Quran — Page 528

and that it is He who creates the two kinds - the male and the female –

out of a [mere] drop of sperm as it is poured forth,

and that [therefore] it is within His power to bring about a second life;

and that it is He alone who frees from want and causes to possess;

and that it is He alone who sustains the bright­est star;

and that it is He who destroyed the ancient [tribes of] Ad

and Thamud, leaving no trace [of them],

as well as the people of Noah before them - [since,] verily, they all had been most willful in their evildoing and most overweening –

just as He thrust into perdition those cities that were overthrown

and then covered them from sight forever.

About which, then, of thy Sustainer’s powers canst thou [still] remain in doubt?

THIS IS a warning like those warnings of old:

that [Last Hour] which is so near draws ever nearer,

[although] none but God can unveil it....

Do you, perchance, find this tiding strange?

And do you laugh instead of weeping,

and divert yourselves all the while?

[Nay,] but prostrate yourselves before God, and worship [Him alone]!

THE LAST HOUR draws near, and the moon is split asunder!

But if they [who reject all thought of the Last Hour] were to see a sign [of its approach], they would turn aside and say, “An ever-recurring delusion!” –

for they are bent on giving it the lie, being always wont to follow their own desires. Yet everything reveals its truth in the end.

And withal, there has come unto them many a tiding that should have restrained [their arrogance]:

far-reaching wisdom [was held out to them]: but [since] all warnings have been of no avail,

turn thou away from them. On the Day when the Summoning Voice will sum­mon [man] unto something that the mind cannot conceive,