Zumar, or the Crowds.

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

p. 1236

Sūra XXXIX.

Zumar, or the Crowds.

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

1. The revelation
Of this Book
Is from God,
The Exalted in Power,
Full of Wisdom.

2. Verily it is We Who have
Revealed the Book to thee
In Truth: so serve God,
Offering Him sincere devotion.

3. Is it not to God
That sincere devotion
Is due? But those who
Take for protectors others
Than God (say): "We only
Serve them in order that
They may bring us nearer
To God." Truly God
Will judge between them
In that wherein they differ.
But God guides not
Such as are false
And ungrateful.

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4. Had God wished
To take to Himself
A son, He could have
Chosen whom He pleased
Out of those whom He
Doth create: but Glory
Be to Him! (He is above
Such things.) He is God,
The One, the Irresistible.

5. He created the heavens
And the earth
In true (proportions):
He makes the Night
Overlap the Day, and the Day
Overlap the Night:
He has subjected
The sun and the moon
(To His law):
Each one follows a course
For a time appointed.
Is not He the Exalted
In Power—He Who forgives
Again and again?

6. He created you (all)
From a single Person:
Then created, of like nature,
His mate; and He
Sent down for you eight head
Of cattle in pairs:
He makes you,
In the wombs

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Of your mothers,
In stages, one after another,
In three veils of darkness.
Such is God, your Lord
And Cherisher: to Him belongs
(All) dominion. There is
No god but He: then
How are ye turned away
(From your true Centre)?

7. If ye reject (God),
Truly God hath no need
Of you; but He liketh not
Ingratitude from His servants:
If ye are grateful, He
Is pleased with you.
No bearer of burdens
Can bear the burden
Of another. In the End,
To your Lord is your Return,
When He will tell you
The truth of all
That ye did (in this life).
For He knoweth well
All that is in (men's) hearts.

8. When some trouble toucheth man,
He crieth unto his Lord,

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Turning to Him in repentance:
But when He bestoweth
A favour upon him
As from Himself, (man)
Doth forget what he cried
And prayed for before,
And he doth set up
Rivals unto God,
Thus misleading others
From God's Path.
Say, "Enjoy thy blasphemy
For a little while:
Verily thou art (one)
Of the Companions of the Fire!"

9. Is one who worships devoutly
During the hours of the night
Prostrating himself or standing
(In adoration), who takes heed
Of the Hereafter, and who
Places his hope in the Mercy
Of his Lord—(like one
Who does not)? Say:
"Are those equal, those who know
And those who do not know?
It is those who are
Endued with understanding
That receive admonition.

SECTION 2.

10. Say: "O ye
My servants who believe!
Fear your Lord.
Good is (the reward)
For those who do good
In this world.

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Spacious is God's earth!
Those who patiently persevere
Will truly receive
A reward without measure!"

11. Say: "Verily, I am commanded
To serve God
With sincere devotion;

12. "And I am commanded
To be the first
Of those who bow
To God in Islam."

13. Say: "I would, if I
Disobeyed my Lord,
Indeed have fear
Of the Penalty
Of a Mighty Day."

14. Say: "It is God I serve,
With my sincere
(And exclusive) devotion:

15. "Serve ye what ye will
Besides Him." Say:
"Truly, those in loss
Are those who lose
Their own souls
And their People
On the Day of Judgment:
Ah! that is indeed
The (real and) evident Loss!

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16. They shall have Layers
Of Fire above them,
And Layers (of Fire)
Below them: with this
Doth God warn off
His Servants: "O My Servants!
Then fear ye Me!"

17. Those who eschew Evil,
And fall not into
Its worship,—and turn
To God (in repentance),—
For them is Good News:
So announce the Good News
To My Servants,—

18. Those who listen
To the Word,
And follow
The best (meaning) in it:
Those are the ones
Whom God has guided, and those
Are the ones endued
With understanding.

19. Is, then, one against whom
The decree of Punishment

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Is justly due (equal
To one who eschews evil)?
Wouldst thou, then, deliver
One (who is) in the Fire?

20. But it is for those
Who fear their Lord,
That lofty mansions,
One above another,
Have been built:
Beneath them flow
Rivers (of delight): (such is)
The Promise of God:
Never doth God fail in
(His) promise.

21. Seest thou not that God
Sends down rain from
The sky, and leads it
Through springs in the earth.?
Then He causes to grow,
Therewith, produce of various
Colours: then it withers;
Thou wilt see it grow yellow;
Then He makes it
Dry up and crumble away.
Truly, in this, is
A Message of remembrance to
Men of understanding.

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SECTION 3.

