By the star when it descends!

Your companion has not strayed, nor has he erred,

Nor speaks he from vain desire.

It is only a revelation revealed,

Taught him by one strong in power,

Possessed of firmness; and he stood,

And he was in the highest horizon;

Then he drew nearer, and descended,

And was at a distance of two bows’ length or nearer,

Then He revealed to His servant what He revealed.

The heart lied not about what it saw.

Will you then dispute with him about what he saw?

And he saw him in another descent,

By the Lote Tree of the Finality

(Near it is the Garden of Shelter)

When there covered the Lote Tree that which covered;

The vision did not deviate, nor did it transgress.

Indeed, he saw of the greatest proofs of his Lord.

Have you considered Al-Lāt and Al-ʿUzzā,

And Manāt the third, the other?

Have you the males, and He the females?

That then is an unjust division.

They are only names you have named, you and your fathers, for which God sent down no authority. They follow only assumption, and what their souls desire; but there has come to them guidance from their Lord.

If man is to have what he desires:

Then to God belong the Latter and the Former.

And how many an angel is there in the heavens! Their intercession avails nothing save after that God gives leave to whom He wills and is pleased.

Those who believe not in the Hereafter name the angels with the names of females.

But they have no knowledge thereof, they follow only assumption; and assumption avails nothing against the truth.

So turn thou away from him who turns away from Our remembrance and desires only the life of this world.

That is their attainment of knowledge. Thy Lord: He best knows him who strays from His path; and He best knows him who is guided.

And to God belongs what is in the heavens and what is in the earth, that He might reward those who do evil with what they have done, and reward those who do good with the best —

Those who avoid the enormities of sin and sexual immoralities save slight mistakes — thy Lord is vast in forgiveness. He best knew you when He produced you from the earth, and when you were foetuses in the wombs of your mothers; then hold not yourselves to be pure; He best knows those of prudent fear.

Hast thou then considered him who turned away

And gave a little, and then withheld?

Does he possess knowledge of the Unseen, so he sees?

If he has not been informed of what is in the scriptures of Moses,

And of Abraham who discharged in full:

That no bearer of burdens bears the burden of another,

And that man has not save that for which he strove,

And that his striving will be seen

— Then will he be rewarded with the fullest reward —

And that to thy Lord is the Finality,

And that it is He who makes laugh, and makes weep,

And that it is He who gives death, and gives life,

And that He created the two kinds — the male and the female —

From a sperm-drop when it was emitted,

And that upon Him is the next creation,

And that it is He who makes free from need and causes to possess,

And that it is He who is the Lord of Sirius,

And that He destroyed the former ʿĀd,

And Thamūd He spared not,

And the people of Noah before — they were worse in wrongdoing, and worse in transgression —

And the overthrown cities He cast down,

And covered them with what He covered.

Then which of the blessings of thy Lord dost thou dispute?

This is a warner like the former warners.

The Drawing Near has drawn near.

There is none, besides God, to remove it.

Do you then marvel at this narrative,

And laugh, and not weep,

While you are puffed up in heedlessness?

But submit to God, and serve.