Surah 25 The Criterion - Al-Furqan, 77 verses (Makka)
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
- Blessed is He who sent down the criterion to His
servant, that it may be an admonition to all
creatures;-
- He to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and
the earth: no son has He begotten, nor has He a partner
in His dominion: it is He who created all things, and
ordered them in due proportions.
- Yet have they taken, besides him, gods that can
create nothing but are themselves created; that have no
control of hurt or good to themselves; nor can they
control death nor life nor resurrection.
- But the misbelievers say: "Naught is this but a lie
which he has forged, and others have helped him at it."
In truth it is they who have put forward an iniquity
and a falsehood.
- And they say: "Tales of the ancients, which he has
caused to be written: and they are dictated before him
morning and evening."
- Say: "The (Qur'an) was sent down by Him who knows
the mystery (that is) in the heavens and the earth:
verily He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."
- And they say: "What sort of an apostle is this, who
eats food, and walks through the streets? Why has not
an angel been sent down to him to give admonition with
him?
- "Or (Why) has not a treasure been bestowed on him,
or why has he (not) a garden for enjoyment?" The wicked
say: "Ye follow none other than a man bewitched."
- See what kinds of comparisons they make for thee!
But they have gone astray, and never a way will they be
able to find!
- Blessed is He who, if that were His will, could
give thee better (things) than those,- Gardens beneath
which rivers flow; and He could give thee palaces
(secure to dwell in).
- Nay they deny the hour (of the judgment to come):
but We have prepared a blazing fire for such as deny
the hour:
- When it sees them from a place fAr off, they will
hear its fury and its ranging sigh.
- And when they are cast, bound together into a
constricted place therein, they will pLead for
destruction there and then!
- "This day plead not for a single destruction: plead
for destruction oft-repeated!"
- Say: "Is that best, or the eternal garden, promised
to the righteous? for them, that is a reward as well as
a goal (of attainment).
- "For them there will be therein all that they wish
for: they will dwell (there) for aye: A promise to be
prayed for from thy Lord."
- The day He will gather them together as well as
those whom they worship besides God, He will ask: "Was
it ye who let these My servants astray, or did they
stray from the Path themselves?"
- They will say: "Glory to Thee! not meet was it for
us that we should take for protectors others besides
Thee: But Thou didst bestow, on them and their fathers,
good things (in life), until they forgot the Message:
for they were a people (worthless and) lost."
- (God will say): "Now have they proved you liars in
what ye say: so ye cannot avert (your penalty) nor
(get) help." And whoever among you does wrong, him
shall We cause to taste of a grievous Penalty.
- And the apostles whom We sent before thee were all
(men) who ate food and walked through the streets: We
have made some of you as a trial for others: will ye
have patience? for God is One Who sees (all things).
- Such as fear not the meeting with Us (for Judgment)
say: "Why are not the angels sent down to us, or (why)
do we not see our Lord?" Indeed they have an arrogant
conceit of themselves, and mighty is the insolence of
their impiety!
- The Day they see the angels,- no joy will there be
to the sinners that Day: The (angels) will say: "There
is a barrier forbidden (to you) altogether!"
- And We shall turn to whatever deeds they did (in
this life), and We shall make such deeds as floating
dust scattered about.
- The Companions of the Garden will be well, that
Day, in their abode, and have the fairest of places for
repose.
- The Day the heaven shall be rent asunder with
clouds, and angels shall be sent down, descending (in
ranks),-
- That Day, the dominion as of right and truth, shall
be (wholly) for (God) Most Merciful: it will be a Day
of dire difficulty for the Misbelievers.
- The Day that the wrong-doer will bite at his hands,
he will say, "Oh! would that I had taken a (straight)
path with the Apostle!
- "Ah! woe is me! Would that I had never taken such a
one for a friend!
- "He did lead me astray from the Message (of God)
after it had come to me! Ah! the Evil One is but a
traitor to man!" Then the Apostle will say:
- "O my Lord! Truly my people took this Qur'an for
just foolish nonsense."
- Thus have We made for every prophet an enemy among
the sinners: but enough is thy Lord to guide and to
help.
- Those who reject Faith say: "Why is not the Qur'an
revealed to him all at once? Thus (is it revealed),
that We may strengthen thy heart thereby, and We have
rehearsed it to thee in slow, well-arranged stages,
gradually.
- And no question do they bring to thee but We reveal
to thee the truth and the best explanation (thereof).
- Those who will be gathered to Hell (prone) on their
faces,- they will be in an evil plight, and, as to
Path, most astray.
- (Before this,) We sent Moses The Book, and
appointed his brother Aaron with him as minister;
- And We command: "Go ye both, to the people who have
rejected our Signs:" And those (people) We destroyed
with utter destruction.
