and with [the tribe of] Thamud,* who hollowed out rocks in the valley? –

AND UNTO [the tribe of] Thamud [We sent] their brother Salih.* He said: "O my people! Worship God [alone]: you have no deity other than Him. He brought you into being out of the earth,* and made you thrive thereon.* Ask Him, therefore, to forgive you your sins, and then turn towards Him in repentance-for, verily, my Sustainer is ever-near, responding [to the call of whoever calls unto Him]!"*

And, indeed, [it was for this reason that] Noah cried unto Us - and how excellent was Our response:

But his people's only answer was this:* "Expel them from your land! Verily, they are folk who make themselves out to be pure!"*

But his people's only answer was this: “Expel [Lot and] Lot's followers from your township! Verily, they are folk who make themselves out to be pure!"*

Now [as for Abraham,] his people's only answer was,* “Slay him, or burn him!" – but God saved him from the fire.* Behold, in this [story] there are messages indeed for people who will believe!

Must you indeed approach men [with lust], and thus cut across the way [of nature]?* and must you commit these shameful deeds in your open] assemblies?" But his people's only answer was, “Bring down upon us God's chastisement, if thou art a man of truth!"

AND IF My servants ask thee about Me - behold, I am near; I respond to the call of him who calls, whenever he calls unto Me: let them, then, respond unto Me, and believe in Me, so that they might follow the right way.

ON THE DAY when God shall assemble all the apostles and shall ask, "What response did you receive?" -they will answer, "We have no knowledge; verily, it is Thou alone who fully knowest all the things that are beyond the reach of a created being's perception."*

[God] answered: "Accepted is this your prayer!* Continue, then, both of you, steadfastly on the right way, and follow not the path of those who have no knowledge [of right and wrong]."

Hence, warn men of the Day when this suffering may befall them, and when those who did wrong [in their lifetime] will exclaim: "O our Sustainer! Grant us respite for a short while, so that we might respond to Thy call and follow the apostles!"* [But God will answer:] "Why - were you not aforetime wont to swear that no kind of resurrection and retribution awaited you?*

Nay - who is it that responds to the distressed when he calls out to Him, and who removes the ill [that caused the distress], and has made you inherit the earth?* Could there be any divine power besides God? How seldom do you keep this in mind!

And on that Day He will call unto them, and will ask: “How did you respond to My message­ bearers?"*

“O our people! Respond to God's call, and have faith in Him: He will forgive you [whatever is past] of your sins, and deliver you from grievous suffering [in the life to come].

But he who does not respond to God's call can never elude [Him] on earth, nor can he has any protector against Him [in the life to come]: all such are most obviously lost in error."*

AND IF My servants ask thee about Me - behold, I am near; I respond to the call of him who calls, whenever he calls unto Me: let them, then, respond unto Me, and believe in Me, so that they might follow the right way.

who responded to the call of God and the Apostle after misfortune had befallen them.* A magnificent requital awaits those of them who have persevered in doing good and remained conscious of God:

And thus does their Sustainer answer their prayer: "I shall not lose sight of the labour of any of you who labours [in My way], be it man or woman: each of you is an issue of the other.* Hence, as for those who forsake the domain of evil,* and are driven from their homelands, and suffer hurt in My cause, and fight [for it], and are slain - I shall most certainly efface their bad deeds, and shall most certainly bring them into gardens through which running waters flow, as a reward from God: for with God is the most beauteous of rewards."

Only they who listen [with their hearts] can respond to a call; and as for the dead [of heart], God [alone] can raise them from the dead, whereupon unto Him they shall return.*

Verily, all those whom you invoke beside God are but created beings* like yourselves: invoke them, then, and let them answer your prayer - if what you claim is true!

Lo! You were praying unto your Sustainer for aid, whereupon He thus responded to you: "I shall, verily, aid you with a thousand angels following one upon' another!"

O you who have attained to faith! Respond to the call of God and the Apostle whenever he calls you unto that which will give you life; and know that God intervenes between man and [the desires of] his heart,* and that unto Him you shall be gathered.

And if they [whom you have called to your aid] are not able to help you,* then know that [this Qur'an] has been bestowed from on high out of God's wisdom alone,* and that there is no deity save Him. Will you, then, surrender yourselves unto Him?"

