AL FAJR (The Dawn)
In the Name of God,1 the Gracious, the Merciful 2
1 By the break of day;
2 By the nights twice five;
3 By the even and odd;
4 And by the night when it passes away;
5 Is there in these an admonition for those who understand?
6 Do you not see how your Lord dealt with the people of Aad,
7 Of Iram, with lofty pillars,
8 Which were like no others in the land?
9 And with the Thamud, who cut out rocks in the valley?
10 And with Firaun, lord of stakes?
11 These transgressed beyond bounds in the lands.
12 And heaped up mischief.
13 Therefore did your Lord pour on them a scourge of diverse chastisements:
14 For your Lord is ever watchful.
15 Now, as for man, when his Lord tries him, giving him honour and gifts, then he says, My Lord has honoured me,
16 But when he tries him, restricting his subsistence for him, then he says, My Lord has humiliated me!
17 No, no! But you honour not the orphans!
18 Nor do you encourage one another to feed the poor!
19 And you devour inheritance all with greed,
20 And you love wealth with inordinate love!
21 No! When the earth is pounded to powder,
22 And your Lord comes,3 and his angels, rank upon rank,
23 And hell, that day, is brought forward. On that day will man remember, but how will that remembrance profit him?
24 He will say: Ah! If only I had sent ahead for my life!
25 For, that day, his chastisement will be such as no one can inflict,
26 And his bonds will be such as no one can bind.
27 O soul, in rest and satisfaction,
28 Come back to your Lord,4 well pleased and well pleasing to him!
29 Enter then, among my devotees!
30 Yes, enter my heaven!
- God, in Arabic allah, referring to the one true God, as opposed to an idol or “god.” It is the Arabic equivalent of elohim and eloah (Hebrew), alaha (Syriac), and theos (Greek), all of which accurately translate into English as “God.” This translation choice is consistent with respected English Quran translations including those of A. Yusuf Ali (original edition), S.H. Nasr (Study Quran), T.B. Irving, and T. Itani (Clear Quran). ↩︎
- the Gracious, the Merciful, the highlighting of God’s grace and mercy predates the Quran, coming down from the many hundreds of references in the Taurat, Zabur, and Injil. A few samples follow:
Taurat, Exodus 34:6 — …YAHWEH, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Zabur 145:8 — YAHWEH is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness.
Taurat, Joel 2:13 — Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to YAHWEH your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Taurat, Yunus 4:2 — …I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.”
Injil, 1 Timothy 1:2 — …Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and AL-MASIH ‘ISA our Lord.
Injil, Hebrews 4:16 — Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need. ↩︎ - 89:22 your Lord comes, in the Hour of Qiyamah, the Lord himself will come with his angels. This verse is similar in content to the Holy Injil, Jude, 1:14-15 which says: About these also Idris, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying,
“Behold, the Lord comes with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” For more on the subject of Qiyamah, see the study course “Qiyamah: The Day That Death Will Die.” ↩︎ - 89:28 O soul, in rest and satisfaction, come back to your Lord, compare the Taurat, Shaya 30:15 which says: For thus said the Lord, YAHWEH, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling.
Also see the Injil, Matthew 11:28-30 which says: “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” ↩︎