The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

228 The Quran
We have prepared a blazing fire for those who reject the Hour.
12 When it sees them from a distance, they will hear it raging and
roaring, 13 and when they are hurled into a narrow part of it, chained
together, they will cry out for death. 14 ‘Do not cry out this day for
one death, but for many.’ 15 Say, ‘Which is better, this or the lasting
Garden that those who are mindful of God have been promised as
their reward and journey’s end?’ 16 There they will find everything
they wish for, and there they will stay. [Prophet], this is a binding
promise from your Lord. 17 On the Day He gathers them all together
with those they worship beside Him, He will say, ‘Was it you [false
gods] who led these creatures of Mine astray, or did they stray from
the path by themselves?’ 18 They will say, ‘May You be exalted! We
ourselves would never take masters other than You! But You granted
them and their forefathers pleasures in this life, until they forgot
Your Reminder and were ruined.’ 19 [God will say], ‘Now your gods
have denounced what you say as lies: you cannot avoid the punishment;
you will not get any help.’ If any of you commits such evil, We
shall make him taste agonizing torment.
20 No messenger have We sent before you [Muhammad] who did
not eat food and walk about in the marketplace. But We have made
some of you a means of testing others – will you stand fast? Your
Lord is always watching. 21 Those who do not fear to meet Us say,
‘Why are the angels not sent down to us?’ or ‘Why can we not see our
Lord?’ They are too proud of themselves and too insolent. 22 There
will be no good news for the guilty on the Day they see the angels.
The angels will say, ‘You cannot cross the forbidden barrier,’ a 23 and
We shall turn to the deeds they have done and scatter them like dust.
24 But the companions in the Garden will have a better home on that
Day, and a fairer place to rest. 25 On the Day when the sky and its
clouds are split apart and the angels sent down in streams, 26 on that
Day, true authority belongs to the Lord of Mercy. It will be a grievous
Day for the disbelievers. 27 On that Day the evildoer will bite his
own hand and say, ‘If only I had taken the same path as the Messenger.
28 Woe is me! If only I had not taken so and so as a friend – 29 he
led me away from the Revelation after it reached me. Satan has
always betrayed mankind.’
30 The Messenger has said, ‘Lord, my people treat this Quran
a Cf. 23: 100.
25: 12