The Qur'an Sura XXXVII — THE RANKS
1By the angels ranged in order for Songs of Praise,✦ Jonah 2:1✦ Genesis 22:2
2And by those who repel demons,
3And by those who recite the Koran for warning,
4Truly your God is but one,
5Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all that is between them, and Lord of the East.
6We have adorned the lower heaven with the adornment of the stars.
7They serve also as a guard against every rebellious Satan,
8That they overhear not what passeth in the assembly on high, for they are darted at from every side,
9Driven off and consigned to a lasting torment;
10While, if one steal a word by stealth, a glistening flame pursueth him.
11Ask the Meccans then, Are they, or the angels whom we have made, the stronger creation? Aye, of coarse clay have we created them.
12But while thou marvellest they mock;
13When they are warned, no warning do they take;
14And when they see a sign, they fall to mocking,
15And say, "This is no other than clear sorcery:
16What! when dead, and turned to dust and bones, shall we indeed be raised?
17Our sires also of olden times?"
18Say, Yes; and ye shall be covered with disgrace.
19For, one blast only, and lo! they shall gaze around them, And shall say, "Oh! woe to us! this is the day of reckoning; This is the day of decision which ye gainsaid as an untruth."
20Gather together those who have acted unjustly, and their consorts, and the gods whom they adored
21Beside God; and guide them to the road for Hell.
22Set them forth: they shall be questioned.
23"How now, that ye help not one another?"
24But on this day they shall submit themselves to God,
25And shall address one another with mutual reproaches.
26They shall say, "In sooth, ye came to us in well-omened sort:"
27But they will answer, "Nay, it was ye who would not believe; and we had no power whatever over you. Nay, ye were people given to transgress;
28Just, therefore, is the doom which our Lord hath passed upon us. We shall surely taste it:
29We made you err, for we had erred ourselves."
30Partners therefore shall they be in punishment on that day.
31Truly, thus will we deal with the wicked,
32Because when it was said to them, There is no God but God, they swelled with pride,
33And said, "Shall we then abandon our gods for a crazed poet?"
34Nay, he cometh with truth and confirmeth the Sent Ones of old.
35Ye shall surely taste the painful punishment,
36And ye shall not be rewarded but as ye have wrought,
37Save the sincere servants of God!
38A stated banquet shall they have
39Of fruits; and honoured shall they be
40In the gardens of delight,
41Upon couches face to face.
42A cup shall be borne round among them from a fountain,
43Limpid, delicious to those who drink;
44It shall not oppress the sense, nor shall they therewith be drunken.
45And with them are the large-eyed ones with modest refraining glances, fair like the sheltered egg.
46And they shall address one another with mutual questions.
47Saith one of them, "I truly had a bosom friend,
48Who said, 'Art thou of those who credit it?
49What! when we shall have died, and become dust and bones, shall we indeed be judged?"'
50He shall say to those around him, "Will ye look?"
51And he shall look and see him in the midst of Hell.
52And he shall say to him, "By God, thou hadst almost caused me to perish;
53And, but for the favour of my Lord, I had surely been of those who have been brought with thee into torment."
54"But do we not die," say the blessed,
55"Any other than our first death? and have we escaped the torment?"
56This truly is the great felicity!
57For the like of this should the travailers travail!
58Is this the better repast or the tree Ez-zakkoum?
59Verily, we have made it for a subject of discord to the wicked.
60It is a tree which cometh up from the bottom of hell;
61Its fruits is as it were the heads of Satans;
62And, lo! the damned shall surely eat of it and fill their bellies with it:
63Then shall they have, thereon, a mixture of boiling water:
64Then shall they return to hell.
65They found their fathers erring,
66And they hastened on in their footsteps.
67Also before them the greater number of the ancients had erred.
68Though we had sent warners among them.
69But see what was the end of these warned ones,
70Except of God's true servants.
71Noah called on us of old, and right prompt were we to hear him,
72And we saved him and his family out of the great distress,
73And we made his offspring the survivors;
74And we left for him with posterity,
75"Peace be on Noah throughout the worlds!"
76Thus do we reward the well-doers,
77For he was one of our believing servants;–
78And the rest we drowned.
79And truly, of his faith was Abraham,
80When he brought to his Lord a perfect heart,
81When he said to his father and to his people, "What is this ye worship?
82Prefer ye with falsehood gods to God?
83And what deem ye of the Lord of the worlds?"
84So gazing he gazed towards the stars,
85And said, "In sooth I am ill:
86And they turned their back on him and departed.
87He went aside to their gods and said, "Do ye not eat?
