The Hidden Secret (Al-Muddath-thir)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
O THOU [in thy solitude] enfolded! 1 stand up, deliver your warning, 2 Glorify your Lord, 3 and purify your robes, 4 And all defilement shun! 5 Do not bestow favours in expectation of return, 6 But for your Lord be patient. 7 When the trumpet is sounded,. 8 That will be- that Day - a Day of Distress,- 9 and it will not be easy for the unbelievers. 10 Leave Me with him whom I created alone, 11 whom I have endowed with abundant riches, 12 and sons that stand in witness. 13 whose life I have made run smoothly 14 Yet is he greedy-that I should add (yet more);- 15 Nay, verily, it is against Our messages that he knowingly, stubbornly sets himself 16 Anon I shall afflict him with a fearful woe. 17 He planned and plotted. 18 Ruin seize him, how did he hatch a scheme? 19 Again, may he be cursed how he plotted; 20 Then he looked, 21 then he frowned and scowled, 22 then turned back, and swelling-up with pride, 23 Then he said: naught is this but magic from of old; 24 This is naught but the word of a mortal. 25 I will cast him into the fire of Hell. 26 And what knoweth thou that which the Scorching Fire? 27 It leaves naught nor does it spare aught. 28 it scorches the skin; 29 Over it are nineteen [powers]. 30 We have appointed only angels to be wardens of the Fire. We have specified their number only as a trial for those who are bent on denying the truth, so that those who were given the Book might gain in certainty, and those who believe might increase in faith -- and so that neither those who have been given the Scripture nor the believers might have any doubts, and that those sick at heart and those who deny the truth might ask, "What does God mean by this parable?" In this way, God lets go astray whom He wills, and guides whom He wills. And none knows the forces of your Lord but He. This is but a Reminder for man. 31