as-Saffat (Those Who Set The Ranks, Drawn up in Ranks, The Rangers)
as rendered by John Medows Rodwell		   Print

John Medows Rodwell rendition of Surah Those Who Set The Ranks, Drawn up in Ranks, The Rangers(as-Saffat)
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37:1 By the angels ranged in order for Songs of Praise,
37:2 And by those who repel demons,
37:3 And by those who recite the Koran for warning,
37:4 Truly your God is but one,
37:5 Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all that is between them, and Lord of the East.
37:6 We have adorned the lower heaven with the adornment of the stars.
37:7 They serve also as a guard against every rebellious Satan,
37:8 That they overhear not what passeth in the assembly on high, for they are darted at from every side,
37:9 Driven off and consigned to a lasting torment;
37:10 While, if one steal a word by stealth, a glistening flame pursueth him.
37:11 Ask the Meccans then, Are they, or the angels whom we have made, the stronger creation? Aye, of coarse clay have we created them.
37:12 But while thou marvellest they mock;
37:13 When they are warned, no warning do they take;
37:14 And when they see a sign, they fall to mocking,
37:15 And say, "This is no other than clear sorcery:
37:16 What! when dead, and turned to dust and bones, shall we indeed be raised?
37:17 Our sires also of olden times?"
37:18 Say, Yes; and ye shall be covered with disgrace.
37:19 For, one blast only, and lo! they shall gaze around them,
37:20 And shall say, "Oh! woe to us! this is the day of reckoning;
37:21 This is the day of decision which ye gainsaid as an untruth."
37:22 Gather together those who have acted unjustly, and their consorts, and the gods whom they adored
37:23 Beside God; and guide them to the road for Hell.
37:24 Set them forth: they shall be questioned.
37:25 "How now, that ye help not one another?"
37:26 But on this day they shall submit themselves to God,
37:27 And shall address one another with mutual reproaches.
37:28 They shall say, "In sooth, ye came to us in well-omened sort:"
37:29 But they will answer, "Nay, it was ye who would not believe;
37:30 and we had no power whatever over you. Nay, ye were people given to transgress;
37:31 Just, therefore, is the doom which our Lord hath passed upon us. We shall surely taste it:
37:32 We made you err, for we had erred ourselves."
37:33 Partners therefore shall they be in punishment on that day.
37:34 Truly, thus will we deal with the wicked,
37:35 Because when it was said to them, There is no God but God, they swelled with pride,
37:36 And said, "Shall we then abandon our gods for a crazed poet?"
37:37 Nay, he cometh with truth and confirmeth the Sent Ones of old.
37:38 Ye shall surely taste the painful punishment,
37:39 And ye shall not be rewarded but as ye have wrought,
37:40 Save the sincere servants of God!
37:41 A stated banquet shall they have
37:42 Of fruits; and honoured shall they be
37:43 In the gardens of delight,
37:44 Upon couches face to face.
37:45 A cup shall be borne round among them from a fountain,
37:46 Limpid, delicious to those who drink;
37:47 It shall not oppress the sense, nor shall they therewith be drunken.
37:48 And with them are the large-eyed ones with modest refraining glances,
37:49 fair like the sheltered egg.
37:50 And they shall address one another with mutual questions.
37:51 Saith one of them, "I truly had a bosom friend,
37:52 Who said, 'Art thou of those who credit it?
37:53 What! when we shall have died, and become dust and bones, shall we indeed be judged?"'
37:54 He shall say to those around him, "Will ye look?"
37:55 And he shall look and see him in the midst of Hell.
37:56 And he shall say to him, "By God, thou hadst almost caused me to perish;
37:57 And, but for the favour of my Lord, I had surely been of those who have been brought with thee into torment."
37:58 "But do we not die," say the blessed,
37:59 "Any other than our first death? and have we escaped the torment?"
37:60 This truly is the great felicity!
37:61 For the like of this should the travailers travail!
37:62 Is this the better repast or the tree Ez-zakkoum?
37:63 Verily, we have made it for a subject of discord to the wicked.
37:64 It is a tree which cometh up from the bottom of hell;
37:65 Its fruits is as it were the heads of Satans;
37:66 And, lo! the damned shall surely eat of it and fill their bellies with it:
37:67 Then shall they have, thereon, a mixture of boiling water:
37:68 Then shall they return to hell.
37:69 They found their fathers erring,
37:70 And they hastened on in their footsteps.
37:71 Also before them the greater number of the ancients had erred.
37:72 Though we had sent warners among them.
37:73 But see what was the end of these warned ones,
37:74 Except of God's true servants.
37:75 Noah called on us of old, and right prompt were we to hear him,
37:76 And we saved him and his family out of the great distress,
37:77 And we made his offspring the survivors;
37:78 And we left for him with posterity,
37:79 "Peace be on Noah throughout the worlds!"
37:80 Thus do we reward the well-doers,
37:81 For he was one of our believing servants; -
37:82 And the rest we drowned.
37:83 And truly, of his faith was Abraham,
37:84 When he brought to his Lord a perfect heart,
37:85 When he said to his father and to his people, "What is this ye worship?
37:86 Prefer ye with falsehood gods to God?
37:87 And what deem ye of the Lord of the worlds?"
37:88 So gazing he gazed towards the stars,
37:89 And said, "In sooth I am ill:
