Al-Anbiyaa

CLOSER DRAWS unto men their reckoning: and yet they remain stubbornly heedless [of its approach].

Whenever there comes unto them any new re­minder from their Sustainer, they but listen to it with playful amusement,

their hearts set on passing ­delights; yet they who are [thus] bent on wrongdoing conceal their innermost thoughts [when they say to one another], “Is this [Muhammad] anything but a mortal like yourselves? Will you, then, yield to [his] spellbinding eloquence with your eyes open?”

Say: “My Sustainer knows whatever is spoken in heaven and on earth; and He alone is all-hearing, all-knowing.”

“Nay,” they say, “[Muhammad propounds] the most involved and confusing of dreams!” “Nay, but he has invented [all] this!” - “Nay, but he is [only] a poet!” - [and,] “Let him, then, come unto us with a miracle, just as those [prophets] of old were sent [with miracles]?”

Not one of the communities that We destroyed in bygone times would ever believe [their prophets]: will these, then, [be more willing to] believe?

For [even] before thy time, [O Muhammad,] We never sent [as Our apostles] any but [mortal] men, whom We inspired - hence, [tell the deniers of the truth,] “If you do not know this, ask the followers of earlier revelation”

and neither did We endow them with bodies that could dispense with food nor were they immortal.

In the end, We made good unto them Our promise, and We saved them and all whom We willed [to save], and We destroyed those who had wasted their own selves.

[O MEN!] We have now bestowed upon you from on high a divine writ containing all that you ought to bear in mind will you not, then, use your reason?

For, how many a community that persisted in evildoing have We dashed into fragments, and raised another people in its stead!

And [every time,] as soon as they began to feel Our punishing might, lo! they tried to flee from it

[and at the same time they seemed to hear a scornful voice]: “Do not try to flee, but return to all that [once] gave you pleasure and corrupted your whole being. and [return] to your homes, so that you might be called to account [for what you have done]!”

And they could only cry: “Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we were wrongdoers!”

And that cry of theirs did not cease until We caused them to become [like] a field mown down, still and silent as ashes.