| | Ali Ünal rendition of Surah The Thunder(ar-Ra`d)
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| 13:1 | | Alif. Lam. Mim. Ra. These are the Revelations of the Book; and what has been sent down on you from your Lord is the truth – yet most people do not believe |
| 13:2 | | God it is Who has raised the heavens without pillars you can see, then He established Himself on the Supreme Throne; and He made the sun and the moon subservient to His command, each running its course for a term appointed by Him. He directs all affairs (as the sole Ruler of creation); He sets out in detail the signs and proofs of the truth and the relevant Revelations included in the Book, that you may have certainty in the meeting with your Lord (on Judgment Day) |
| 13:3 | | And it is He Who has spread the earth wide and set therein firm mountains and rivers, and of fruit of every kind He has made mated pairs. He covers the day with the night. Surely in that are signs (manifesting the truth) for people who reflect |
| 13:4 | | And on the earth are tracts close by one another (and yet different from one another), and gardens of vines, and cultivated fields, and date-palms growing in clusters from one root but standing alone, (all) watered with the same water; and yet as sustenance We have made some preferable to others (in certain respects). Surely in that are signs of truth for a people who use their reason |
| 13:5 | | If there is something for you to find strange, how strange their saying is: "What! After we have become dust, will we indeed be (raised up again) in a new creation?" Those are they who disbelieve in their Lord, and around whose necks are fetters (by which they are being dragged into the Fire). They are the companions of the Fire; they will abide therein |
| 13:6 | | They challenge you to hasten the coming upon them of the evil instead of the good, although there have indeed come to pass before them many exemplary punishments. Your Lord is indeed rich in forgiveness for humankind despite their wrongdoing, and your Lord is indeed severe in retribution |
| 13:7 | | Those who disbelieve say: "Why is not a miraculous sign (of the kind we desire) sent down on him from his Lord?" You are (O Messenger) but a warner, and for each people there is a guide (appointed by God) |
| 13:8 | | God knows what any female bears (in her womb with all its traits from her conception of it until delivery), and what the wombs diminish and what they increase, (and by how much they may fall short in gestation, and by how much they may increase the average period), and everything with Him is by a determined measure |
| 13:9 | | The Knower of the Unseen and the witnessed (all that lies in the hidden and visible realms and beyond and within the reach of any created being’s perception), the All-Great, the All-Transcending |
| 13:10 | | (To Him) the one who holds his opinion in secret and the one who declares it are the same, and the one who hides himself (and his plans) under cover of night and the one who sallies out in the daylight |
| 13:11 | | (Every person advances through varying states before and after, and) by God’s command attendant angels succeeding one another accompany him before and after him to guard him (and record his deeds). God does not change the condition of a people unless they change what is in themselves. When God wills evil for a people (in consequence of their own evil deeds), it cannot be averted, and apart from Him, they have no protector |
| 13:12 | | He it is Who displays before you the lightning, giving rise to both fear (of being struck) and hopeful expectation (of rain), and builds the clouds heavy (with rain) |
| 13:13 | | The thunder glorifies Him with His praise (that He is absolutely above having any partners, and that all praise belongs to Him exclusively) and so do the angels, in awe of Him. And He lets loose the thunderbolts and strikes with them whom He wills. Yet they stubbornly argue about God, (notwithstanding all evidence that) He is severe in repelling and retribution |
| 13:14 | | To Him alone is made the call of truth and the prayer of truth addressed. Those to whom they invoke and call others (to invoke), apart from Him, cannot answer them in any way – (so that he who invokes them is but) like one who stretches out his hands to water (praying) that it may come to his mouth, but it never comes to it. The prayer of the unbelievers is but destined to go to waste |
| 13:15 | | To God prostrate all that are in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows in the mornings and the evenings |
| 13:16 | | Say: "Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth?" Say: "God." Say (also): "Do you then take for guardians, apart from Him, , such as have no power to bring benefit to, or avert harm from, even themselves?" Say: "Are the blind and the seeing equal or are the depths of darkness and the light equal?" Or have they assigned to God partners who create the like of His creation so that the creation (that they make and God’s creation) seem alike to them (so that they cannot distinguish the true Creator?)" Say: "God is the Creator of all things, and He is the One, the All-Overwhelming." |
| 13:17 | | He sends down water from the sky and the valleys flow (in abundance) each according to its measure, and the flood carries a swelling foam (on its surface). And out of what they smelt in the fire in order to make ornaments or utensils, there rises a scum like it. Thus does God strike a parable to illustrate truth and falsehood. For, as for the scum, it vanishes as does all dross, but that which is of use to people abides on earth. In this way does God strike parables |
| 13:18 | | For those who respond to (the call of) their Lord there is the fairest reward; and those who do not respond to Him – even if they possessed all that is on earth and its like besides, they would offer it as ransom (to be spared the punishment). Such are those whose is the most evil reckoning, and their final refuge is Hell: how evil a resting-place |
| 13:19 | | Is the one who knows that what is sent down to you from your Lord is the truth – is that one like him who is blind? Surely only people of discernment reflect and be mindful |
| 13:20 | | Those who fulfill God’s covenant (responsible for the order in the universe, and able to establish the peace, order and harmony in human life) and do not break the pledge (that they shall worship none save God, and fulfill all the moral, spiritual, and social obligations resulting from believing in and worshipping only One God) |
| 13:21 | | And those who unite the bonds God has commanded to be joined (among kin as a requirement of blood relationship, and among people as required by human social interdependence), and stand in awe of their Lord, and fearful of (facing) the most evil reckoning |
