75

1 I CALL TO WITNESS the Day of Resurrection,
2 And I call the reprehensive soul to witness:
3 Does man think We shall not put his bones together?
4 Surely We are able to reform even his finger-tips.
5 Yet man is sceptical of what is right before him.
6 He asks: "When will the Day of Resurrection be?"
7 Yet when the eyes are dazzled,
8 The moon eclipsed,
9 And the sun and moon are conjoined,
10 That day man will say: "Where can I find escape?"
11 Never so, for there will be no escape.
12 With your Lord alone will be the retreat on that day.
13 Then man will be told what he had sent ahead (of good) and what he had left behind.
14 In fact man is a witness against himself,
15 Whatever the excuses he may offer.
16 Do not forestall (the revelation before its completion) by acting in haste.
17 Surely its collection and recitation are Our responsibility.
18 So, as We recite it, follow its reading.
19 The exposition of its meaning surely rests on Us.
20 But no. You love this transient life,
21 And neglect the Hereafter.
22 How many faces will be refulgent on that Day,
23 Waiting for their Lord.
24 And how many faces on that Day will be woe-begone
25 Fearing that a great disaster is going to befall them.
26 Never so, for when life withdraws into the clavicula,
27 And it is asked: "Is there any reciter of charms and amulets?"
28 He will then realise it is the parting,
29 And anguish will be heaped upon anguish:
30 To your Lord then will be the driving.
31 For he neither believed nor prayed,
32 But only disavowed and turned away;
33 Then he strutted back to his people.
34 Alas the woe for you, alas!
35 Alas, the woe for you!
36 Does man think that he will be left alone to himself, free?
37 Was he not an emitted drop of semen,
38 Then formed into an embryo? Then He fashioned, shaped and proportioned
39 And assigned it sexes, male and female.
40 Cannot such as He bring the dead to life?