Sūra XXXIV. Sabā, or the City of Sabā

The Holy Quran, tr. by Yusuf Ali, [1934], at sacred-texts.com

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Sūra XXXIV.

Sabā, or the City of Sabā

(see verse 15).

In the name of God, Most Gracious,
Most Merciful.

1. Praise be to God,
To Whom belong all things
In the heavens and on earth:
To Him be Praise
In the Hereafter:
And He is Full of Wisdom,
Acquainted with all things.

2. He knows all that goes
Into the earth, and all that
Comes out thereof; all that
Comes down from the sky
And all that ascends thereto
And He is the Most Merciful,
The Oft-Forgiving.

3. The Unbelievers say,
"Never to us will come

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The Hour": say, "Nay!
But most surely,
By my Lord, it will come
Upon you;—by Him
Who knows the unseen,—
From Whom is not hidden
The least little atom
In the Heavens or on earth:
Nor is there anything less
Than that, or greater, but
Is in the Record Perspicuous:

4. That He may reward
Those who believe and work
Deeds of righteousness: for such
Is Forgiveness and a Sustenance
Most Generous."

5. But those who strive
Against Our Signs, to frustrate
Them,—for such will be
A Penalty,—a Punishment
Most humiliating.

6. And those to whom
Knowledge has come see
That the (Revelation) sent down
To thee from thy Lord—
That is the Truth,
And that it guides

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To the Path of the Exalted
(In Might), Worthy
Of all praise.

7. The Unbelievers say
(In ridicule): "Shall we
Point out to you a man
That will tell you,
When ye are all scattered
To pieces in disintegration,
That ye shall (then be
Raised) in a New Creation?

8. "Has he invented a falsehood
Against God, or has
A spirit (seized) him?"—
Nay, it is those who
Believe not in the Hereafter,
That are in (real) Penalty,
And in farthest Error.

9. See they not what is
Before them and behind them,
Of the sky and the earth
If We wished, We could
Cause the earth to swallow
Them up, or cause a piece
Of the sky to fall upon them.
Verily in this is a Sign
For every devotee that
Turns to God (in repentance).

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SECTION 2.

10. We bestowed Grace aforetime
On David from Ourselves:
"O ye Mountains! sing ye
Back the Praises of God
With him! and ye birds
(Also)! And We made
The iron soft for him;—

11. (Commanding), "Make thou
Coats of mail, balancing well
The rings of chain armour,
And work ye righteousness;
For be sure I see
(Clearly) all that ye do."

12. And to Solomon (We
Made) the Wind (obedient):
Its early morning (stride)
Was a month's (journey),
And its evening (stride)
Was a month's (journey);
And We made a Font
Of molten brass to flow

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For him; and there were
Jinns that worked in front
Of him, by the leave
Of his Lord, and if any
Of them turned aside
From Our command, We
Made him taste
Of the Penalty
Of the Blazing Fire.

13. They worked for him
As he desired, (making) Arches,
Images, Basons
As large as Reservoirs,
And (cooking) Cauldrons fixed
(In their places): "Work ye,
Sons of David, with thanks!
But few of My servants
Are grateful!"

14. Then, when We decreed
(Solomon's) death, nothing showed them
His death except a little
Worm of the earth, which

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Kept (slowly) gnawing away
At his staff: so when he
Fell down, the Jinns saw
Plainly that if they had
Known the unseen, they
Would not have tarried
In the humiliating Penalty
(Of their Task).

15. There was, for Sabā,
Aforetime, a Sign in their
Home-land—two Gardens
To the right and to the left.
"Eat of the Sustenance (provided)
By your Lord, and be grateful
To Him: a territory fair and happy,
And a Lord Oft-Forgiving!

16. But they turned away
(From God), and We sent
Against them the flood
(Released) from the Dams,

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And We converted their two
Garden (rows) into "gardens"
Producing bitter fruit,
And tamarisks, and some few
(Stunted) Lote-trees.

17. That was the Requital
We gave them because
They ungratefully rejected Faith:
And never do We give
(Such) requital except to such
As are ungrateful rejecters.

18. Between them and the Cities
On which We had poured
Our blessings, We had placed
Cities in prominent positions,
And between them We had
Appointed stages of journey
In due proportion: "Travel therein,
Secure, by night and by day."

19. But they said: "Our Lord!
Place longer distances

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Between our journey-stages":
But they wronged themselves (therein).
At length We made them
As a tale (that is told),
And We dispersed them
All in scattered fragments.
Verily in this are Signs
For every (soul that is)
Patiently constant and grateful.

20. And on them did Satan
Prove true his idea,
And they followed him, all
But a Party that believed.

21. But he had no authority
Over them,—except that We
Might test the man who
Believes in the Hereafter
From him who is in doubt
Concerning it: and thy Lord
Doth watch over all things.

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SECTION 3.

22. Say: "Call upon other (gods)
Whom ye fancy, besides God:
They have no power,
Not the weight of an atom,—
In the heavens or on earth:
No (sort of) share have they
Therein, nor is any of them
A helper to God.

23. "No intercession can avail
In His Presence, except for those
For whom He has granted
Permission. So far (is this
The case) that, when terror
Is removed from their hearts
(At the Day of Judgment, then)
Will they say, "What is it
That your Lord commanded?"
They will say, "That which is
True and just; and He is
The Most High, Most Great."

