The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

A Meccan sura which gives some scenes from the Resurrection and Judgement.
In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy
1The Crashing Blow! 2What is the Crashing Blow? 3What will
explain to you what the Crashing Blow is? 
4On a Day when people
will be like scattered moths 
5and the mountains like tufts of wool,
6the one whose good deeds are heavy on the scales 7will have a
pleasant life, 
8but the one whose good deeds are light 9will have the
Bottomless Pit for his home
a
––
10what will explain to you what that
is? ––
11a blazing fire.
a
Literally ‘his mother is the bottomless pit’.
(
433)

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102. STRIVING FOR MORE
A Meccan sura which criticizes man’s preoccupation with worldly wealth and
stresses that he will be brought to account on the Day of Resurrection.
In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy
1Striving for more distracts you 2until you go into your graves.
a
3No
indeed! You will come to know. 
4No indeed! In the end you will come
to know. 
5No indeed! If only you knew for certain. 6You will most
de
finitely see Hellfire, 7you will see it with the eye of certainty. 8On
that Day, you will be asked about your pleasures.
a
Literally ‘until you visit the graves’. Their stay in the grave is like a short visit (cf.
46: 35).
(
434)

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103. THE DECLINING DAY
a
A Meccan sura showing the way to salvation. The image of a declining day
suggests the stage in the day, or in life, when only a short while is left for those
wishing to make up for lost time.
In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy
1By the declining day, 2man is [deep] in loss, 3except for those who
believe, do good deeds, urge one another to the truth, and urge one
another to steadfastness.
a
Other interpretations of the title include ‘Time’ and ‘The Flight of Time’.
(
435)

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104. THE BACKBITER
A Meccan sura that condemns the greedy backbiter and gives a description of
Hell.
In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy
1Woe to every fault-finding backbiter
a
2who amasses riches, count-
ing them over, 
3thinking they will make him live for ever. 4No
indeed! He will be thrust into the Crusher! 
5What will explain to you
what the Crusher is? 
6It is God’s Fire, made to blaze, 7which rises
over people’s hearts. 
8It closes in on them 9in towering columns.
b
a
Said to refer either to al-Akhnas ibn Shurayq or to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira (cf.
note to 
74: 11).
b
Cf. 
77: 30–3.
(
436)

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105. THE ELEPHANT
This sura is a reference to events that happened in 
570
ce
, the year of the
Prophet’s birth, when the army of Abraha (a Christian ruler of Yemen),
which included war elephants, marched to attack Mecca, destroy the Ka
 ba,
and divert pilgrims to the new cathedral in San
 a. The destruction of this
army is cited here to encourage the believers and warn the disbelievers.
In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy
1Do you [Prophet] not see how your Lord dealt with the army of the
elephant? 
2Did He not utterly confound their plans? 3He sent ranks
of birds against them, 
4pelting them with pellets of hard-baked clay:
5He made them [like] cropped stubble.
(
437)

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106. QURAYSH