Vanity (Al-Zukhruf)
In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful
Ha, Meem. 1 I call to witness the lucent Book, 2 Lo! We have appointed it a Lecture, in Arabic that haply ye may understand. 3 It (the Quran) exists in the original Book with Us which is certainly Most Exalted, full of wisdom and (beyond linguistic structures). 4 [O YOU who deny the truth!] Should We, perchance, withdraw this reminder from you altogether, seeing that you are people bent on wasting your own selves? 5 Many a prophet had We sent to the earlier communities, 6 And never came there a prophet to them but they mocked him. 7 so We destroyed those who were mightier than these; such was the example of the earlier peoples. 8 Yet if you were to ask them: “Who created the heavens and the earth?” they will certainly say: “The All-Mighty, the All-Knowing has created them.” 9 He it is who has made the earth a cradle for you, and has provided for you ways [of livelihood] thereon, so that you might follow the right path. 10 And Who sent down water from the sky with a proper measure, so We revived a dead city with it; this is how you will be taken out. 11 He Who created these pairs, all of them, and provided you ships and cattle on which you ride, 12 So that when you sit astride of them and think of the bounties of your Lord, you may say: "All glory to Him who subjugated these for us. We were incapable of doing so. 13 indeed, to our Lord we are turning' 14 Yet they make some of His creatures His offspring! Man is surely most ungrateful. 15