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052.024 Round about them will serve, (devoted) to them. Youths (handsome) as Pearls well-guarded.
052.025 They will advance to each other, engaging in mutual enquiry.
052.026 They will say: "Aforetime, we were not without fear for the sake of our people.
052.027 "But God has been good to us, and has delivered us from the Penalty of the Scorching Wind.
052.028 "Truly, we did call unto Him from of old: truly it is He, the Beneficent, the Merciful!"
052.029 Therefore proclaim thou the praises (of thy Lord): for by the Grace of thy Lord, thou art no (vulgar)
soothsayer, nor art thou one possessed.
052.030 Or do they say:- "A Poet! we await for him some calamity (hatched) by Time!"
052.031 Say thou: "Await ye!- I too will wait along with you!"
052.032 Is it that their faculties of understanding urge them to this, or are they but a people transgressing beyond
bounds?
052.033 Or do they say, "He fabricated the (Message)"? Nay, they have no faith!
052.034 Let them then produce a recital like unto it,- If (it be) they speak the truth!
052.035 Were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators?
052.036 Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, they have no firm belief.
052.037 Or are the Treasures of thy Lord with them, or are they the managers (of affairs)?
052.038 Or have they a ladder, by which they can (climb up to heaven and) listen (to its secrets)? Then let (such a)
listener of theirs produce a manifest proof.
052.039 Or has He only daughters and ye have sons?
052.040 Or is it that thou dost ask for a reward, so that they are burdened with a load of debt?-
052.041 Or that the Unseen in it their hands, and they write it down?
052.042 Or do they intend a plot (against thee)? But those who defy God are themselves involved in a Plot!
052.043 Or have they a god other than God? Exalted is God far above the things they associate with Him!
052.044 Were they to see a piece of the sky falling (on them), they would (only) say: "Clouds gathered in heaps!"
052.045 So leave them alone until they encounter that Day of theirs, wherein they shall (perforce) swoon (with
terror),-
052.046 The Day when their plotting will avail them nothing and no help shall be given them.
052.047 And verily, for those who do wrong, there is another punishment besides this: But most of them understand
not.
052.048 Now await in patience the command of thy Lord: for verily thou art in Our eyes: and celebrate the praises of
thy Lord the while thou standest forth,
052.049 And for part of the night also praise thou Him,- and at the retreat of the stars!
THE STAR, CHAPTER NO. 053
053.001 By the Star when it goes down,-
053.002 Your Companion is neither astray nor being misled.
053.003 Nor does he say (aught) of (his own) Desire.
053.004 It is no less than inspiration sent down to him:
053.005 He was taught by one Mighty in Power,
053.006 Endued with Wisdom: for he appeared (in stately form);
053.007 While he was in the highest part of the horizon:
053.008 Then he approached and came closer,
053.009 And was at a distance of but two bow-lengths or (even) nearer;
053.010 So did (God) convey the inspiration to His Servant- (conveyed) what He (meant) to convey.
053.011 The (Prophet's) (mind and) heart in no way falsified that which he saw.
053.012 Will ye then dispute with him concerning what he saw?
053.013 For indeed he saw him at a second descent,
053.014 Near the Lote-tree beyond which none may pass:
053.015 Near it is the Garden of Abode.