3 Lit.  God subjected it to himself, availed himself of it against them.

4 El-wakia, the sudden event, the calamity; the woe that must break in upon Heaven and Earth.  The same word is used, Sura lvi. 1, and ci. 1, for the Resurrection and Day of Judgment.

5 In allusion to the mode of executing criminals in many eastern countries.

SURA LI.-THE SCATTERING [XLIII.]

Mecca.-60 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

By the clouds1 which scatter with scattering,

And those which bear their load,

And by those which speed lightly along,

And those which apportion by command!

True, indeed, is that with which ye are threatened,

And lo! the judgment will surely come.2

By the star-tracked heaven!

Ye are discordant in what ye say;

But whose turneth him from the truth, is turned from it by a divine decree.

Perish the liars,

Who are bewildered in the depths of ignorance!

They ask, “When this day of judgment?”

On that day they shall be tormented at the fire.

“Taste ye of this your torment, whose speedy coming ye challenged.”

But the God-fearing shall dwell amid gardens and fountains,

Enjoying what their Lord hath given them, because, aforetime they were well-doers: 

But little of the night was it that they slept,

And at dawn they prayed for pardon,

And gave due share of their wealth to the suppliant and the outcast.

On Earth are signs for men of firm belief,

And also in your own selves:  Will ye not then behold them?

The Heaven hath sustenance for you, and it containeth that which you are promised.

By the Lord then of the heaven and of the earth, I swear that this is the truth, even as ye speak yourselves.3

Hath the story reached thee of Abraham’s honoured guests?4

When they went in unto him and said, “Peace!” he replied, “Peace:-they are strangers.”

And he went apart to his family, and brought a fatted calf,

And set it before them.  He said, “Eat ye not?”

And he conceived a fear of them.  They said to him, “Fear not;” and announced to him a wise son.

His wife came up with outcry:  she smote her face and said, “What I, old and barren!”

They said, “Thus saith thy Lord.  He truly is the Wise, the Knowing.”

Said he, “And what, O messengers, is your errand?”

They said, “To a wicked people are we sent,

To hurl upon them stones of clay,

Destined5 by thy Lord for men guilty of excesses.”

And we brought forth the believers who were in the city: 

But we found not in it but one family of Muslims.

And signs we left in it for those who dread the afflictive chastisement,-