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[1] CONSIDER those [stars] that rise only to set,
[2] and move [in their orbits] with steady motion,
[3] and float [through space] with floating serene,
[4] and yet overtake [one another] with swift overtaking:
[5] and thus they fulfil the [Creator's] behest!
[6] [HENCE, think of] the Day when a violent convulsion will convulse [the world],
[7] to be followed by further [convulsions]!
[8] On that Day will [men's] hearts be throbbing,
[9] [and] their eyes downcast...
[10] [And yet,] some say, "What! Are we indeed to be restored to our former state –
[11] even though we may have become [a heap of] crumbling bones?"
[12] [And] they add, "That, then, would be a return with loss!"
[13] [But,] then, that [Last Hour] will be [upon them of a sudden, as if it were] but a single accusing cry -
[14] and then, lo, they will be fully awakened [to the truth]!
[15] HAS THE STORY of Moses ever come within thy ken.
[16] Lo! His Sustainer called out to him in the twice-hallowed valley:
[17] "Go unto Pharaoh - for, verily, he has transgressed all bounds of what is right -
[18] and say [unto him], 'Art thou desirous of attaining to purity?
[19] [If so,] then I shall guide thee towards [a cognition of] thy Sustainer, so that [henceforth] thou wilt stand in awe [of Him].’"
[20] And thereupon he [went to Pharaoh and] made him aware of the great wonder [of God's grace].
[21] But [Pharaoh] gave him the lie and rebelliously rejected [all guidance],
[22] and brusquely turned his back [on Moses];
[23] and then he gathered [his great ones], and called [unto his people],
[24] and said, "I am your Lord All-Highest!"
[25] And thereupon God took him to task, [and made him] a warning example in the life to come as well as in this world.
[26] In this, behold, there is a lesson indeed for all who stand in awe [of God].
[27] [O MEN!] Are you more difficult to create than the heaven which He has built?
[28] High has He reared its vault and formed it in accordance with what it was meant to be;
[29] and He has made dark its night and brought forth its light of day.
[30] And after that, the earth: wide has He spread its expanse,
[31] and has caused its waters to come out of it, and its pastures,
[32] and has made the mountains firm:
[33] [all this] as a means of livelihood for you and your animals.
[34] AND SO, when the great overwhelming event [of, resurrection] comes to pass –
[35] on that Day man will [clearly] remember all that he has ever wrought;
[36] and the blazing fire [of hell] will be lad open before all who [are destined to] see it.
[37] For, unto him who shall have transgressed the bounds of what is right,
[38] and preferred the life of this world [to the good of his soul],
[39] that blazing fire will truly be the goal!
[40] But unto him who shall have stood in fear of his Sustainer's Presence, and held back his inner self from base desires,
[41] paradise will truly be the goal!
[42] THEY WILL ASK thee [O Prophet] about the Last Hour: "When will it come to pass?"
[43] [But] how couldst thou tell anything about it,
[44] [seeing that] with thy Sustainer alone rests the beginning and the end [of all knowledge] thereof?
[45] Thou art but [sent] to warn those who stand in awe of it.
[46] On the Day when they behold it, [it will seem to them] as if they had tarried [in this world] no longer than one evening or [one night, ending with] its morn!