HE FROWNED and turned away

because the blind man approached him!

Yet for all thou didst know, [O Muhammad,] he might perhaps have grown in purity,

or have been reminded [of the truth], and helped by this reminder.

Now as for him who believes himself to be self-sufficient

to him didst thou give thy whole attention,

although thou art not accountable for his failure to attain to purity;

but as for him who came unto thee full of eagerness

and in awe [of God]

him didst thou disregard!

NAY, VERILY, these [messages] are but a reminder:

and so, whoever is willing may remember Him

in [the light of His] revelations blest with dignity,

lofty and pure,

[borne] by the hands of messengers

noble and most virtuous.

[But only too often] man destroys himself: how stubbornly does he deny the truth!

[Does man ever consider] out of what substance [God] creates him?

Out of a drop of sperm He creates him, and thereupon determines his nature,

and then makes it easy for him to go through life;

and in the end He causes him to die and brings him to the grave;

and then, if it be His will, He shall raise him again to life,

Nay, but [man] has never yet fulfilled what He has enjoined upon him!

Let man, then, consider [the sources of] his food:

[how it is] that We pour down water, pouring it down abundantly;

and then We cleave the earth [with new growth], cleaving it asunder,

and thereupon We cause grain to grow out of it,

and vines and edible plants,

and olive trees and date-palms,

and gardens dense with foliage,

and fruits and herbage,

for you and for your animals to enjoy.

AND SO, when the piercing call [of resurrection] is heard

on a Day when everyone will [want to] flee from his brother,

and from his mother and father,

and from his spouse and his children:

on that Day, to every one of them will his own state be of sufficient concern.

Some faces will on that Day be bright with happiness,

laughing, rejoicing at glad tidings.

And some faces will on that Day with dust be covered,

with darkness overspread:

these, these will be the ones who denied the truth and were immersed in iniquity!