DO SOME, perchance, assert, "[Muhammad] has invented this [story]"?* Say [O Prophet]: "If I have invented it, upon me be this sin; but far be it from me to commit the sin of which you are guilty."*

O you who have attained to faith! Offend not against the symbols set up by God, nor against the sacred month [of pilgrimage], nor against the garlanded offerings,* nor against those who flock to the Inviolable Temple, seeking favour with their Sustainer and His goodly acceptance; and [only] after your pilgrimage is over* are you free to hunt. And never let your hatred of people who would bar you from the Inviolable House of Worship lead you into the sin of aggression:* but rather help one another in furthering virtue and God-consciousness, and do not help one another in furthering evil and enmity; and remain conscious of God: for, behold, God is severe in retribution!

O YOU who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in your devotion to God, bearing witness to the truth in all equity; and never let hatred of any-one* lead you into the sin of deviating from justice. Be just: this is closest to being God-conscious. And remain conscious of God: verily, God is aware of all that you do.

"And, O my people, let not [your] dissent from me drive you into sin, lest there befall you the like of what befell the people of Noah, or the people of Hud. or the people of Salih: and [remember that] the people of Lot lived not very far from you!"*

And whenever. a [divine] message comes to them, they say, "We shall not believe unless we are given the like of what God's apostles were given!"* [But] God knows best upon whom to bestow His message. Abasement in the sight of God will befall those who have become guilty of evildoing, and suffering severe for all the schemes which they were wont to weave.

DO SOME, perchance, assert, "[Muhammad] has invented this [story]"?* Say [O Prophet]: "If I have invented it, upon me be this sin; but far be it from me to commit the sin of which you are guilty."*

And indeed, [O Muhammad, even] before thee did We send forth apostles - each one unto his own people* and they brought them all evidence of the truth: and then, [by causing the believers to triumph,] We inflicted Our retribution upon those who [de­liberately] did evil: for We had willed it upon Our­selves to succour the believers.

Say: “Neither shall you be called to account for whatever we may have become guilty of, nor shall we be called to account for whatever you are doing."

BEHOLD, those who have abandoned themselves to sin are wont to laugh at such as have attained to faith*

truly it is they, they who in the life to come shall be the losers!

Truly, God knows all that they keep secret as well as all that they bring into the open -[and,] behold, He does not love those who are given to arrogance,

As it is, they ascribe to God something that they [themselves] dislike* -and [all the while] their tongues utter the lie that [by doing so] they earn supreme merit!* Truly, they earn but the fire, and will be left out [of God's grace]!*

Truly it is they, they who in the life to come shall be the losers!

“There is no doubt that what you summon me to is something that has no claim to being invoked either in this world or in the life to come - as [there is no doubt] that unto God is our return, and that they who have wasted their own selves shall find them­selves in the fire:

And thus clearly do We spell out Our messages: and [We do it] so that the path of those who are lost in sin might be distinct [from that of the righteous].

And it is in this way that We cause the great ones in every land to become its [greatest] evildoers,* there to weave their schemes: yet it is only against themselves that they scheme -and they perceive it not.

And if they give thee the lie,* say: "Limitless is your Sustainer in His grace; but His punishment shall not be averted from people who are lost in sin."

VERILY, unto those who give the lie to Our messages and scorn them in their pride, the gates of heaven shall not be opened;* and they shall not enter paradise any more than a twisted rope can pass through a needle's eye:* for thus do We requite such as are lost in sin.

the while We rained a rain [of destruction] upon the others: and behold what happened in the end to those people lost in sin!

Thereupon We let loose upon them floods, and [plagues of] locusts, and lice, and frogs, and [water turning into] blood* -distinct signs [all]: but they gloried in their arrogance, for they were people lost in sin.

so that He might prove the truth to be true and the false to be false, however hateful this might be to those who were lost in sin.*

Do not offer [empty] excuses! You have indeed denied the truth after [having professed] your belief [in it] -* Though We may efface the sin of some of you, We shall chastise others - seeing that they were lost in sin.*

And, indeed, We destroyed before your time [whole] generations when they [persistently] did evil although the apostles sent unto them brought them all evidence of the truth; for they refused to believe [them]. Thus do We requite people who are lost in sin.*

And who could be more wicked than they who attribute their own lying inventions to God or give the lie to His messages? Verily, those who are lost in sin will never attain to a happy state* -

Say: "Have you ever considered [how you would feel] if His chastisement were to befall you by night or by day? What could there be in that prospect that people lost in sin should wish to hasten?*

And after those [earlier prophets] We sent Moses and Aaron with Our messages unto Pharaoh and his great ones: but they gloried in their arrogance, for they were people lost in sin.

whereas by His words God proves the truth to be true,* however hateful this may be to those who are lost in sin!"

"Hence, O my people, ask your Sustainer to forgive you your sins, and then turn towards Him in repentance-[whereupon] He will shower upon you heavenly blessings abundant,* and will add strength to your strength: only do not turn away [from me] as people lost in sin!"

