From the Heaven to the Earth He governeth all things:  hereafter shall they come up to him on a day whose length shall be a thousand of such years as ye reckon.2

This is He who knoweth the unseen and the seen; the Mighty, the Merciful,

Who hath made everything which he hath created most good; and began the creation of man with clay;

Then ordained his progeny from germs of life,3 from sorry water: 

Then shaped him, and breathed of His Spirit into him, and gave you hearing and seeing and hearts:  what little thanks do ye return!

And they say, “What! when we shall have lain hidden in the earth, shall we become a new creation?”

Yea, they deny that they shall meet their Lord.

Say:  The angel of death who is charged with you shall cause you to die:  then shall ye be returned to your Lord.

Couldst thou but see when the guilty shall droop their heads before their Lord, and cry, “O our Lord! we have seen and we have heard:  return us then to life:  we will do that which is right.  Verily we believe firmly!”

(Had we pleased we had certainly given to every soul its guidance.  But true shall be the word which hath gone forth from me-I will surely fill hell with Djinn and men together.)

“Taste then the recompense of your having forgotten the meeting with this your day.  We, too, we have forgotten you:  taste then an eternal punishment for that which ye have wrought.”

They only believe in our signs, who, when mention is made of them, fall down in adoration, and celebrate the praise of their Lord, and are not puffed up with disdain: 

Who, as they raise them4 from their couches, call on their Lord with fear and desire, and give alms of that with which we have supplied them.

No soul knoweth what joy of the eyes is reserved for the good in recompense of their works.

Shall he then who is a believer be as he who sinneth grossly? they shall not be held alike.

As to those who believe and do that which is right, they shall have gardens of eternal abode as the meed of their works: 

But as for those who grossly sin, their abode shall be the fire:  so oft as they shall desire to escape out of it, back shall they be turned into it.  And it shall be said to them, Taste ye the torment of the fire, which ye treated as a lie.

And we will surely cause them to taste a punishment yet nearer at hand, besides the greater punishment, that haply they may turn to us in penitence.

Who acteth worse than he who is warned by the signs of his Lord, then turneth away from them?  We will surely take vengeance on the guilty ones.

We heretofore gave the Book of the law to Moses:  have thou no doubt as to our meeting with him:5 and we appointed it for the guidance of the children of Israel.

And we appointed Imâms from among them who should guide after our command when they had themselves endured with constancy, and had firmly believed in our signs.