(10:1) Alif. Lam. Ra. These are the verses of the Book overflowing with wisdom. (10:2) Does it seem strange to people that We should have revealed to a man from among themselves, directing him to warn the people (who lie engrossed in heedlessness); and to give good news to the believers that they shall enjoy true honour and an exalted status with their Lord? (Is this so strange that) the deniers of the truth should say: 'This man is indeed an evident sorcerer'? (10:3) Surely your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then established Himself on the Throne (of His Dominion), governing all affairs of the universe. None may intercede with Him except after obtaining His leave. Such is Allah, your Lord; do therefore serve Him. Will you not take heed? (10:4) To Him is your return. This is Allah's promise that will certainly come true. Surely it is He Who brings about the creation of all and He will repeat it so that He may justly reward those who believe and do righteous deeds; and that those who disbelieve may have a draught of boiling water and suffer a painful chastisement for their denying the truth. (10:5) He it is Who gave the sun radiance and the moon light, and determined the stages (for the waxing and waning of the moon) that you may learn the calculation of years and the reckoning of time. Allah has created all this with a rightful purpose (rather than out of play). He expounds His signs for the people who know. (10:6) Surely in the alternation of the night and the day and in all that Allah has created in the heavens and the earth there are signs for the people who seek to avoid (error of outlook and conduct). (10:7) Surely those who do not expect to meet Us, who are gratified with the life of the world and content with it, and are heedless of Our signs, (10:8) their abode shall be the Fire in return for their misdeeds, (10:9) Surely those who believe (in the truths revealed in the Book) and do righteous deeds their Lord will guide them aright because of their faith. Rivers shall flow beneath them in the Gardens of Bliss. (10:10) Their cry in it will be: 'Glory be to You, Our Lord!', and their greeting: 'Peace!'; and their cry will always end with: 'All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the universe. (10:11) Were Allah to hasten to bring upon men (the consequence of) evil in the way men hasten in seeking the wealth of this world, their term would have long since expired. (But that is not Our way.) So We leave alone those who do not expect to meet Us that they may blindly stumble in their transgression. (10:12) And (such is man that) when an affliction befalls him, he cries out to Us, reclining and sitting and standing. But no sooner than We have removed his affliction, he passes on as though he had never cried out to Us to remove his affliction. Thus it is that the misdeeds of the transgressors are made fair-seeming to them. (10:13) Surely We destroyed the nations (which had risen to heights of glory in their times) before you when they indulged in wrong-doing and refused to believe even when their Messengers brought clear signs to them. Thus do We recompense the people who are guilty. (10:14) Now We have appointed you as their successors in the earth to see how you act. (10:15) And whenever Our clear revelations are recited to them, those who do not expect to meet Us say: 'Bring us a Qur'an other than this one, or at least make changes in it. Tell them (O Muhammad): 'It is not for me to change it of my accord. I only follow what is revealed to me. Were I to disobey my Lord, I fear the chastisement of an Awesome Day. (10:16) Tell them: 'Had Allah so willed, I would not have recited the Qur'an to you, nor would Allah have informed you of it. I have spent a lifetime among you before this. Do you, then, not use your reason? (10:17) Who, then, is a greater wrong-doer than he who forges a lie against Allah or rejects His signs as false? Surely the guilty shall not prosper.....