- And the people of Noah,- when they rejected the
apostles, We drowned them, and We made them as a Sign
for mankind; and We have prepared for (all) wrong-doers
a grievous Penalty;-
- As also 'Ad and Thamud, and the Companions of the
Rass, and many a generation between them.
- To each one We set forth Parables and examples; and
each one We broke to utter annihilation (for their
sins).
- And the (Unbelievers) must indeed have passed by
the town on which was rained a shower of evil: did they
not then see it (with their own eyes)? But they fear
not the Resurrection.
- When they see thee, they treat thee no otherwise
than in mockery: "Is this the one whom God has sent as
an apostle?"
- "He indeed would well-nigh have misled us from our
gods, had it not been that we were constant to them!" -
Soon will they know, when they see the Penalty, who it
is that is most misled in Path!
- Seest thou such a one as taketh for his god his own
passion (or impulse)? Couldst thou be a disposer of
affairs for him?
- Or thinkest thou that most of them listen or
understand? They are only like cattle;- nay, they are
worse astray in Path.
- Hast thou not turned thy vision to thy Lord?- How
He doth prolong the shadow! If He willed, He could make
it stationary! then do We make the sun its guide;
- Then We draw it in towards Ourselves,- a
contraction by easy stages.
- And He it is Who makes the Night as a Robe for you,
and Sleep as Repose, and makes the Day (as it were) a
Resurrection.
- And He it is Who sends the winds as heralds of glad
tidings, going before His mercy, and We send down pure
water from the sky,-
- That with it We may give life to a dead land, and
slake the thirst of things We have created,- cattle and
men in great numbers.
- And We have distributed the (water) amongst them,
in order that they may celebrate (our) praises, but
most men are averse (to aught) but (rank) ingratitude.
- Had it been Our Will, We could have sent a warner
to every centre of population.
- Therefore listen not to the Unbelievers, but strive
against them with the utmost strenuousness, with the
(Qur'an).
- It is He Who has let free the two bodies of flowing
water: One palatable and sweet, and the other salt and
bitter; yet has He made a barrier between them, a
partition that is forbidden to be passed.
- It is He Who has created man from water: then has
He established relationships of lineage and marriage:
for thy Lord has power (over all things).
- Yet do they worship, besides God, things that can
neither profit them nor harm them: and the Misbeliever
is a helper (of Evil), against his own Lord!
- But thee We only sent to give glad tidings and
admonition.
- Say: "No reward do I ask of you for it but this:
that each one who will may take a (straight) Path to
his Lord."
- And put thy trust in Him Who lives and dies not;
and celebrate his praise; and enough is He to be
acquainted with the faults of His servants;-
- He Who created the heavens and the earth and all
that is between, in six days, and is firmly established
on the Throne (of Authority): God Most Gracious: ask
thou, then, about Him of any acquainted (with such
things).
- When it is said to them, "Adore ye (God) Most
Gracious!", they say, "And what is (God) Most Gracious?
Shall we adore that which thou commandest us?" And it
increases their flight (from the Truth).
- Blessed is He Who made constellations in the skies,
and placed therein a Lamp and a Moon giving light;
- And it is He Who made the Night and the Day to
follow each other: for such as have the will to
celebrate His praises or to show their gratitude.
- And the servants of (God) Most Gracious are those
who walk on the earth in humility, and when the
ignorant address them, they say, "Peace!";
- Those who spend the night in adoration of their
Lord prostrate and standing;
- Those who say, "Our Lord! avert from us the Wrath
of Hell, for its Wrath is indeed an affliction
grievous,-
- "Evil indeed is it as an abode, and as a place to
rest in";
- Those who, when they spend, are not extravagant and
not niggardly, but hold a just (balance) between those
(extremes);
- Those who invoke not, with God, any other god, nor
slay such life as God has made sacred except for just
cause, nor commit fornication; - and any that does this
(not only) meets punishment.
- (But) the Penalty on the Day of Judgment will be
doubled to him, and he will dwell therein in ignominy,-
- Unless he repents, believes, and works righteous
deeds, for God will change the evil of such persons
into good, and God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful,
- And whoever repents and does good has truly turned
to God with an (acceptable) conversion;-
- Those who witness no falsehood, and, if they pass
by futility, they pass by it with honourable
(avoidance);
- Those who, when they are admonished with the Signs
of their Lord, droop not down at them as if they were
deaf or blind;
- And those who pray, "Our Lord! Grant unto us wives
and offspring who will be the comfort of our eyes, and
give us (the grace) to lead the righteous."
- Those are the ones who will be rewarded with the
highest place in heaven, because of their patient
constancy: therein shall they be met with salutations
and peace,
- Dwelling therein;- how beautiful an abode and place
of rest!
- Say (to the Rejecters): "My Lord is not uneasy
because of you if ye call not on Him: But ye have
indeed rejected (Him), and soon will come the
inevitable (punishment)!"
Quran
Surah 24 Light
Surah 25 The Criterion
Surah 26 The Poets