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Draw for them the parable of two men for each of whom We had made two gardens of vines, and We had surrounded them with date palms, and placed crops between them. ﴾32﴿Both gardens yielded their produce without stinting anything of it. And We had set a stream gushing through them. ﴾33﴿He had abundant fruits, so he said to his companion, as he conversed with him: ‘I have more wealth than you, and am stronger with respect to numbers.’ ﴾34﴿He entered his garden while he wronged himself. He said, ‘I do not think that this will ever perish, ﴾35﴿and I do not think that the Hour will ever set in. And even if I am returned to my Lord I will surely find a resort better than this.’ ﴾36﴿His companion said to him, as he conversed with him: ‘Do you disbelieve in Him who created you from dust, then from a drop of [seminal] fluid, then fashioned you as a man? ﴾37﴿But I [say], ‘‘He is Allah, my Lord,’’ and I do not ascribe any partner to my Lord. ﴾38﴿Why did you not say, when you entered your garden, ‘‘[This is] as Allah has willed! There is no power except by Allah!’’ If you see that I have lesser wealth than you and children, ﴾39﴿maybe my Lord will give me [something] better than your garden, and He will unleash upon it bolts from the sky, so that it becomes a bare plain. ﴾40﴿Or its water will sink down, so that you will never be able to obtain it.’ ﴾41﴿And ruin closed in on his produce, and he began to wring his hands for what he had spent on it, as it lay fallen on its trellises. He was saying, ‘I wish I had not ascribed any partner to my Lord.’ ﴾42﴿He had no party to help him, besides Allah, nor could he help himself. ﴾43﴿There, all authority belongs to Allah, the Real. He is best in rewarding, and best in requiting. ﴾44﴿Draw for them the parable of the life of this world: [It is] like the water We send down from the sky. Then the earth’s vegetation mingles with it. Then it becomes chaff, scattered by the wind. And Allah has power over all things. ﴾45﴿Wealth and children are an adornment of the life of the world, but lasting righteous deeds are better with your Lord in reward and better in hope. ﴾46﴿The day We shall set the mountains moving and you will see the earth in full view, We shall muster them, and We will not leave out anyone of them. ﴾47﴿They will be presented before your Lord in ranks: ‘Certainly you have come to Us just as We created you the first time. But you maintained that We shall not appoint a tryst for you.’ ﴾48﴿The Book will be set up. Then you will see the guilty apprehensive of what is in it. They will say, ‘Woe to us! What a book is this! It omits nothing, big or small, without enumerating it.’ They will find present whatever they had done, and your Lord does not wrong anyone. ﴾49﴿When We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate before Adam,’ they prostrated, but not Iblis. He was one of the jinn, so he transgressed against his Lord’s command. Will you then take him and his offspring for guardians in My stead, though they are your enemies? How evil a substitute for the wrongdoers! ﴾50﴿I did not make them witness to the creation of the heavens and the earth, nor to their own creation, nor do I take those who mislead others as assistants. ﴾51﴿The day He will say [to the polytheists], ‘Call those whom you maintained to be My partners,’ they will call them, but they will not respond to them, for We shall set an abyss between them. ﴾52﴿The guilty will sight the Fire and know that they are about to fall in it, for they will find no way to escape it. ﴾53﴿We have certainly interspersed this Quran with every kind of parable for the people. But man is the most disputatious of creatures. ﴾54﴿Nothing has kept these people from believing and pleading to their Lord for forgiveness when guidance came to them, except [their demand] that the precedent of the ancients come to pass for them, or that the punishment come to them, face to face. ﴾55﴿We do not send the apostles except as bearers of good news and as warners, but those who are faithless dispute fallaciously to refute thereby the truth, having taken My signs and what they are warned of in derision. ﴾56﴿Who is a greater wrongdoer than he who is reminded of the signs of his Lord, whereat he disregards them and forgets what his hands have sent ahead? Indeed We have cast veils on their hearts lest they should understand it, and a deafness into their ears; and if you invite them to guidance they will never [let themselves] be guided. ﴾57﴿Your Lord is the All-forgiving dispenser of mercy. Were He to take them to task because of what they have committed, He would have surely hastened their punishment. But they have a tryst, [when] they will not find a refuge besides Him. ﴾58﴿Those are the towns that We destroyed when they were wrongdoers, and We appointed a tryst for their destruction. ﴾59﴿When Moses said to his lad, ‘I will go on [journeying] until I have reached the confluence of the two seas, or have spent a long time [travelling].’ ﴾60﴿So when they reached the confluence between them, they forgot their fish, which found its way into the sea, sneaking away. ﴾61﴿So when they had passed on, he said to his lad, ‘Bring us our meal. We have certainly encountered much fatigue on this journey of ours.’ ﴾62﴿He said, ‘Did you see?! When we took shelter at the rock, indeed I forgot about the fish—and none but Satan made me forget to mention it!—and it made its way into the sea in an amazing manner!’ ﴾63﴿He said, ‘That is what we were after!’ So they returned, retracing their footsteps. ﴾64﴿[There] they found one of Our servants whom We had granted a mercy from Ourselves, and taught him a knowledge from Our own. ﴾65﴿Moses said to him, ‘May I follow you for the purpose that you teach me some of the probity you have been taught?’ ﴾66﴿He said, ‘Indeed you cannot have patience with me! ﴾67﴿And how can you have patience about something you do not comprehend?’ ﴾68﴿He said, ‘You will find me, God willing, to be patient, and I will not disobey you in any matter.’ ﴾69﴿He said, ‘If you follow me, do not question me concerning anything until I myself first mention it for you.’ ﴾70﴿So they went on and when they boarded the boat, he made a hole in it. He said, ‘Did you make a hole in it to drown its people? You have certainly done a monstrous thing!’ ﴾71﴿He said, ‘Did I not say that you cannot have patience with me?’ ﴾72﴿He said, ‘Do not take me to task for my forgetting, and do not be hard upon me.’ ﴾73﴿So they went on until they came upon a boy, whereat he slew him. He said, ‘Did you slay an innocent soul, without [his having slain] anyone? You have certainly done a dire thing!’ ﴾74﴿
Brief explanations about the Holy Quran that is available on this site.