The parable of the life of this world is but that of rain which We send down from the sky, and which is absorbed by the plants of the earth* whereof men and animals draw nourishment, until -when the earth has assumed its artful adornment and has been embellished, and they who dwell on it believe that they have gained mastery over it* -there comes down upon it Our judgment, by night or by day, and We cause it to become [like] a field mown down, as if there had been no yesterday.* Thus clearly do We spell out these messages unto people who think!

O CHILDREN of Adam! Beautify yourselves* for every act of worship, and eat and drink [freely], but do not waste: verily, He does not love the wasteful!

Say: "Who is there to forbid the beauty which God has brought forth for His creatures, and the good things from among the means of sustenance?" Say: "They are [lawful] in the life of this world unto all who have attained to faith - to be theirs alone on Resurrection Day."* Thus clearly do We spell out these messages unto people of [innate] knowledge!

And Moses prayed: "O our Sustainer! Verily, splendour and riches hast Thou vouchsafed, in the life of this world, unto Pharaoh and his great ones-with the result, O our Sustainer, that they are leading [others] astray from Thy path!* O our Sustainer! Wipe out their riches, and harden their hearts, so that they may not attain to faith ere they see the grievous suffering [that awaits them]!"

AS FOR THOSE who care for [no more than] the life of this world and its bounties -We shall repay them in full for all that they did in this [life], and they, shall not be deprived of their just due therein:

And (it is He who creates] horses and mules and asses for you to ride, as well as for [their] beauty: and He will yet create things of which [today] you have no knowledge.*

Behold, We have willed that all beauty on earth be a means by which We put men to a test,* [showing] which of them are best in conduct;

And contain thyself in patience by the side of all who at morn and at evening invoke their Sustainer, seeking His countenance, and let not thine eyes pass beyond them in quest of the beauties of this world's life;* and pay no heed to any whose heart We have rendered heedless of all remembrance of Us* because he had always followed [only] his own desires, abandoning all that is good and true.*

Wealth and children are an 4dornment of this, world's life: but good deeds, the fruit whereof endures forever, are of far greater merit in thy Sustainer's sight, and a far better source of hope.*

Answered [Moses]: "Your tryst shall be the day of the Festival ;* and let the people assemble when the sun is risen high."

They answered: "We did not break our promise to thee of our own free will, but [this is what happened:] we were loaded with the [sinful] burdens of the [Egyptian] people's ornaments, and so we threw them [into the fire],* and likewise did this Samaritan cast [his into it]."

And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and to be mindful of their chastity, and not to display their charms [in public] beyond what may [decently] be apparent thereof;* hence, let them draw their head-coverings over their bosoms.* And let them not display [more of] their charms to any but their husbands, or their fathers, or their husbands' fathers, or their sons, or their husbands' Sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their womenfolk, or those whom they rightfully possess, or such male attendants as are beyond all sexual desire,* or children that are as yet unaware of women's nakedness; and let them not swing their legs [in walking] so as to draw attention to their hidden charms* And [always], O you believers - all of you - turn unto God in repentance, so that you might attain to a happy state!*

AND* [know that] women advanced in years, who no longer feel any sexual desire,* incur no sin if they discard their [outer] garments, provided they do not aim at a showy display of [their] charms. But [even so,] it is better for them to abstain [from this]: and God is all-hearing, all-knowing.

And [remember:] whatever you are given [now] is but for the [passing] enjoyment of life in this world, and for its embellishment - whereas that which is with God is [so much] better and more enduring. Will you not, then, use your reason?

And so he went forth before his people in all his pomp; [and] those who cared only for the life of this world would say, “Oh, if we but had the like of what Qarun has been given! Verily, with tremendous good fortune is he endowed!"

O PROPHET! Say unto thy wives: “If you desire [but] the life of this world and its charms - well, then, I shall provide for you and release you in a becoming manner;*

Behold, We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth with the beauty of stars,

KNOW [O men] that the life of this world is but a play and a passing delight, and a beautiful show, and [the cause of] your boastful vying with one another, and [of your] greed for more and more riches and children.* Its parable is that of* [life-giving] rain: the herbage which it causes to grow delights the tillers of the soil;* but then it withers, and thou canst see it turn yellow; and in the end it crumbles into dust. But [the abiding truth of man's condition will become fully apparent] in the life to come: [either] suffering severe, or* God's forgiveness and His goodly acceptance: for the life of this world is nothing but an enjoyment of self-delusion.

Unto those who are bent on denying the truth the life of this world [alone] seems goodly;* hence, they scoff at those who have attained to faith: but they who are conscious of God shall be above them on Resurrection Day. And God grants sustenance unto whom He wills, beyond all reckoning.*

ALLURING unto man is the enjoyment of worldly desires through women, and children, and heaped-up treasures of gold and silver, and horses of high mark, and cattle, and lands. All this may be enjoyed in the life of this world - but the most beauteous of all goals is with God.

yet when the misfortune decreed by Us befell them, they did not humble themselves, but rather their hearts grew hard, for Satan had made all their doings seem goodly to them.

But do not revile those [beings] whom they invoke instead of God,* lest they revile God out of spite, and in ignorance: for, goodly indeed have We made their own doings appear unto every community* In time, [however,] unto their Sustainer they must return: and then He will make them [truly] understand all that they were doing.

