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Home  »  Chapters from the Koran  »  The Chapter of the Cleaving Asunder

Chapters from the Koran.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Mecca Suras Mecca Suras

The Chapter of the Cleaving Asunder

IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God.

When the heaven is cleft asunder,

And when the stars are scattered,

And when the seas gush together,

And when the tombs are turned upside down,

The soul shall know what it has sent on or kept back!

O man! what has seduced thee concerning thy generous Lord, who created thee, and fashioned thee, and gave thee symmetry, and in what form He pleased composed thee?

Nay, but ye call the judgment a lie! but over you are guardians set,—noble, writing down! they know what ye do!

Verily, the righteous are in pleasure, and, verily, the wicked are in hell; they shall broil therein upon the judgment day; nor shall they be absent therefrom!

And what shall make thee know what is the judgment day? Again, what shall make thee know what is the judgment day? a day when no soul shall control aught for another; and the bidding on that day belongs to God!