Ar-Rass, and [the tribes of] Thamu

50:13  and Ad, and Pharaoh, and Lot’s brethren

50:14  and the dwellers of the wooded dales [of Madyan], and the people of Tubba: they all gave the lie to the apostles - and thereupon that whereof I had warned [them] came true

50:15  Could We, then, be [thought of as being] worn out by the first creation? Nay - but some people are [still] lost in doubt about [the possibility of] a new creation

50:16  NOW, VERILY, it is We who have created man, and We know what his innermost self whispers within him: for We are closer to him than his neck-vein

50:17  [And so,] whenever the two demands [of his nature] come face to face, contending from the right and from the left

50:18  not even a word can he utter but there is a watcher with him, ever-present

50:19  And [then,] the twilight of death brings with it the [full] truth that [very thing, O man,] from which thou wouldst always look away! –

50:20  and [in the end] the trumpet [of resurrection] will be blown: that will be the Day of a warning fulfilled

50:21  And every human being will come forward with [his erstwhile] inner urges and [his] conscious mind

50:22  [and will be told:] “Indeed, unmindful hast thou been of this [Day of Judgment]; but now We have lifted from thee thy veil, and sharp is thy sight today!”

50:23  And one part of him will say: “This it is that has been ever-present with me!”

50:24  [Whereupon God will command:] “Cast, cast into hell every [such] stubborn enemy of the truth

50:25  [every] withholder of good [and] sinful aggressor [and] fomentor of distrust [between man and man – everyone]

50:26  who has set up another deity beside God: cast him, then, cast him into suffering severe!”

50:27  Man’s other self’ will say: “O our Sustainer! It was not I that led his conscious mind into evil [nay,] but it had gone far astray [of its own accord]

50:28  [And] He will say: “Contend not before Me, [O you sinners,] for I gave you a forewarning [of this Day of Reckoning]

50:29  The judgment passed by Me shall not be altered; but never do I do the least wrong unto My creatures!”

50:30  On that Day We will ask hell, “Art thou filled?”- and it will answer, “[Nay,] is there yet more [for me]?&rdquo

50:31  And [on that Day] paradise will be brought within the sight of the God-conscious, and will no longer be far away; [and they will be told:]

50:32  “This is what you were promised - [promised] unto everyone who was wont to turn unto God and to keep Him always in mind –

50:33  [everyone] who stood in awe of the Most Gracious although He is beyond the reach of human perception, and who has come [unto Him] with a heart full of contrition

50:34  Enter this [paradise] in peace; this is the Day on which life abiding begins!”

50:35  In that [paradise] they shall have whatever they may desire - but there is yet more with Us

50:36  AND HOW MANY a generation have We destroyed before those [who now deny the truth] people of greater might than theirs; but [when Our chastisement befell them,] they became wanderers on the face of the earth, seeking no more than a place of refug

50:37  In this, behold, there is indeed a reminder for everyone whose heart is wide-awake -that is, [everyone who] lends ear with a conscious mind

50:38  and [who knows that] We have indeed created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six aeons, and [that] no weariness could ever touch Us

50:39  HENCE, [O believer,] bear thou with patience whatever they may say, and extol thy Sustainer’s limitless glory and praise before the rising of the sun and before its setting

50:40  and in the night, too, extol His glory, and at every prayer’s end

50:41  And [always] listen for the day when He who issues the call [of death] shall call [thee] from close-by

50:42  [and bethink thyself, too, of] the Day on which all [human beings] will in truth hear the final blast - that Day of [their] coming-forth [from death]

50:43  Verily, it is We who grant life and deal death; and with Us will be all journeys’ en

50:44  on the Day when the earth is riven asunder all around them as they hasten forth [towards God’s judgment]: that gathering will be easy for Us [to encompass]

50:45  Fully aware are We of what they [who deny resurrection] do say; and thou canst by no means force them [to believe in it]. Yet none the less, remind, through this Qur’an, all such as may fear My warning