A. J. Arberry - Sura 13: Thunder lyrics

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compa**ionate 13:1 Alif Lam Mim Ra Those are the signs of the Book; and that which has been sent down to thee from thy Lord is the truth, but most men do not believe. God is He who raised up the heavens without pillars you can see, then He sat Himself upon the Throne. He subjected the sun and the moon, each one running to a term stated. He directs the affair; He distinguishes the signs; haply you will have faith in the encounter with your Lord. It is He who stretched out the earth and set therein firm mountains and rivers, and of every fruit He placed there two kinds, covering the day with the night. Surely in that are signs for a people who reflect. And on the earth are tracts neighbouring each to each, and gardens of vines, and fields sown, and palms in pairs, and palms single, watered with one water; and some of them We prefer in produce above others. Surely in that are signs for a people who understand. 13:5 If thou wouldst wonder, surely wonderful is their saying, 'What, when we are dust shall we indeed then be raised up again in new creation?' Those are they that disbelieve in their Lord; those -- on their necks are fetters; those shall be the inhabitants of the Fire, therein dwelling forever. They would have thee hasten the evil ere the good; yet there have pa**ed away before them examples. Thy Lord is forgiving to men, for all their evil-doing, and thy Lord is terrible in retribution. The unbelievers say, 'Why has a sign not been sent down upon him from his Lord?' Thou art only a warner, and a guide to every people. God knows what every female bears, and the wombs' shrinking and swelling; everything with Him has its measure -- 13:10 the Knower of the unseen and the visible, the All-great, the All-exalted: Alike of you is he who conceals his saying, and he who proclaims it, he who hides himself in the night, and he who sallies by day; he has attendant angels, before him and behind him, watching over him by God's command. God changes not what is in a people, until they change what is in themselves. Whensover God desires evil for a people, there is no turning it back; apart from Him, they have no protector. It is He who shows you the lightning, for fear and hope, and produces the heavy clouds; the thunder proclaims His praise, and the angels, in awe of Him. He looses the thunderbolts, and smites with them whomsoever He will; yet they dispute about God, who is mighty in power. To Him is the call of truth; and those upon whom they call, apart from Him, answer them nothing, but it is as a man who stretches out his hands to water that it may reach his mouth, and it reaches it not. The prayer of the unbelievers goes only astray. 13:15 To God bow all who are in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows also in the mornings and the evenings. Say: 'Who is the Lord of the heavens and of the earth?' Say: 'God.' Say: 'Then have you taken unto you others beside Him to be your protectors, even such as have no power to profit or hurt themselves?' Say: 'Are the blind and the seeing man equal, or are the shadows and the light equal? Or have they ascribed to God a**ociates who created as He created, so that creation is all alike to them?' Say: 'God is the Creator of everything, and He is the One, the Omnipotent.' He sends down out of heaven water, and the wadis flow each in its measure, and the torrent carries a swelling scum; and out of that over which they kindle fire, being desirous of ornament or ware, out of that rises a scum the like of it. So God strikes both the true and the false. As for the scum, it vanishes as jetsam, and what profits men abides in the earth. Even so God strikes His similitudes. For those who answer their Lord, the reward most fair; and those who answer Him not -- if they possessed all that is in the earth and the like of it with it, they would offer it for their ransom. Those theirs shall be the evil reckoning, and their refuge shall be Gehenna -- an evil cradling! What, is he who knows what is sent down to thee from thy Lord is the truth, like him who is blind? Only men possessed of minds remember; 13:20 who fulfil God's covenant, and break not the compact, who join what God has commanded shall be joined, and fear their Lord, and dread the evil reckoning, patient men, desirous of the Face of their Lord, who perform the prayer, and expend of that We have provided them, secretly and in public, and who avert evil with good -- theirs shall be the Ultimate Abode, Gardens of Eden which they shall enter; and those who were righteous of their fathers, and their wives, and their seed, shall enter them, and the angels shall enter unto them from every gate: 'Peace be upon you, for that you were patient.' Fair is the Ultimate Abode. 13:25 And those who break the covenant of God after His compact, and who snap what God has commanded to be joined, and who work corruption in the earth -- theirs shall be the curse, and theirs the Evil Abode. God outspreads and straitens His provision unto whomsoever He will. They rejoice in this present life; and this present life, beside the world to come, is naught but pa**ing enjoyment. The unbelievers say, 'Why has a sign not been sent down upon him from his Lord?' Say: 'God leads astray whomsoever He will, and He guides to Him all who are penitent.' Those who believe, their hearts being at rest in God's remembrance -- in God's remembrance are at rest the hearts of those who believe and do righteous deeds; theirs is blessedness and a fair resort. Thus We have sent thee among a nation before which other nations have pa**ed away, to recite to them that We have revealed to thee; and yet they disbelieve in the All-merciful. Say: 'He is my Lord -- there is no god but He. In Him I have put my trust, and to Him I turn.' 13:30 If only a Koran whereby the mountains were set in motion, or the earth were cleft, or the dead were spoken to -- nay, but God's is the affair altogether. Did not the believers know that, if God had willed, He would have guided men all together? And still the unbelievers are smitten by a shattering for what they wrought, or it alights nigh their habitation, until God's promise comes; and God will not fail the tryst. Messengers indeed were scoffed at before thee, and I respited the unbelievers; then I seized them -- and how was my retribution? What, He who stands over every soul for what it has earned? -- And yet they ascribe to God a**ociates. Say: 'Name them! Or will you tell Him what He knows not in the earth? Or in apparent words?' Nay; but decked out fair to the unbelievers is their devising, and they are barred from the way; and whomsoever God leads astray, no guide has he. For them is chastisement in the present life; and the chastisement of the world to come is yet more grievous; they have none to defend them from God. 13:35 The likeness of Paradise, that is promised to the godfearing: beneath it rivers flow, its produce is eternal, and its shade. That is the requital of the god-fearing; and the requital of the unbelievers is -- the Fire! And those to whom We have given the Book rejoice in what is sent down unto thee; and of the parties some reject some of it. Say: 'I have only been commanded to serve God, and not to a**ociate aught with Him. To Him I call, and to Him I turn.' Even so We have sent it down as an Arabic judgment. And if thou dost follow their caprices, after the knowledge that has come to thee, thou shalt have no protector against God, and no defender. And We sent Messengers before thee, and We a**igned to them wives, and seed; and it was not for any Messengers to bring a sign, but by God's leave. Every term has a Book. God blots out, and He establishes whatsoever He will; and with Him is the Essence of the Book. 13:40 Whether We show thee a part of that We promise them, or We call thee to Us, it is thine only to deliver the Message, and Ours the reckoning. Have they not seen how We come to the land diminishing it in its extremities? God judges; none repels His judgment; He is swift at the reckoning. Those that were before them devised; but God's is the devising altogether. He knows what every soul earns. The unbelievers shall a**uredly know whose will be the Ultimate Abode. The unbelievers say, 'Thou art not an Envoy.' Say: 'God suffices as a witness between me and you, and whosoever possesses knowledge of the Book.'