BUT, ALAS, among those generations [whom We destroyed] before your time there were no people endowed with any virtue* - [people] who would speak out against the [spread of] corruption on earth -except the few of them whom We saved [because of their righteousness], whereas those who were bent on evildoing only pursued pleasures which corrupted their whole being,* and so lost themselves in sinning.

[All the earlier apostles had to suffer persecution for a long time;] but at last* -when those apostles had lost all hope and saw themselves branded as liars* - Our succour attained to them: whereupon everyone whom We Milled [to be saved] was saved [and the deniers of the truth were destroyed]: for, never can Our punishment be averted from people who are lost in sin.

For on that Day thou wilt see all who were lost in sin linked together in fetters,*

Even so do We [now] cause this [scorn of Our message] to pervade the hearts of those who are lost in sin,

They answered: "We are sent to people lost in sin* [who are to be destroyed],

And the record [of everyone's deeds] will be laid open; and thou wilt behold the guilty filled with dread at what [they see] therein; and they will exclaim: "Oh, woe unto us! What a record is this! It leaves out nothing, be it small or great, but takes everything into account!" For they will find all that they ever wrought [now] facing them, and [will know that] thy Sustainer does not wrong anyone.

And those who were lost in sin will behold the fire, and will know that they are bound to fall into it, and will find no way of escape therefrom.

and drive those who were lost in sin unto hell as a thirsty herd is driven to a well –

VERILY, as for him who shall appear before his Sustainer [on Judgment Day] lost in sin - his [portion], behold, shall be hell: he will neither die therein nor live;*

on the Day when the trumpet is blown: for on that Day We will assemble all such as had been lost in sin, their eyes dimmed* [by terror],

[Yet] on that Day - the Day on which they shall see the angels* there will be no glad tiding for those who were lost in sin; and they will exclaim, “By a forbidding ban [are we from God's grace debarred]!" –

For so it is that against every prophet We have set up enemies from among those who are lost in sin:* yet none can guide and give succour as thy Sustainer does!

yet they who have seduced us [into believing in you] are the truly guilty ones!*

Thus have We caused this [message] to pass [unheeded] through the hearts of those who are lost in sin:*

Say: “Go all over the earth and behold what happened in the end to those [who were thus] lost in sin!"*

Said he: “O my Sustainer! [I vow] by all the blessings which Thou hast bestowed on me: Never­more shall I aid such as are lost in sin!"*

Answered he: “This [wealth] has been given to me only by virtue of the knowledge that is in me!"* Did he not know that God had destroyed [the arrogant of] many a generation that preceded him - people who were greater than he in power, and richer in what they had amassed? But such as are lost in sin may not be asked about, their sins.*

And when the last Hour dawns, those who were lost in sin will be broken in spirit

[He it is who will cause you to die, and in time will resurrect you.]* And when the Last Hour dawns, those who had been lost in sin will swear that they had not tarried [on earth] longer than an hour: thus were they wont to delude themselves [all their lives]!*

If thou couldst but see [how it will be on Judgment Day], when those who are lost in sin will hang their heads before their Sustainer, [saying:] “O our Sustainer! [Now] we have seen, and we have heard! Return us, then, [to our earthly life] that we may do good deeds: for [now], behold, we are certain [of the truth]!"

And who could be more wicked than he to whom his Sustainer's messages are conveyed and who thereupon turns away from them? Verily, We shall inflict Our retribution on those who are [thus] lost in sin!

[And] those who were wont to glory in their arrogance will say unto those who had been weak: “Why - did we keep you [forcibly] from following the right path after it had become obvious to you?* Nay, it was but you [yourselves] who were guilty!"

“But stand aside today, O you who were lost in sin!

Verily, thus shall We deal with all who were lost in sin:

[But,] behold, they who are lost in sin shall abide in the suffering of hell:*

But then, [when they beset him with their enmity,] he called out to his Sustainer, “These are [indeed] people lost in sin!"

Are they, then, better than the people of Tubba and those before them, whom We destroyed because they were truly lost in [the same] sin?*

But as for those who were bent on denying the truth, [they will be told:] “Were not My messages conveyed to you? And withal, you gloried in your arrogance, and so you became people lost in sin:

bound to destroy everything at its Sustainer's behest!" And then they were so utterly wiped out* that nothing could be seen save their [empty] dwellings: thus do We requite people lost in sin.

They answered: “Behold, we have been sent unto a people lost in sin,*

for, behold, those who are lost in sin [will at that time come to know that it is they who] were sunk in error and folly!*

All who were lost in sin shall by their marks be known, and shall by their forelocks and their feet be seized!*

This will be the hell which those who are lost in sin [now] call a lie:

or should We, perchance, treat those who surrender themselves unto Us* as [We would treat] those who remain lost in sin?

though they may be in one another's sight: [for,] everyone who was lost in sin will on that Day but desire to ransom himself from suffering at the price of his own children,

of those who were lost in sin:

[for] thus do We deal with such as are lost in sin.

EAT [your fill] and enjoy your life for a little while, O you who are lost in sin!*