37:90 And they turned their back on him and departed.
37:91 He went aside to their gods and said, "Do ye not eat?
37:92 What aileth you that ye do not speak?"
37:93 He broke out upon them, with the right hand striking:
37:94 When his tribesmen came back to him with hasty steps
37:95 He said, "Worship ye what ye carve,
37:96 When God hath created you, and that ye make?"
37:97 They said, "Build up a pyre for him and cast him into the glowing flame."
37:98 Fain would they plot against him, but we brought them low.
37:99 And he said, "Verily, I repair to my Lord who will guide me:
37:100 O Lord give me a son, of the righteous."
37:101 We announced to him a youth of meekness.
37:102 And when he became a full-grown youth, His father said to him, "My son, I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice thee; therefore, consider what thou seest right." He said, "My father, do what thou art bidden; of the patient, if God please, shalt thou find me."
37:103 And when they had surrendered them to the will of God, he laid him down upon his forehead:
37:104 We cried unto him, "O Abraham!
37:105 Now hast thou satisfied the vision." See how we recompense the righteous.
37:106 This was indeed a decisive test.
37:107 And we ransomed his son with a costly victim,
37:108 And we left this for him among posterity,
37:109 "PEACE BE ON ABRAHAM!"
37:110 Thus do we reward the well-doers,
37:111 For he was of our believing servants.
37:112 And we announced Isaac to him - a righteous Prophet -
37:113 And on him and on Isaac we bestowed our blessing. And among their offspring were well-doers, and others, to their own hurt undoubted sinners.
37:114 And of old, to Moses and to Aaron shewed we favours:
37:115 And both of them, and their people, we rescued from the great distress:
37:116 And we succoured them, and they became the conquerors:
37:117 And we gave them (Moses and Aaron) each the lucid book:
37:118 And we guided them each into the right way:
37:119 And we left this for each among posterity,
37:120 "PEACE BE ON MOSES AND AARON."
37:121 Thus do we reward the well-doers,
37:122 For they were two of our believing servants.
37:123 And Elias truly was of our Sent Ones,
37:124 When he said to his people, "Fear ye not God?
37:125 Invoke ye Baal and forsake ye the most skilful Creator?
37:126 God is your Lord, and the Lord of your sires of old?"
37:127 But they treated him as a liar, and shall therefore be consigned to punishment,
37:128 Except God's faithful servants.
37:129 And we left this for him among posterity,
37:130 "PEACE BE ON ELIASIN!"
37:131 Thus do we reward the well-doers,
37:132 For he was one of our believing servants.
37:133 And Lot truly was of our Sent Ones,
37:134 When we rescued him and all his family,
37:135 Save an aged woman among those who tarried.
37:136 Afterward we destroyed the others.
37:137 And ye indeed pass by their ruined dwellings at morn
37:138 And night: will ye not then reflect?
37:139 Jonas, too, was one of the Apostles,
37:140 When he fled unto the laden ship,
37:141 And lots were cast, and he was doomed,
37:142 And the fish swallowed him, for he was blameworthy.
37:143 But had he not been of those who praise Us,
37:144 In its belly had he surely remained, till the day of resurrection.
37:145 And we cast him on the bare shore - and he was sick; -
37:146 And we caused a gourd-plant to grow up over him,
37:147 And we sent him to a hundred thousand persons, or even more,
37:148 And because they believed, we continued their enjoyments for a season.
37:149 Inquire then of the Meccans whether thy Lord hath daughters, and they, sons?
37:150 Have we created the angels females? and did they witness it?
37:151 Is it not a falsehood of their own devising, when they say,
37:152 "God hath begotten"? They are indeed liars.
37:153 Would he have preferred daughters to sons?
37:154 What reason have ye for thus judging?
37:155 Will ye not then receive this warning?
37:156 Have ye a clear proof for them?
37:157 Produce your Book if ye speak truth.
37:158 And they make him to be of kin with the Djinn: but the Djinn have long known that these idolaters shall be brought up before God.
37:159 Far be the glory of God from what they impute to him.
37:160 "His faithful servants do not thus.
37:161 Moreover, ye and what ye worship
37:162 Shall not stir up any against God,
37:163 Save him who shall burn in Hell.
37:164 And verily each one of us hath his appointed place,
37:165 And we range ourselves in order,
37:166 And we celebrate His praises."
37:167 And if those infidels say,
37:168 "Had we a revelation transmitted to us from those of old,
37:169 We had surely been God's faithful servants."
37:170 Yet they believe not the Koran. But they shall know its truth at last.
37:171 Our word came of old to our servants the apostles,
37:172 That they should surely be the succoured,
37:173 And that our armies should procure the victory for them.
37:174 Turn aside therefore from them for a time,
37:175 And behold them, for they too shall in the end behold their doom.
37:176 Would they then hasten our vengeance?
37:177 But when it shall come down into their courts, an evil morning shall it be to those who have had their warning.
37:178 Turn aside from them therefore for a time.
37:179 And behold; for they too shall in the end behold their doom.
37:180 Far be the glory of thy Lord, the Lord of all greatness, from what they impute to him,
37:181 And peace be on his Apostles!
37:182 And praise be to God the Lord of the worlds.


   


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