(69:1) The indubitable event! (69:2) And what is that indubitable event? (69:3) And what do you know what that indubitable event is? (69:4) The Thamud and the Ad denied the (possibility of a) sudden calamity, calling it false. (69:5) Then the Thamud were destroyed by an awesome upheaval; (69:6) and the Ad were destroyed by a furiously raging wind-storm (69:7) which He let loose upon them for seven nights and eight days in succession; so that (if you had been there) you might have seen people lying prostrate, as though they were uprooted trunks of hollowed palm trees. (69:8) Do you now see any trace of them? (69:9) Pharaoh and those before him and the people of the overturned habitations all engaged in the same great sin. (69:10) They did not follow the Messenger of their Lord, and so He seized them with a severe grip. (69:11) Verily when the water rose to great heights, We bore you upon a floating vessel (i.e. the Ark) (69:12) so that We might make it an instructive event for you, and retentive ears might preserve its memory. (69:13) So when the Trumpet is blown with a single blast (69:14) and the earth and the mountains are carried aloft and are crushed to bits at one stroke, (69:15) on that Day shall that indubitable event come to pass; (69:16) when the sky will be rent asunder, the grip holding it together having loosened on that Day, (69:17) and the angels will stand on the sides, with eight of them bearing aloft the Throne of your Lord on that Day. (69:18) That will be the Day when you shall be brought forth (before Allah) and no secret of yours shall remain hidden. (69:19) On that Day, he whose Record is given to him in his right hand will say: “Lo! Read my Record! (69:20) Verily I was sure that I would be handed over my account.” (69:21) Then he shall find himself in a life of bliss; (69:22) in a lofty Garden (69:23) the clusters of whose fruit will be hanging low to be within reach (of the inmates of Paradise). (69:24) (They will be told): “Eat and drink with good cheer as a reward for the good deeds you did in the days that have passed by.” (69:25) As for him whose Record will be given to him in his left hand, he will exclaim: “Would that I had never been given my Record, (69:26) and had not known my account. (69:27) Oh! Would that the death that came to me in the world had made an end of me! (69:28) My riches have not availed me, (69:29) and my authority has vanished.” (69:30) (A command will be issued): “Seize him and shackle him, (69:31) then cast him in the Fire, (69:32) then fasten him with a chain, seventy cubits long. (69:33) He would not believe in Allah, the Most Great; (69:34) nor would he urge the feeding of the poor. (69:35) Today he has been left here friendless; (69:36) and has no food except the filth from the washing of wounds, (69:37) which only the sinners will eat.” (69:38) But no; I swear by what you see, (69:39) and by what you do not see, (69:40) that this is the speech of an honourable Messenger, (69:41) not the speech of a poet. Little do you believe! (69:42) Nor is this the speech of a soothsayer. Little do you reflect! (69:43) It has been revealed by the Lord of the Universe. (69:44) And if he [i.e., the Prophets] had forged this Discourse and thereafter ascribed it to Us, (69:45) We would surely have seized him by the right hand, (69:46) and then severed his life vein; (69:47) and not one of you would have been able to withhold Us from doing so. (69:48) Surely it is a Good Counsel for the God-fearing. (69:49) We certainly know that some among you will give the lie to it, (69:50) and surely it will be a cause of regret for the unbelievers. (69:51) Certainly it is a Truth of absolute certainty. (69:52) So glorify the name of your Lord Most Great.