22. Is one whose heart
God has opened to Islam,
So that he has received
Enlightenment from God,
(No better than one hard-hearted)?
Woe to those whose hearts
Are hardened against celebrating
The praises of God! They
Are manifestly wandering
(In error)!

23. God has revealed
(From time to time)
The most beautiful Message
In the form of a Book,
Consistent with itself,
(Yet) repeating (its teaching

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In various aspects):
The skins of those who
Fear their Lord tremble
Thereat; then their skins
And their hearts do soften
To the celebration of
God's praises. Such is
The guidance of God:
He guides therewith
Whom He pleases, but such
As God leaves to stray,
Can have none to guide.

24. Is, then, one who
Has to fear the brunt
Of the Penalty on the Day
Of Judgment (and receive it)
On his face, (like one
Guarded therefrom)? It will

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Be said to the wrong-doers:
"Taste ye (the fruits
Of) what ye earned!

25. Those before them (also)
Rejected (revelation), and so
The Punishment came to them
From directions they did not
Perceive.

26. So God gave them
A taste of humiliation
In the present life,
But greater is the Punishment
Of the Hereafter,
If they only knew!

27. We have put forth
For men, in this Qur-ān
Every kind of Parable,
In order that they
May receive admonition.

28. (It is) a Qur-ān
In Arabic, without any

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Crookedness (therein):
In order that they
May guard against Evil.

29. God puts forth a Parable—
A man belonging to many
Partners at variance with each other,
And a man belonging entirely
To one master: are those two
Equal in comparison?
Praise be to God!
But most of them
Have no knowledge.

30. Truly thou wilt die
(One day), and truly they
(Too) will die (one day).

31. In the End will ye
(All), on the Day
Of Judgment, settle your disputes
In the presence of your Lord.

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SECTION 4.

32. Who, then, doth more wrong
Than one who utters
A lie concerning God,
And rejects the Truth
When it comes to him
Is there not in Hell
An abode for blasphemers?

33. And he who brings the Truth
And he who confirms
(And supports) it—such are
The men who do right.

34. They shall have all
That they wish for,
In the presence of their Lord:
Such is the reward
Of those who do good:

35. So that God will
Turn off from them
(Even) the worst in their deeds
And give them their reward
According to the best
Of what they have done.

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36. Is not God enough
For His servant? But
They try to frighten thee
With other (gods) besides Him!
For such as God leaves
To stray, there can be
No guide.

37. And such as God doth
Guide there can be
None to lead astray.
Is not God Exalted
In Power, (Able to enforce
His Will), Lord of Retribution?

38. If indeed thou ask them
Who it is that created
The heavens and the earth,
They would be sure to say.
"God ". Say: "See ye then?
The things that ye invoke
Besides God,—can they,
If God wills some Penalty
For me, remove His Penalty?—
Or if He wills some Grace
For me, can they keep back

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His Grace?" Say: "Sufficient
Is God for me!
In Him trust those
Who put their trust."

39. Say: "O my people!
Do whatever ye can:
I will do (my part):
But soon will ye know—

40. "Who it is to whom
Comes a Penalty
Of ignominy, and on whom
Descends a Penalty that abides."

41. Verily We have revealed
The Book to thee
In Truth, for (instructing)
mankind.
He, then, that receives guidance
Benefits his own soul:
But he that strays
Injures his own soul.
Nor art thou set
Over them to dispose
Of their affairs.

SECTION 5.

42. It is God that takes
The souls (of men) at death;

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And those that die not
(He takes) during their sleep:
Those on whom He
Has passed the decree
Of death, He keeps back
(From returning to life),
But the rest He sends
(To their bodies)
For a term appointed.
Verily in this are Signs
For those who reflect.

43. What! Do they take
For intercessors others
Besides God? Say: "Even if
They have no power whatever
And no intelligence?"

44. Say: "To God belongs
Exclusively (the right

p. 1251

To grant) Intercession:
To Him belongs the dominion
Of the heavens and the earth:
In the End, it is to Him
That ye shall be
Brought back."

45. When God, the One and Only,
Is mentioned, the hearts
Of those who believe not
In the Hereafter are filled
With disgust and horror;
But when (gods) other than He
Are mentioned, behold,
They are filled with joy!

46. Say: "O God!
Creator of the heavens
And the earth!
Knower of all that is
Hidden and open!
It is Thou that wilt
Judge between Thy Servants
In those matters about which
They have differed."

47. Even if the wrong-doers
Had all that there is
On earth, and as much more,
(In vain) would they offer it

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For ransom from the pain
Of the Penalty on the Day
Of Judgment: but something
Will confront them from God,
Which they could never
Have counted upon!

48. For the evils of their Deeds
Will confront them,
And they will be (completely)
Encircled by that which
They used to mock at!