| 13:22 | | And those who endure patiently (all adversities they face in God’s cause) in pursuit of where God’s good, eternal pleasure lies, and they establish the Prayer in conformity with its conditions, and spend of whatever We provide for them secretly and openly, and repel the evil with good. Such are those for whom there is the ultimate (everlasting) abode |
| 13:23 | | Gardens of perpetual bliss which they will enter, along with all who are righteous from among their ancestors, their spouses, and their descendants; and the angels will come to them from every gate, (saying) |
| 13:24 | | "Peace be upon you, for that you endured patiently. How excellent is the ultimate (everlasting) abode!" |
| 13:25 | | But those who break God’s covenant after its solemn binding, and sever the bonds God commanded to be joined, and cause disorder and corruption on the earth – such are those for whom there is curse (exclusion from God’s mercy), and for them there is the most evil abode |
| 13:26 | | God enlarges provision for whom He wills, and straitens it (for whom He wills). They (the unbelievers who have been given abundant provision and indulged in the present, worldly life oblivious of God and the Hereafter) rejoice in the present, worldly life, whereas the present, worldly life is but a fleeting enjoyment as compared with the Hereafter |
| 13:27 | | Those who disbelieve say: "Why isn’t a miraculous sign (of the kind we desire) sent down on him from his Lord?" Say (to them, O Messenger): "Surely God leads astray whomever He wills, and guides to Himself all who turn (to Him whole-heartedly) |
| 13:28 | | Those who have believed (and become established in belief), and whose hearts find rest and contentment in remembrance of and whole-hearted devotion to God. Be aware that it is in the remembrance and of and whole-hearted devotion to God that hearts find rest and contentment |
| 13:29 | | Those (whose hearts have attained to rest and contentment) who have believed and who do good, righteous deeds – for them is the greatest happiness and the most beautiful of destinations |
| 13:30 | | For that end We have raised you as Messenger among a community before whom other (similar) communities have come and gone, that you may recite and convey to them what We reveal to you, whereas (in their ignorance) they disbelieve in the All-Merciful. Say: "He is my Lord. There is no deity save Him. In Him I have put my trust, and to Him is my recourse." |
| 13:31 | | If at all through a discourse (qur’an) mountains were moved, or the earth were torn apart, or the dead were made to speak, (all would be only through this Qur’an so that the unbelievers would be compelled, having no choice but, to believe). No, but to God belongs the whole command (to decide what shall be and how it shall be). Do not yet those who believe accept that, if God had so willed, He would indeed have guided all humankind (to faith)? Those who disbelieve will not cease to be struck by severe blows for what they have been contriving, or these will alight close to their homes (to afflict them), until God’s promise (of the final victory of Islam or Judgment Day) is fulfilled. Surely God does not fail to keep the promise |
| 13:32 | | Messengers were certainly mocked before you. Yet (despite all that they did), I gave respite to those who disbelieved, but then I seized them (with terrible destructions). Then, (see) how was My retribution |
| 13:33 | | Is He Who watches over every soul and whatever it earns (to be denied or disobeyed)? Yet they associate partners with God. Say: "Name them (if anything can be a deity merely by calling it so)! Do you (presume to) inform Him of something (existent) on earth that He does not know? Or are you just uttering mere words (with neither meaning nor reference to anything existent and real)? No, but their own fictions are decked out to be appealing to those who disbelieve, and they are kept away from the right way. Whoever God leads astray, for him there is no guide |
| 13:34 | | For them is punishment in the life of this world, but the punishment of the Hereafter is yet more grievous, and they have none to guard them against God |
| 13:35 | | The Paradise promised to the God-revering, pious ones can be likened to a garden through which rivers flow. Its produce is everlasting, and so its shade. That is the ultimate outcome for those who keep from disobedience to God in reverence for Him and piety, just as the ultimate outcome for the unbelievers is the Fire |
| 13:36 | | Those to whom We granted the Book before rejoice in what is sent down to you. (Some do so because they believe that it is the expected final Revelation, and some because it contains passages confirming their Books and Prophets.) Yet among those parties (responding to the Book), some deny some of it (because it discloses their interpolations in their Books and does not serve their interests). Say (O Messenger): "I have only been commanded to worship God and not to associate any partners with Him. To Him I call (all people), and to Him is my destined return." |
| 13:37 | | And so (as a Book, whose message is founded on belief in and worship of One God, and which should therefore be accepted by all who were given the Book before) We send down (this Qur’an) as a final judgment in the Arabic tongue. And, indeed, if you were to follow their desires and caprices after what has come to you of the Knowledge, you would have none to defend and protect you against God |
| 13:38 | | Most certainly We sent Messengers before you, and (like every other man) appointed wives and children for them. It was not (the way) for a Messenger to work a miracle (as a sign of his being a Messenger) except by God’s leave. Every appointed term has its own Revelation and law |
| 13:39 | | God effaces what He wills (of things and events He has created, and laws He has established), and He confirms and establishes (what He wills): with Him is the Mother of the Book |
| 13:40 | | Whether We let you (O Messenger) witness the fulfillment of some of what We have promised them, or whether We cause you to die (before it happens), still yours (by way of duty and command from Us) is only to convey the Message, and Ours is the reckoning |
| 13:41 | | Do they not see how We deal with the earth, reducing it of its outlying parts? God judges, and (when He has judged) there is none to revise His judgment. And He is swift at reckoning |
| 13:42 | | Those who were before them plotted (just as their descendants now do), but all schemes are owned by God (Who brings them to nothing and enforces His own "scheme"). He knows what every soul earns (by its intentions and deeds). So the unbelievers will know whose is the ultimate, everlasting abode |
| 13:43 | | Those who disbelieve say: "You are not a Messenger sent by God." Say (to them): "God suffices for a witness between me and you, and (as witnesses) those who have true knowledge of the Book." |
