15:1  Alif, Lam, Ra. These are the signs of the Book and a manifest Quran.

15:2  Much will the faithless wish that they had been Muslims.

15:3  Leave them to eat and enjoy and to be diverted by longings. Soon they will know.

15:4  We did not destroy any town but that it had a known term.

15:5  No nation can advance its time nor can it defer it.

15:6  They said, ‘O you, to whom the Reminder has been sent down, you are indeed crazy.

15:7  Why do you not bring us the angels should you be truthful?!’

15:8  We do not send down the angels except with due reason, and then they will not be granted any respite.

15:9  Indeed We have sent down the Reminder, and indeed We will preserve it.

15:10  Certainly We sent [apostles] before you to former communities,

15:11  and there did not come to them any apostle but that they used to deride him.

15:12  That is how We let it pass through the hearts of the guilty:

15:13  they do not believe in it, and the precedent of the ancients has already passed.

15:14  Were We to open for them a gate of the sky, so that they could go on ascending through it,

15:15  they would surely say, ‘Indeed a spell has been cast on our eyes; indeed, we are a bewitched lot.’

15:16  Certainly We have appointed houses in the sky and adorned them for the onlookers,

15:17  and We have guarded them from every outcast Satan,

15:18  except someone who may eavesdrop, whereat there pursues him a manifest flame.

15:19  And We spread out the earth, and cast in it firm mountains, and We grew in it every kind of balanced thing,

15:20  and made in it [various] means of livelihood for you and for those whom you do not provide for.

15:21  There is not a thing but that its sources are with Us, and We do not send it down except in a known measure.

15:22  And We send the fertilizing winds and send down water from the sky providing it for you to drink and you are not maintainers of its resources.

15:23  Indeed it is We who give life and bring death and We are the inheritors.

15:24  Certainly We know the predecessors among you and certainly We know the successors,

15:25  and indeed it is your Lord who will resurrect them. Indeed, He is all-wise, all-knowing.

15:26  Certainly We created man out of a dry clay [drawn] from an aging mud,

15:27  and We created the jinn earlier, out of a piercing fire.

15:28  When your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed I am going to create a human out of a dry clay [drawn] from an aging mud.

15:29  So when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down in prostration before him.’

15:30  Thereat the angels prostrated, all of them together,

15:31  but not Iblis: he refused to be among those who prostrated.

15:32  He said, ‘O Iblis! What kept you from being among those who have prostrated?’

15:33  Said he, ‘I will not prostrate before a human whom You have created out of a dry clay [drawn] from an aging mud.’

15:34  He said, ‘Begone hence, for you are indeed an outcast,

15:35  and indeed the curse shall lie on you until the Day of Retribution.’

15:36  He said, ‘My Lord! Respite me till the day they will be resurrected.’

15:37  Said He, ‘You are indeed among the reprieved

15:38  until the day of the known time.’

15:39  He said, ‘My Lord! As You have consigned me to perversity, I will surely glamorize [evil] for them on the earth, and I will surely pervert them, all

15:40  except Your dedicated servants among them.’

15:41  He said, ‘This is the path [leading] straight to Me.

15:42  Indeed, as for My servants you do not have any authority over them, except the perverse who follow you,

15:43  and indeed hell is the tryst of them all.

15:44  It has seven gates, and to each gate belongs a separate portion of them.’

15:45  Indeed the Godwary will be amid gardens and springs.

15:46  ‘‘Enter it in peace and safety!’’

15:47  We will remove whatever rancour there is in their breasts; [intimate like] brothers, [they will be reclining] on couches, facing one another.

15:48  Therein neither weariness shall touch them, nor will they [ever] be expelled from it.

15:49  Inform my servants that I am indeed the All-forgiving, the All-merciful,

15:50  and that My punishment is a painful punishment.

15:51  And inform them about the guests of Abraham,

15:52  when they entered into his presence and said, ‘Peace!’ He said, ‘We are indeed afraid of you.’

15:53  They said, ‘Do not be afraid. Indeed we give you the good news of a wise son.’

15:54  He said, ‘Do you give me good news though old age has befallen me? What is the good news that you bring me?’

15:55  They said, ‘We bring you good news in truth; so do not be despondent.’

15:56  He said, ‘Who despairs of his Lord’s mercy except the astray?!’

15:57  He said, ‘O messengers, what is now your errand?’

15:58  They said, ‘We have been sent toward a guilty people,

15:59  [who shall perish] except the family of Lot. We will indeed deliver all of them,

15:60  except his wife, [who], We have ordained, will indeed be among those who remain behind.’

15:61  So when the messengers came to Lot’s family,

15:62  he said, ‘You are indeed strangers [to me].’

15:63  They said, ‘Indeed, we bring you what they used to doubt.

15:64  We bring you the truth, and indeed, we speak truly.

15:65  Take your family in a watch of the night; and follow in their rear, and none of you should turn round, and proceed as you are bidden.’

15:66  We apprised him of the matter that these will be rooted out by dawn.

15:67  The people of the city came, rejoicing.

15:68  He said, ‘These are indeed my guests. Do not bring dishonour on me.

15:69  Be wary of Allah and do not humiliate me.’

15:70  They said, ‘Did we not forbid you from [defending ] strangers?’

15:71  He said, ‘These are my daughters, [marry them] if you should do anything.’

15:72  By your life, they were bewildered in their drunkenness.

15:73  So the Cry seized them at sunrise,

15:74  and We made its topmost part its nethermost, and rained on them stones of shale.

15:75  There are indeed signs in that for the percipient.

15:76  Indeed it is on a standing road,

15:77  and there is indeed a sign in that for the faithful.

15:78  Indeed the inhabitants of Aykah were [also] wrongdoers.

15:79  So We took vengeance on them, and indeed the two of them are on an open highway.

15:80  Certainly the inhabitants of Hijr denied the apostles.

15:81  We had given them Our signs but they disregarded them.

15:82  They used to hew out dwellings from mountains feeling secure.

15:83  So the Cry seized them at dawn,

15:84  and what they used to earn did not avail them.

15:85  We did not create the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them except with consummate wisdom, and indeed the Hour is bound to come. So forbear with a graceful forbearance.

15:86  Indeed your Lord is the All-creator, the All-knowing.

15:87  Certainly We have given you [the surah of] the seven oft-repeated verses and the great Quran.

15:88  Do not extend your glance toward what We have provided to certain groups of them, and do not grieve for them, and lower your wing to the faithful,

15:89  and say, ‘I am indeed a manifest warner [of punishment from God],’

15:90  like that We sent down upon those who split into bands,

15:91  who represented the Quran as magic.

15:92  By your Lord, We will question them all

15:93  concerning what they used to do.

15:94  So proclaim what you have been commanded, and turn away from the polytheists.

15:95  Indeed We will suffice you against the deriders

15:96  —those who set up another deity besides Allah. Soon they will know!

15:97  Certainly We know that you become upset because of what they say.

15:98  So celebrate the praise of your Lord and be among those who prostrate,

15:99  and worship your Lord until certainty comes to you.