The overriding Reality
What is the overriding Reality?
What ascertained for you what is the overriding Reality?
The Thamūd and ʿĀd refused to believe in the unravelling
As for the Thamūd— they were destroyed by the overwhelming.
And as for the ʿĀd— they were destroyed by a furious howling gale,
Which HE deployed against them for seven nights and eight days in succession. [In its wake] you could see the people therein felled as if they were trunks of bared palms.
So then, do you see any vestige of them?
And Pharaoh had come, and those before him, and the overturned cities, [all] with the [unrepented] offenses.
They had disobeyed the messenger of their Rabb, and so HE seized them with a mounting seizure.
And indeed when the water exceeded its bounds, WE carried you in the sailing ship,
That WE may make it a reminder for you all, and an attentive ear would retain it.
For when [the souls] are blown into the forms— a single blowing
And the earth and the mountains carried off—both crushed in a single crush
Then, that day the Event will come to pass.
And the sky will split open— fragile it will be that day.
And angels extending over its many dimensions. And eight bear the Throne of your Rabb above them on that day.
On that day you will be presented for judgment. No secret of yours will hide.
As for him who is given his record to his right— he will say, “Here it is, you all! Read my record.
Surely, I had rightly assumed that I was destined to meet my reckoning.”
And so, in a satisfying existence is he,
in a lofty garden,
its clusters [offered] near at hand:
“Eat and drink pleasurably on account of what you had advanced in the days gone by.”
And as for him who is given his record to his left, he will say, “O how I wish I were not given my record
and I had not ascertained what [here] is my reckoning.
Ah, if only, it had been the conclusive end,
Not has my worldly wealth availed me
my authority has perished from me.”
“Seize him, and bind him,
then Jaḥīm. Burn him.
Further to that, in a chain whereof the length is seventy cubits, peg him.
It was he! Not did he believe in Allah, the Transcendent.
Nor did he encourage the feeding of the poor—
So, not a pal for him this day, especially here
Nor food, except of purged discards—
None eats it except the [unforgiven] offenders.
So, nay! [False is your notion of no accountability]. I swear by what you see
and by what you do not see
Indeed it assuredly is the [faithfully delivered] word of a noble messenger
And not is it anywise a word of a poet. Scant is what you do believe.
Nor anywise a saying of a soothsayer. Scant is what you do reflect.
[It is] a sending down from the Rabb of all Realms.
And if he had spoken false, attributing some of the sayings to US,
WE would have categorically taken away, every wise the right from him
Further to that, cut off the life-vein from him—
Not one of you could be a blocking shield for him.
Hearken, this is indeed a reminder for the God-conscious
Indeed, WE fully know that amongst you are truth-beliers.
Surely, a certain regret hangs over the disbelievers
Indeed, it is the truth of the certain.
So, contemplate the almightiness of God, by the name of your Rabb, the Transcendent ONE.