IS THEN -HE who was dead [in spirit] and whom We thereupon gave life, and for whom We set up a light whereby he might see his way among men* - [is then he] like one [who is lost] in darkness deep, out of which he cannot emerge? [But] thus it is: goodly seem all their own doings to those who deny the truth.

And, likewise, their belief in beings or powers that are supposed to have a share in God's divinity makes* [even] the slaying of their children seem goodly to many of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God, thus bringing them to ruin and confusing them in their faith.* Yet, unless God had so willed, they would not be doing all this:* stand, therefore, aloof from them and all their false imagery!

And, lo, Satan made all their doings seem goodly to them, and said, "No one can overcome you this day, for, behold, I shall be your protector !"* but as soon as the two hosts came within sight of one another, he turned on his heels and said, "Behold, I am not responsible for you: behold, I see something that you do not see: behold, I fear God-for God is severe in retribution !"*

The intercalation [of months] is but one more instance of [their] refusal to acknowledge the truth-* [a means] by which those who are bent on denying the truth are led astray. They declare this [intercalation] to be permissible in one year and forbidden in [another] year,* in order to conform [outwardly] to the number of months which God has hallowed: and thus they make allowable what God has forbidden.* Goodly seems unto them the evil of their own doings, since God does not grace with His guidance people who refuse to acknowledge the truth.

For [thus it is:] when affliction befalls man, he cries out unto Us, whether he be lying on his side or sitting or standing;* but as soon as We have freed him of his affliction, he goes on as though he had never invoked Us to save him from the affliction* that befell him! Thus do their own doings seem goodly unto those who waste their own selves.*

IS, THEN, HE who has every living being* in His almighty care, [dealing with each] according to what it deserves* -[is, then, He like anything else that exists]? And yet, they ascribe to other beings a share in God's divinity! Say: "Give them any name [you please]:* but do you [really think that you could] inform Him of anything on earth that He does not know-or [do you] but play with words ?,* Nay, goodly seems their false imagery* to those who are bent on denying the truth, and so they are turned away from the [right] path: and he whom God lets go astray can never find any guide.*

AND, INDEED, We have set up in the heavens great constellations,* and endowed them with beauty for all to behold;

[Whereupon Iblis] said: "O my Sustainer! Since Thou hast thwarted me,* I shall indeed make [all that is evil] on earth seem goodly to them, and shall most certainly beguile them-into grievous error -

By God, [O Prophet,] even before thy time have We sent apostles unto [various] communities: but [those who were bent on denying the truth have always refused to listen to Our messages because] Satan has made all their own doings seem goodly to them: and he is [as] close to them today* [as he was to the sinners of yore]; hence, grievous suffering awaits them.

As for those who will not believe in the life to come - behold, goodly have We made their own doings appear unto them, and so they stumble blindly to and fro*

And I found her and her people adoring the sun instead of God; and Satan has made these doings of theirs seem goodly to them, and [thus] has barred them from the path [of God], so that they cannot find the right way:

AND [the tribes of] Ad and Thamud* [too, did We destroy -] as should have become obvious to you from [whatever there remains of] their dwellings.* [They perished] because Satan had made their [sinful] doings seem goodly to them, and thus had barred them from the path [of God] despite their having been endowed with the ability to perceive the truth.*

Is, then, he to whom the evil of his own doings is [so] alluring that [in the end] he regards it as good [anything but a follower of Satan]? For, verily, God lets go astray him that wills [to go astray], just as He guides him that wills [to be guided].* Hence, [O believer,] do not waste thyself in sorrowing over them: verily, God has full knowledge of all that they do!

Behold, We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth with the beauty of stars,

the means of approach to the heavens - and that [thus] I may have a look at the god of Moses:* for, behold, I am indeed certain that he is a liar!" And thus, goodly seemed unto Pharaoh the evil of his own doings, and so he was barred from the path [of truth]: and Pharaoh's guile did not lead to aught but ruin.

And He [it is who] decreed that they become seven heavens* in two aeons, and imparted unto each heaven its function. And We adorned the skies nearest to the earth with lights, and made them secure:* such is the ordaining of the Almighty, the All-Knowing.

for [when they became obli­vious of Us,] We assigned to them [their own evil impulses as their] other selves,* and these made appear goodly to them whatever lay open before them and whatever was beyond their ken.* And so, the sentence [of doom] will have fallen due upon them together with the [other sinful] com­munities of invisible beings* and humans that passed away before their time: verily, they [all] will indeed be lost!

CAN, THEN, he who takes his stand on a clear evidence from his Sustainer be likened Unto one* to whom the evil of his own doings [always] seems goodly, and unto such as would follow but their own lusts?

Nay, you thought that the Apostle and the believers would never return to their kith and kin: and this seemed goodly to your hearts.* And you entertained [such] evil thoughts because you have always been people devoid of all good!"

And know that God's Apostle is among you:* were he to comply with your inclinations in each and every case,* you would be bound to come to harm [as a community]. But as it is, God has caused [your] faith to be dear to you, and has given it beauty in your hearts, and has made hateful to you all denial of the truth, and all iniquity, and all rebellion [against what is good]. Such indeed are they who follow the right course

Do they not look at the sky above them - how We have built it and made it beautiful and free of all faults?*

And, indeed, We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth with lights,* and have made them the object of futile guesses for the evil ones [from among men]:* and for them have We readied suffering through a blazing flame –