The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

68: 50
The Pen 385
stripped bare, a desolate land. 21 Still they called each other at daybreak,
22 ‘Go early to your field if you wish to gather all its fruits,’
23 and went off, whispering, 24 ‘Make sure no poor person enters the
garden today!’––25 they left early, bent on their purpose – 26 but when
they saw the garden, they said, ‘We must have lost our way! 27 No –
we are ruined!’ 28 The wisest of them said, ‘Did I not say to you,
“Will you not glorify God?”’– 29 they said, ‘Glory be to God, Our
Lord! Truly, we were doing wrong!’– 30 and then they turned to each
other in mutual reproach. 31 They said, ‘Alas for us! We have done
terrible wrong, 32 but maybe our Lord will give us something better
in its place: we truly turn to Him in hope.’ 33 Such is the punishment
[in this life], but greater still is the punishment in the Hereafter, if
only they knew.
34 There will be Gardens of bliss for those who are mindful of
God. 35 Should We treat those who submit to Us as We treat those
who do evil? 36 What is the matter with you? On what basis do you
judge? 37 Do you have a Scripture that tells you 38 that you will be
granted whatever you choose? 39 Have you received from Us solemn
oaths, binding to the Day of Resurrection, that you will get whatever
you yourselves decide? 40 Ask them [Prophet] which of them will
guarantee this. 41 Do they have ‘partners’ [besides God]? Let them
produce their ‘partners’, if what they say is true. 42 On the Day when
matters become dire, a they will be invited to prostrate themselves
but will be prevented b from doing so, 43 and their eyes will be downcast
and they will be overwhelmed with shame: they were invited to
prostrate themselves when they were safe [but refused].
44 So [Prophet] leave those who reject this revelation to Me: We
shall lead them on, step by step, in ways beyond their knowledge; 45 I
will allow them more time, for My plan is powerful. 46 Do you
demand some reward from them that would burden them with debt?
47 Do they have knowledge of the unseen that enables them to write it
down? 48 Wait patiently [Prophet] for your Lord’s judgement: do not
be like the man in the whale who called out in distress: 49 if his Lord’s
grace had not reached him, he would have been left, abandoned and
blameworthy, on the barren shore, 50 but his Lord chose him and
a This is the meaning of the Arabic expression ‘when shins are bared’.
b Baydawi suggests that this is because the time for obedience is over, or because they
are somehow unable to do so (Tafsir).