24. Say: "Who gives you
Sustenance, from the heavens

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And the earth?" Say:
"It is God; and certain it is
That either we or ye
Are on right guidance
Or in manifest error!"

25. Say: "Ye shall not be
Questioned as to our sins,
Nor shall we be questioned
As to what ye do."

26. Say: "Our Lord will gather us
Together and will in the end
Decide the matter between us
(And you) in truth and justice:
And He is the One to decide,
The One Who knows all."

27. Say: "Show me those whom
Ye have joined with Him
As partners: by no means
(Can ye). Nay, He is God,
The Exalted in Power,
The Wise."

28. We have not sent thee
But as a universal (Messenger)

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To men, giving them
Glad tidings, and warning them
(Against sin), but most men
Understand not.

29. They say: "When will this
Promise (come to pass)
If ye are telling the truth?"

30. Say: "The appointment to you
Is for a Day, which ye
Cannot put back for an hour
Nor put forward."

SECTION 4.

31. The Unbelievers say:
"We shall neither believe
In this scripture nor in (any)
That (came) before it."
Couldst thou but see when
The wrong-doers will be made
To stand before their Lord,
Throwing back the word (of blame)

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On one another! Those who
Had been despised will say
To the arrogant ones:
"Had it not been for you,
We should certainly
Have been believers!"

32. The arrogant ones will say
To those who had been despised:
"Was it we who kept you
Back from Guidance after
It reached you? Nay, rather,
It was ye who transgressed.

33. Those who had been despised
Will say to the arrogant ones:
"Nay! it was a plot
(Of yours) by day and by night:
Behold! ye (constantly) ordered us
To be ungrateful to God
And to attribute equals to Him!
They will declare (their) repentance
When they see the Penalty:
We shall put yokes

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On the necks of the Unbelievers:
It would only be a requital
For their (ill) Deeds.

34. Never did We send
A Warner to a population,
But the wealthy ones among them
Said: "We believe not
In the (Message) with which
Ye have been sent."

35. They said: "We have more
In wealth and in sons
And we cannot be punished."

36. Say: "Verily my Lord enlarges
And restricts the Provision
To whom He pleases, but
Most men understand not."

SECTION 5.

37. It is not your wealth
Nor your sons, that will
Bring you nearer to Us
In degree: but only
Those who believe and work
Righteousness—these are
The ones for whom there is
A multiplied Reward

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For their deeds, while
Secure they (reside)
In the dwellings on high!

38. Those who strive against
Our Signs, to frustrate them,
Will be given over
Into Punishment.

39. Say: "Verily my Lord enlarges
And restricts the Sustenance
To such of His servants
As He pleases: and nothing
Do ye spend in the least
(In His Cause) but He
Replaces it: for He is
The Best of those who
Grant Sustenance.

40. One Day He will
Gather them all together,
And say to the angels,
"Was it you that these
Men used to worship?"

41. They will say, "Glory to Thee!
Our (tie) is with Thee
As Protector—not with them.
Nay, but they worshipped

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The Jinns: most of them
Believed in them."

42. So on that Day
No power shall they have
Over each other, for profit
Or harm: and We shall
Say to the wrong-doers,
"Taste ye the Penalty's
Of the Fire,—the which
Ye were wont to deny!"

43. When Our Clear Signs
Are rehearsed to them,
They say, "This is only
A man who wishes
To hinder you from the (worship)
Which your fathers practised."
And they say, "This is
Only a falsehood invented!"
And the Unbelievers say
Of the Truth when it comes
To them, "This is nothing
But evident magic!"

44. But We had not given
Them Books which they could
Study, nor sent apostles
To them before thee
As Warners.

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45. And their predecessors rejected
(The Truth); these have
Not received a tenth
Of what We had granted
To those: yet when they rejected
My apostles, how (terrible)
Was My rejection (of them)!

SECTION 6.

46. Say: "I do admonish you
On one point: that ye
Do stand up before God,—
(It may be) in pairs,
Or (it may be) singly,—
And reflect (within yourselves):
Your Companion is not
Possessed: he is no less
Than a Warner to you,
In face of a terrible
Penalty."

47. Say: "No reward do I
Ask of you: it is (all)
In your interest: my reward
Is only due from God:
And He is Witness
To all things."

48. Say: "Verily my Lord
Doth cast the (mantle

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Of) Truth (over His servants),—
He that has full knowledge
Of (all) that is hidden."

49. Say: "The Truth has arrived,
And Falsehood neither creates
Anything new, nor restores
Anything."

50. Say: "If I am astray,
I only stray to the loss
Of my own soul: but if
I receive guidance, it is seen
Because of the inspiration
Of my Lord to me:
It is He Who hears
All things, and is (ever) near."

51. If thou couldst but see
When they will quake
With terror; but then
There will be no escape
(For them), and they will he
Seized from a position
(Quite) near.

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52. And they will say,
"We do believe (now)
In the (Truth)"; but how
Could they receive (Faith)
From a position (so) far off,—

53. Seeing that they did reject
Faith (entirely) before, and
That they (continually) cast
(Slanders) on the Unseen
From a position far off?

54. And between them
And their desires,
Is placed a barrier,
As was done in the past
With their partisans:
For they were indeed
In suspicious (disquieting) doubt.

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