88What aileth you that ye do not speak?"
89He broke out upon them, with the right hand striking:
90When his tribesmen came back to him with hasty steps
91He said, "Worship ye what ye carve,
92When God hath created you, and that ye make?"
93They said, "Build up a pyre for him and cast him into the glowing flame."
94Fain would they plot against him, but we brought them low.
95And he said, "Verily, I repair to my Lord who will guide me:
96O Lord give me a son, of the righteous."
97We announced to him a youth of meekness.
98And when he became a full-grown youth,
99His father said to him, "My son, I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice thee; therefore, consider what thou seest right."
100He said, "My father, do what thou art bidden; of the patient, if
101God please, shalt thou find me."
102And when they had surrendered them to the will of God, he laid him down upon his forehead:
103We cried unto him, "O Abraham!
104Now hast thou satisfied the vision." See how we recompense the righteous.
105This was indeed a decisive test.
106And we ransomed his son with a costly victim,
107And we left this for him among posterity,
108"PEACE BE ON ABRAHAM!"
109Thus do we reward the well-doers,
110For he was of our believing servants.
111And we announced Isaac to him–a righteous Prophet–
112And on him and on Isaac we bestowed our blessing. And among their offspring were well-doers, and others, to their own hurt undoubted sinners.
113And of old, to Moses and to Aaron shewed we favours:
114And both of them, and their people, we rescued from the great distress:
115And we succoured them, and they became the conquerors:
116And we gave them (Moses and Aaron) each the lucid book:
117And we guided them each into the right way:
118And we left this for each among posterity,
119"PEACE BE ON MOSES AND AARON."
120Thus do we reward the well-doers,
121For they were two of our believing servants.
122And Elias truly was of our Sent Ones,
123When he said to his people, "Fear ye not God?
124Invoke ye Baal and forsake ye the most skilful Creator?
125God is your Lord, and the Lord of your sires of old?"
126But they treated him as a liar, and shall therefore be consigned to punishment,
127Except God's faithful servants.
128And we left this for him among posterity,
129"PEACE BE ON ELIASIN!"
130Thus do we reward the well-doers,
131For he was one of our believing servants.
132And Lot truly was of our Sent Ones,
133When we rescued him and all his family,
134Save an aged woman among those who tarried.
135Afterward we destroyed the others.
136And ye indeed pass by their ruined dwellings at morn
137And night: will ye not then reflect?
138Jonas, too, was one of the Apostles,
139When he fled unto the laden ship,
140And lots were cast, and he was doomed,
141And the fish swallowed him, for he was blameworthy.
142But had he not been of those who praise Us,
143In its belly had he surely remained, till the day of resurrection.
144And we cast him on the bare shore–and he was sick;–
145And we caused a gourd-plant to grow up over him,
146And we sent him to a hundred thousand persons, or even more,
147And because they believed, we continued their enjoyments for a season.
148Inquire then of the Meccans whether thy Lord hath daughters, and they, sons?
149Have we created the angels females? and did they witness it?
150Is it not a falsehood of their own devising, when they say,
151"God hath begotten"? They are indeed liars.
152Would he have preferred daughters to sons?
153What reason have ye for thus judging?
154Will ye not then receive this warning?
155Have ye a clear proof for them?
156Produce your Book if ye speak truth.
157And they make him to be of kin with the Djinn: but the Djinn have long known that these idolaters shall be brought up before God.
158Far be the glory of God from what they impute to him.
159"His faithful servants do not thus.
160Moreover, ye and what ye worship
161Shall not stir up any against God,
162Save him who shall burn in Hell.
163And verily each one of us hath his appointed place,
164And we range ourselves in order,
165And we celebrate His praises."
166And if those infidels say,
167"Had we a revelation transmitted to us from those of old,
168We had surely been God's faithful servants."
169Yet they believe not the Koran. But they shall know its truth at last.
170Our word came of old to our servants the apostles,
171That they should surely be the succoured,
172And that our armies should procure the victory for them.
173Turn aside therefore from them for a time,
174And behold them, for they too shall in the end behold their doom.
175Would they then hasten our vengeance?
176But when it shall come down into their courts, an evil morning shall it be to those who have had their warning.
177Turn aside from them therefore for a time.
178And behold; for they too shall in the end behold their doom.
179Far be the glory of thy Lord, the Lord of all greatness, from what they impute to him,
180And peace be on his Apostles!
181And praise be to God the Lord of the worlds.
Suras are in the standard order; verse divisions follow Rodwell's 1861 edition and do not always match the standard ayah numbering.