53al-NajmThe Starسُورَةُ النجم

By the star as it collapses!

This fellow-man of yours [Muhammad] has not gone astray, nor has he lost his sanity,

And neither does he speak out of selfishness:

[What he speaks to you about] is nothing but a publicized [divine] revelation,

Imparted to him by one who is of intense force —

[An angel] endowed with acuity-cum-steadiness [between the dimension of angels and the dimension of humans],

Appearing in the uppermost horizon,

And then he loomed close, then descended yet closer,

Until he was within reach, or even nearer.

And thereof did He reveal to His subject [Muhammad] what He deemed to be revealed.

The [Prophet’s] heart of hearts did not perceive untruths about what it saw:

Are you [the mushriks], then, contesting him over what he saw?

For, indeed, he [Muhammad] saw him [Jibrīl] at another placement —

At the meeting place of cessation [where all human, jinn, and angelic knowledge ends],

Which is contiguous with the paradise garden of residence,

With the meeting place [beyond which time and place have no meaning] being overlapped by whatever [of the unknown] overlaps it [human language falls short of describing it].

[And withal], the vision [of the Prophet] did not falter nor was it exceedingly beguiled:

Truly he [Muhammad] saw the most profound of His Sustainer’s power demonstrations.

Have you [mushriks] ever wondered [about what you are worshiping]: [the idols] al-Lāt and al-‘Uzzā,

As well as [the idol] Manāh, the third and the last [of this trio]?

[You mean to tell me that] you honor [yourselves] with male offspring, the while He is dishonored with female offspring:

That, [to say the least], is a [gender] prejudiced allocation [of offspring]!

These [allegedly divine beings] are nothing but contrived names coined by you and your forefathers — for which Allah has given no sanction from on high. They [the mushriks] follow nothing but supposition and whatever their egos desire — even though guidance has certainly come to them from their Sustainer.

Or, [such as it is], do social beings think they can have whatever they fancy,

Despite the fact that to Allah belongs the final life and the initial life?

For, regardless of how many a malak there may be in the heavens, their mediation is of no value for anything except after Allah permits and [when He] is pleased [with their mediation for them].

Verily, those who do not affirm the final life [after death] are the ones who give the malā’ikah female designation;

And [since] they have no knowledge [of what they are saying], they follow nothing but assumption — and, surely, assumptions do not substitute for truth and justice.

Therefore, shun and have nothing to do with he who turns his back on a consciousness of Us and does not want anything except [the indulgence of] this immediate world,

Which is all that they know. Surely, your Sustainer knows better [than anyone] those who lose their way [in life] and He knows better [than anyone] those who found their way in life [unto Him].

And to Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth: accordingly, He will match the negative efforts of the wrongdoers as payback and He will perfectly match the positive efforts of those who seek perfection in doing what is right [and in harmony with Allah’s Prophet and Book] —

Those who shun grave sins and dishonorable deeds, only [falling into] petty breaches; behold, your Sustainer is abounding in forgiveness. He knows you best: after all, He [it is who] originated you out of the earth, and [knew about you when you were] invisible in your mothers’ wombs. Therefore, do not, then, sing your own praises — [for] He knows better than anyone the person who averts [the inevitable consequences of Allah’s power that is intended for justice].

Have you [O Muhammad] ever paid close attention to he who forsakes [Us],

And gives so little [for the benefit of his soul] and never wants to give more?

Does he have knowledge of [the creation] beyond his senses and thus is able to see [and sense the issue of life and death in its entirety]?

Or has he never been told of [the contents of] the scrolls of Mūsā,

And of Ibrāhīm, who to his trust was true:

That no bearer of burdens shall be tasked with the burdens of another [person];

And that social beings shall not be responsible except for their own effort,

And then that effort shall be inspected [on the Day of Accountability],

Whereupon he will be requited for it in full [without deletions];

And that unto your Sustainer are your closing moments;

And that, indeed, it is He who causes you to laugh and to cry;

And that it is He who instigates death and (re)initiates life;

And that it is He who created the two counterparts — the male and the female —

Out of a sperm when passionately ejected,

And from there [onward], it falls upon Him to bring about the additional genesis;

And that, certainly, it is He who gives [people] enough and gives [them] to retain;

And that it is He — He it is who sustains the brightest star;

And that it is He who destroyed the ancient [civilization of] ‘Ād,

And [the civilization of] Thamūd, leaving no trace of them,

As well as the society of Nūḥ in times past — they, indeed, were more prone to injustice and more excessive in their capacity [to oppress] —

And civilizations built on lies were brought down,

And were covered up with whatever it took [of undefined God-ordained natural upheavals] to smother them?

About which, then, of your Sustainer’s bounties are you quarreling about?

This is a warning on par with the orginal warnings that went out [from Allah to historical nations]:

The impending Hour is ever nearer,

Although none but Allah can disclose it.

Are you [mushriks] taken aback by this discussion?

And do you laugh instead of lamenting,

And sidetrack yourselves all along?

[Therefore, it behooves you to humble yourselves and] prostrate to Allah and be consistent [with Him].1