49. Now, when trouble touches man,
He cries to Us:
But when We bestow
A favour upon him
As from Ourselves,
He says, "This has been
Given to me because of
A certain knowledge (I have)!"
Nay, but this is
But a trial, but most
Of them understand not!

50. Thus did the (generations)
Before them say! But
All that they did
Was of no profit to them.

51. Nay, the evil results
Of their deeds overtook them.
And the wrong-doers
Of this (generation)
The evil results of their deeds
Will soon overtake them (too),

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And they will never be
Able to frustrate (Our Plan)!

52. Know they not that
God enlarges the provision
Or restricts it, for any
He pleases? Verily, in this are
Signs for those who believe!

SECTION 6.

53. Say: "O my Servants who
Have transgressed against their souls
Despair not of the Mercy
Of God: for God forgives
All sins: for He is
Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

54. "Turn ye to your Lord
(In repentance) and bow
To His (Will), before
The Penalty comes on you:
After that ye shall not
Be helped.

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55. "And follow the Best
Of (the courses) revealed
To you from your Lord,
Before the Penalty comes
On you—of a sudden,
While ye perceive not!—

56. "Lest the soul should (then)
Say: "Ah! woe is me!—
In that I neglected
(My Duty) towards God,
And was but among those
Who mocked!"—

57. "Or (lest) it should say:
"If only God had guided
Me, I should certainly
Have been among the righteous!"—

58. "Or (lest) it should say
When it (actually) sees
The Penalty, "If only
I had another chance,
I should certainly be
Among those who do good!"

59. "(The reply will be:) "Nay,
But there came to thee

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My Signs, and thou didst
Reject them: thou vast
Haughty, and became one
Of those who reject Faith!

60. (On the Day of Judgment
Wilt thou see those
Who told lies against God;—
Their faces will be turned
Black; is there not
In Hell an abode
For the Haughty?

61. But God will deliver
The righteous to their place
Of salvation: no evil
Shall touch them,
Nor shall they grieve.

62. God is the Creator
Of all things, and He
Is the Guardian and Disposer
Of all affairs.

63. To Him belong the keys
Of the heavens
And the earth:
And those who reject
The Signs of God,—
It is they who will
Be in loss.

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SECTION 7.

64. Say: "Is it
Some one other than God
That ye order me
To worship, O ye
Ignorant ones?"

65. But it has already
Been revealed to thee,—
As it was to those
Before thee,—"If thou
Wert to join (gods
With God), truly fruitless
Will be thy work (in life),
And thou wilt surely
Be in the ranks of those
Who lose (all spiritual good)".

66. Nay, but worship God,
And be of those who
Give thanks.

67. No just estimate
Have they made of God,
Such as is due to Him:
On the Day of Judgment
The whole of the earth
Will be but His handful,
And the heavens will be

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Rolled up in His right hand:
Glory to Him!
High is He above
The Partners they attribute
To Him!

68. The Trumpet will (just)
Be sounded, when all
That are in the heavens
And on earth will swoon,
Except such as it will
Please God (to exempt).
Then will a second one
Be sounded, when, behold,
They will be standing
And looking on!

69. And the Earth will shine
With the glory of its Lord:
The Record (of Deeds)
Will be placed (open);
The prophets and the witnesses
Will be brought forward;
And a just decision
Pronounced between them;
And they will not
Be wronged (in the least).

70. And to every soul will be
Paid in full (the fruit)

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Of its deeds; and (God)
Knoweth best all that
They do.

SECTION 8.

71. The Unbelievers will be
Led to Hell in crowd:
Until, when they arrive there,
Its gates will be opened.
And its Keepers will say,
"Did not apostles come
To you from among yourselves,
Rehearsing to you the Signs
Of your Lord, and warning you
Of the Meeting of this Day
Of yours?" The answer
Will be: "True: but
The Decree of Punishment
Has been proved true
Against the Unbelievers!"

72. (To them) will be said:
"Enter ye the gates of Hell,
To dwell therein:
And evil is (this)
Abode of the arrogant!"

73. And those who feared
Their Lord will be led
To the Garden in crowds:
Until behold, they arrive there;

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Its gates will be opened;
And its Keepers will say:
"Peace be upon you!
Well have ye done!"
Enter ye here,
To dwell therein."

74. They will say: "Praise be
To God, Who has
Truly fulfilled His promise
To us, and has given us
(This) land in heritage:
We can dwell in the Garden
As we will: how excellent
A reward for those
Who work (righteousness)!"

75. And thou wilt see
The angels surrounding
The Throne (Divine)
On all sides, singing Glory
And Praise to their Lord.
The Decision between them
(At Judgment) will be
In (perfect) justice,
And the cry (on all sides)
Will be, "Praise be to God,
The Lord of the Worlds!"

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