LVI The Terror
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

When the Terror descends
(and none denies its descending)
abasing, exalting,
when the earth shall be rocked
and the mountains crumbled
and become a dust scattered, and you shall be three bands.

Companions of the Right (O Companions of the Right!)
Companions of the Left (O Companions of the Left!)

and the Outstrippers: the Outstrippers
those are they brought nigh the Throne,
in the Gardens of Delight
(a throng of the ancients
and how few of the later folk)

upon close-wrought couches
reclining upon them, set face to face,
immortal youths going round about them
with goblets, and ewers, and a cup from a spring
(no brows throbbing, no intoxication)
and such fruits as they shall choose,
and such flesh of fowl as they desire,
and wide-eyed houris
as the likeness of hidden pearls,
a recompense for that they laboured.
Therein they shall hear no idle talk, no cause of sin,

only the saying 'Peace, Peace!'
The Companions of the Right (O Companions of the Right!)
mid thornless lote-trees
and serried acacias,
and spreading shade
and outpoured waters,
and fruits abounding
unfailing, unforbidden,
and upraised couches.

Perfectly We formed them, perfect,
and We made them spotless virgins,
chastely amorous,
like of age for the Companions of the Right.
A throng of the ancients
and a throng of the later folk.

The Companions of the Left (O Companions of the Left!)
mid burning winds and boiling waters
and the shadow of a smoking blaze
neither cool, neither goodly;
and before that they lived at ease,
and persisted in the Great Sin,
ever saying, 'What, when we are dead and become dust and bones, shall we indeed be raised up?
What, and our fathers, the ancients?'

Say: 'The ancients, and the later folk
shall be gathered to the appointed time of a known day.

Then you erring ones, you that cried lies,
you shall eat of a tree called Zakkoum,
and you shall fill therewith your bellies
and drink on top of that boiling water

lapping it down like thirsty camels.'
This shall be their hospitality on the Day of Doom. We created you; therefore why will you not believe?

Have you considered the seed you spill? Do you yourselves create it, or are We the Creators?

56:60 We have decreed among you Death; We shall not be outstripped; that We may exchange the likes of you, and make you to grow again in a fashion you know not. You have known the first growth; so why will you not remember?

56:65 Have you considered the soil you till? Do you yourselves sow it, or are We the Sowers? Did We will, We would make it broken orts, and you would remain bitterly jesting -- 'We are debt-loaded; nay, we have been robbed!'

Have you considered the water you drink? Did you send it down from the clouds, or did We send it? Did We will, We would make it bitter; so why are you not thankful?

56:70 Have you considered the fire you kindle? Did you make its timber to grow, or did We make it? We Ourselves made it for a reminder, and a boon to the desert-dwellers.

Then magnify the Name of thy Lord, the All-mighty.
No! I swear by the fallings of the stars

56:75 (and that is indeed a mighty oath, did you but know it) it is surely a noble Koran in a hidden Book none but the purified shall touch, a sending down from the Lord of all Being.

56:80 What, do you hold this discourse in disdain,
and do you make it your living to cry lies?

Why, but when the soul leaps to the throat of the dying
and that hour you are watching
(And We are nigher him than you, but you do not see Us)

56:85 why, if you are not at Our disposal,
do you not bring back his soul, if you speak truly?
Then, if he be of those brought nigh the Throne,
there shall be repose and ease, and a Garden of Delight;

90 and if he be a Companion of the Right:
'Peace be upon thee, Companion of the Right!'
But if he be of them that cried lies, and went astray,
there shall be a hospitality of boiling water
and the roasting in Hell.

95 Surely this is the truth of certainty.
Then magnify the Name of thy Lord, the All-mighty.