69:1  The overriding Reality

69:2  What is the overriding Reality?

69:3  What ascertained for you what is the overriding Reality?

69:4  The Thamūd and Aad refused to believe in the unravelling

69:5  As for the Thamūd— they were destroyed by the overwhelming.

69:6  And as for the Aad— they were destroyed by a furious howling gale,

69:7  Which HE deployed against them for seven nights and eight days in succession. [In its wake] you could see the people therein felled as if they were trunks of bared palms.

69:8  So then, do you see any vestige of them?

69:9  And Pharaoh had come, and those before him, and the overturned cities, [all] with the [unrepented] offenses.

69:10  They had disobeyed the messenger of their Rabb, and so HE seized them with an escalating seizure.

69:11  And indeed when the water exceeded its bounds, WE carried you in the sailing ship,

69:12  That WE may make it a reminder for you all, and an attentive ear retain it.

69:13  For when [the souls] are blown into the forms— a single blowing

69:14  And the earth and the mountains carried off—both crushed in a single crush

69:15  Then, that day the [inevitable] event will come to pass.

69:16  And the sky will split open— fragile it will be that day.

69:17  And angels extending over its many dimensions. And eight bear the Throne of your Rabb above them on that day.

69:18  On that day you will be presented for judgment. No secret of yours will hide.

69:19  As for him who is given his record to his right— he will say, “Here it is, you all! Read my record.

69:20  Surely, I had rightly assumed that I was destined to meet my reckoning.”

69:21  And so, in a satisfying existence is he,

69:22  in a lofty garden,

69:23  its clusters [offered] near at hand:

69:24  “Eat and drink pleasurably on account of what you had advanced in the days gone by.”

69:25  And as for him who is given his record to his left, he will say, “O how I wish I were not given my record

69:26  and I had not ascertained what [here] is my reckoning.

69:27  Ah, if only, it had been the conclusive end,

69:28  Not has my worldly wealth availed me

69:29  my authority has perished from me.”

69:30  “Seize him, and bind him,

69:31  then Jaḥīm. Burn him.

69:32  Further to that, in a chain whereof the length is seventy cubits, peg him.

69:33  It was he! Not did he believe in Allah, the Transcendent.

69:34  Nor did he encourage the feeding of the poor—

69:35  So, not a pal for him this day, specially here

69:36  Nor food, except of purged discards—

69:37  None eats it except the [unforgiven] offenders.

69:38  So, nay! [False is your notion of no accountability]. I swear by what you see

69:39  and by what you do not see

69:40  Indeed it assuredly is the [faithfully delivered] word of a noble messenger

69:41  And not is it anywise a word of a poet. Scant is what you do believe.

69:42  Nor anywise a saying of a soothsayer. Scant is what you do reflect.

69:43  [It is] a sending down from the Rabb of all Realms.

69:44  And if he had spoken false, attributing some of the sayings to US,

69:45  WE would have categorically taken away, every wise the right from him

69:46  Further to that, cut off the life-vein from him—

69:47  Not one of you could be a blocking shield for him.

69:48  Hearken, this is indeed a reminder for the God-conscious

69:49  Indeed, WE fully know that amongst you are truth-beliers.

69:50  Surely, a certain regret hangs over the disbelievers

69:51  Indeed, it is the truth of the certain.

69:52  So, contemplate the almightiness of God, by the name of your Rabb, the Transcendent ONE.