Surah “The Tidings, The Announcement”

as rendered by Irving & Mohamed Hegab — 40 verses

78:1
What are they questioning one another about?
78:2
About an important announcement
78:3
which they are disagreeing over.
78:4
However they soon will know!
78:5
Then indeed they shall know!
78:6
Have We not laid the earth out as a cradle
78:7
and [set] the mountains up as kingpins?
78:8
We have created you in pairs
78:9
and granted your sleeping for repose
78:10
and granted night as a garment,
78:11
and granted daytime for [you to earn your] living in.
78:12
We have built seven firmaments (heavens) above you
78:13
and set a blazing lamp there.
78:14
We send down water in torrents wrung from rainclouds
78:15
so We may produce grain and plants with it,
78:16
as well as luxuriant gardens.
78:17
The day for Sorting has been appointed,
78:18
the day when the Trumpet shall be blown so you will come in droves,
78:19
and the sky will open up as if it had gates,
78:20
and the mountains will travel along as if they were a mirage.
78:21
Hell will lurk in ambush
78:22
to receive home the arrogant,
78:23
who will linger there for ages.
78:24
They will taste nothing cool in it nor any drink
78:25
except hot bathwater and slops,
78:26
[which are such] a fitting compensation
78:27
since they have never expected [to meet with] any reckoning
78:28
and have wittingly rejected Our signs.
78:29
Everything have We calculated in writing:
78:30
"So taste! Yet We shall only increase torment for you!"
78:31
The heedful will have their scene of triumph
78:32
with parks and vineyards,
78:33
as well as buxom (mature) maidens their own age
78:34
and a brimming cup.
78:35
They will hear no idle talk nor any lying [gossip] there,
78:36
as a compensation from your Lord, a calculated gift.
78:37
Lord of Heaven and Earth as well as whatever is in between them, [He is] the Mercygiving! They control no means of addressing Him;
78:38
on the day when the Spirit and the angels will stand there in ranks, only someone the Mercy-giving grants permission to shall speak, and he will speak straight to the point.
78:39
That day will seem too real! Anyone who wishes to, may adopt his recourse to [reach] the Lord.
78:40
We have warned you (all) how punishment lies close-at-hand, on a day when any man will see whatever his own hands have sent on ahead, and the disbeliever will say: "If I were only dust!"