The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Alif. Lam. Ra. These are the verses of the Book and the glorious Quran. 1 How strongly the unbelievers will wish that they had been Muslims. 2 Let them eat and enjoy themselves and be diverted by [false] hope, for they are going to know. 3 And We have not destroyed a town but there was therefor a decree known. 4 No people can hasten on their doom nor can they postpone (it). 5 They say: 'You to whom the Remembrance is sent down, you are indeed mad. 6 Why dost thou not bring the angels unto us, if thou speakest truly?' 7 We do not send the angels but with truth, and then they would not be respited. 8 Indeed We have sent down the Qur’an, and indeed We Ourselves surely are its Guardians. (This is one of the miracles of the Qur’an – no one has been able to change even one letter of its text, despite every effort. It has remained in its original form since the 6th Century (A. D) and will remain so forever. Other Holy Books such as the Torah and the Bible have lost their originality.) 9 And assuredly We have sent apostles before thee among the sects of the ancients. 10 And never came there unto them a messenger but they did mock him. 11 Thus do We make it traverse the hearts of the guilty: 12 They will not believe in it, though they have before them the example of former peoples, 13 Though We opened to them a gate in heaven, and still they mounted through it, 14 they would still say, "Our eyes have been dazzled. We are bewitched." 15