Surah Fatir
Contents
All praise is due God, creator of the heavens and the earth, who made the angels messengers with wings, double, triple, and quadruple. Adding to creation at will, God has power over all things. [35:1]
Whatever God grants people out of mercy, none can withhold; and whatever God withholds, no one else can deliver, for God is the almighty, the epitome of wisdom. [35:2]
O humanity, remember God’s blessings on you. Is there a creator other than God who provides for you from the sky or the earth? There is no other deity; so how is it you’re deceived? [35:3]
Even if they call you a liar, so have messengers been called liars before you; but all affairs are referred to God. [35:4]
O humanity, the promise of God is true, so don’t let the life of the world deceive you, and don’t let illusion deceive you about God. [35:5]
For Satan is an enemy to you, so regard him as an enemy, who only calls to his partisans, to become inmates of the inferno. [35:6]
For those who scoffed there is intense agony, while for those who believed and did good works there is forgiveness and tremendous reward. [35:7]
But is it so for the one whose evil conduct is made to seem good to him? God leaves astray anyone at will, and guides anyone at ill; so don’t let your soul go sighing over them— for God knows whatever they do. [35:8]
God is the one who sends the winds that raise the clouds: then We drive them to a land that is dead, and revive the earth thereby after its death. That is how the resurrection will be. [35:9]
If anyone wants power, well, all power belongs to God, to whom ascends the good word, and who exalts the act of integrity. As for those who connive evil, there is a severe punishment for them, and their conniving is in vain. [35:10]
God made you from dust, then from a drop, then made you in pairs. No female conceives or delivers except with God’s knowledge. And no one whose life is prolonged is granted long life, or has his life shortened but is in a Writ; and that is easy for God. [35:11]
Even the two bodies of water are not the same: one is fresh, sweet, and palatable, while the other is salty and bitter. Yet you eat fresh flesh from both, and you extract ornaments that you wear; and you see the ships thereon ploughing the waves so you may seek of God’s bounty, and so that you may be grateful. [35:12]
God makes the night enter the day, and makes the day enter the night; and has subjected the sun and the moon, each running for a definite term. That is God for you, your Lord, to whom the dominion belongs; and those others to whom you pray instead haven’t the slightest power. [35:13]
When you pray to them, they don’t hear your prayer, and even if they heard, they would not answer you. And on the day of resurrection they will refuse your idolization. And no one can tell you like one who is well informed. [35:14]
O humanity, you are in need of God, but God is independent of needs, worthy of all praise. [35:15]
If God willed, God would get rid of you and produce a new creation; [35:16]
and that would not be hard for God. [35:17]
No one can bear the burden of another; even if one weighed down calls for help with his burden, nothing will be lifted from him, even be he a close relative. You can only warn those who inwardly fear their Lord and regularly pray. Yet whoever purifies himself purifies himself for his own soul alone; and the destination is to God. [35:18]
The blind and the seeing are not equal, [35:19]
nor are the darknesses and the light, [35:20]
nor are the cool and the heat. [35:21]
And the living and the dead are not the same: God may cause anyone to hear, at will, but you cannot cause those in the tombs to hear. [35:22]
You are only a warner; [35:23]
for We sent you with truth, as a herald and a warner. And there was never a people among whom a warner never passed. [35:24]
So even if they call you a liar, those who were before them also repudiated the messengers who came to them with proofs, with the Psalms, and with the enlightening scripture; [35:25]
then I took the scoffers to task, and how intense was My disapproval! [35:26]
Haven’t you seen that God sends rain from the sky? We then produce thereby fruits of various colors. And in the mountains are streaks of white and red, varying in their hue, and deepest black. [35:27]
And so among humans, and creatures that crawl, and animals— they differ in their colors, in the same way. The ones among God’s servants who are in awe of God are the knowledgeable; for God is almighty, forgiving. [35:28]
As for those who recite the Book of God and celebrate prayer and give of what We have provided them, secretly and openly, they intend an exchange that will not be fruitless, [35:29]
as God will pay them their due and more, from the bounty divine, for God is most forgiving, most appreciative. [35:30]
And what We have revealed to you by inspiration from the Book is the truth, verifying what preceded it; for God knows and sees everyone. [35:31]
We bequeathed scripture to those of Our servants We chose; but some of them oppress their own souls, while some of them are moderate, and some of them are in the forefront in good deeds, by God’s leave; that is the great blessing. [35:32]
There are gardens of eternity they will enter, wearing there bracelets of gold and pearls, their clothes therein of silk: [35:33]
And they will say, “Praise God, who has caused sorrow to leave us; for our Lord is indeed most forgiving, most appreciative, [35:34]
“the One who has permitted us the abode of the resurrection, out of divine grace, where hardship will not touch us and weariness will not afflict us.” [35:35]
As for those who scoffed, they will have the fire of hell, without it ever being decreed that they should pass away, and without its agony ever being lightened for them. Thus do We repay every ingrate. [35:36]
And they will beg for help in there: “Our Lord, release us, and we will do right, not what we used to do.” But didn’t We grant you long enough life for those who were receptive to take a lesson, especially since a warner came to you? So suffer, for there is no savior for those who do wrong. [35:37]
God is the one who knows the secret of the heavens and the earth, thoroughly knowing what is in hearts. [35:38]
God is the one who made you deputies on earth; so whoever scoffs is responsible for his own ingratitude; and the ingratitude of the scoffers only makes them more odious to their Lord; and the ingratitude of the scoffers only increases their loss. [35:39]
Say, “Have you seen your idols, to which you pray instead of God? Show me what they have created on earth; or do they have partnership in the heavens?” Or have We given them a scripture, and they are based on evidence from that? No— the mistaken only promise each other illusion. [35:40]
God holds up the skies and the earth lest they fail; and if they should fail, no one else will hold them up: God is indeed most clement, most forgiving. [35:41]
Though they swore by God their most binding oaths that if a warner came to them they would be better guided than any of the peoples, yet when a warner came to them, that only increased their irresponsibility, [35:42]
in terms of arrogance on earth and conniving of evil. But the conniving of evil will encompass no one but its own partisans. Do they regard anything but the way of the ancients? But you will find no changing of the way of God, and you will find no diverting of the way of God. [35:43]
Haven’t they traveled on earth and seen how those before them ended up, even though they had been more powerful than they are? God is not to be thwarted by anything in the heavens or on earth, for God is omniscient, all-powerful. [35:44]
If God punished people as they deserved, that would not leave a single living creature in its wake; however, God lets them stay for a certain term, Then when their term is up, it turns out God has been watching all creatures. [35:45]