The Hidden Secret (Al-Muddath-thir)
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
O thou enveloped in thy cloak, 1 stand up, deliver your warning, 2 And thy Sustainer's greatness glorify! 3 And your garments do purify, 4 And banish all trepidation. 5 And do not confer favor to acquire more 6 And be patient for the sake of your Lord (i.e. perform your duty to Allah)! 7 Then, when the Trumpet is sounded (i.e. its second blowing); 8 that will surely be a hard day, 9 and it will not be easy for the unbelievers. 10 Leave Me with the one I created alone 11 and appointed for him ample wealth 12 and sons that stand in witness. 13 And made things easy for them. 14 Yet he desireth that I should give more. 15 By no means! surely he offers opposition to Our communications. 16 [and so] I shall constrain him to endure a painful uphill climb! 17 For he had thought and calculated. 18 (Self-)destroyed is he, how he planned! 19 Yea, Woe to him; How he plotted!- 20 Then looked he, 21 frowned and scowled, 22 then he retreated and grew proud 23 and said: “This (Qur'an) is merely a sorcery of yore; 24 this is nothing but the word of a mere mortal!” 25 I shall surely roast him in Sakar; 26 What do you think Hell-fire is? 27 Naught doth it permit to endure, and naught doth it leave alone!- 28 It glows and burns the skin. 29 there are nineteen [angels] in charge of it -- 30 We have appointed none but angels as the keepers of the Fire, and We have not made their number but as a trial for the unbelievers so that those who have been endowed with the Book will be convinced and the believers' faith will increase, and neither those who have been endowed with the Book nor the believers will fall into any doubt. As for those in whose hearts there is a sickness as well as the unbelievers, they will say: “What did Allah aim at by this strange parable?” Thus does Allah let whomsoever He pleases to go astray, and directs whomsoever He pleases to the Right Way. And none knows the hosts of your Lord but He. (And Hell has only been mentioned here) that people may take heed. 31