And his Sustainer responded to his prayer, and freed him from the threat of their guile:* verily, He alone is all-hearing, all-knowing.

Unto Him [alone] is due all prayer aiming at the Ultimate Truth,* since those [other beings or powers] whom men invoke instead of God* cannot respond to them in any way - [so that he who invokes them is] but like one who stretches his open hands* towards water, [hoping] that it will reach his mouth, the while it never reaches him. Hence, the prayer of those who deny the truth amounts to no more than losing oneself in grievous error.

of those who have responded to their Sustainer with a goodly response, and of those who did not respond to Him.* [As for the latter,] if they possessed all that is on earth, and twice as much,* they would surely offer it as ransom [on the Day of Judgment] :* a most evil reckoning awaits them, and their goal is hell: and how evil a resting-place!

And when everything will have been decided, Satan will say: "Behold, God promised you something that was bound to come true!* I, too, held out [all manner of] promises to you -but I deceived you. Yet I had no power at all over you: I but called you-and you responded unto me. Hence, blame not me, but blame yourselves.* It is not for me to respond to your cries, nor for you to respond to mine:* for, behold, I have [always] refused to admit that there was any truth in your erstwhile belief that I had a share in God's divinity."* Verily, for all evildoers* there is grievous suffering in store.

on a Day when He will call you, and you will answer by praising Him, thinking all the while that you have tarried [on earth] but a little while."*

Hence, [bear in mind] the Day on which He will say, "Call [now] unto those beings whom you imagined to have a share in My divinity!"* - whereupon they will invoke them, but those [beings] will not respond to them: for We shall have placed between them an unbridgeable gulf.*

AND [remember] Noah - [how,] when He called out [unto Us], long before [the time of Abraham and Lot], We responded to him and saved him and his house­hold from that awesome calamity;*

whereupon We responded unto him and removed all the affliction from which he suffered; and We gave him new offspring,* doubling their number as an act of grace from Us, and as a reminder unto all who worship Us.

And so We responded unto him and delivered him from [his] distress: for thus do We deliver all who have faith.

And so We responded unto him, and bestowed upon him the gift of John, having made his wife fit to bear him a child:* [and,] verily, these [three] would vie with one another in doing good works, and would call unto Us in yearning and awe; and they were always humble before Us.

And since they cannot respond to this thy challenge,* know that they are following only their own likes and dislikes: and who could be more astray than he who follows [but] his own likes and dislikes without any guidance from God? Verily, God does not grace with His guidance peo­ple who are given to evildoing!

And [they] will be told: “Call [now] unto those [beings or powers] to whom you were wont to ascribe a share in God's divinity!"* and they will call unto them [for help], but those [fake objects of worship] will not respond to them: whereupon they will see the suffering [that awaits them - the suffering which could have been avoided] if only they had allowed them­selves to be guided!*

If you invoke them, they do not hear your call; and even if they could hear, they would not [be able to] respond to you. And [withal,] on the Day of Resurrection they will utterly disown your having associated them with God.* And none can make thee understand [the truth] like the One who is all-aware.

But your Sustainer says: “Call unto Me, [and] I shall respond to you!* Verily, they who are too proud to worship Me will enter hell, abased!"

And as for those who would [still] argue about God* after He has been acknowledged [by them] all their arguments are null and void in their Sustainer's sight, and upon them will fall [His] condemnation, and for them is suffering severe in store:

and responds unto all who attain to faith and do righteous deeds; and [it is He who, in the life to come,] will give them, out of His bounty, far more [than they will have deserved], whereas for the deniers of the truth there is [but] suffering severe in store.

and who respond to [the call of] their Sustainer and are constant in prayer; and whose rule [in all matters of common concern] is consultation among themselves;* and who spend on others out of what We provide for them as sustenance;*

[Hence, O men,] respond to your Sustainer before there comes, at God's behest,* a Day on which there will be no turning back: [for] on that Day you will have no place of refuge, and neither will you be able to deny aught [of the wrong that you have done].

And who could be more astray than one who invokes, instead of God, such as will not respond to him either now or on the Day of Resurrection,* and are not even conscious of being invoked?