Rowwad Translation Center — 526

53:1 By the star when it sets,

53:2 Your companion [i.e., the Prophet] has neither strayed nor is he deluded.

53:3 Nor does he speak out of his own desire.

53:4 It is but a revelation sent down [to him].

53:5 He was taught by [an angel of] mighty power[1],

53:6 and of great perfection[1], who manifested himself [in his true form][2]

53:7 when he was on the higher horizon[1].

53:8 Then he approached [the Prophet] and descended,

53:9 until he was only two bow-lengths away or even closer.

53:10 Then he revealed to His slave[1] what he had to reveal.

53:11 The [Prophet’s] heart[1] did not deny what he saw.

53:12 Do you dispute with him concerning what he saw?

53:13 He certainly saw him a second time[1]

53:14 at the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary [in the seventh heaven]

53:15 near which is the Garden of Abode,

53:16 when the Lote Tree was overwhelmed with [divine] splendors.

53:17 His gaze did not wander, nor did it look beyond the limit.

53:18 He certainly saw some of the greatest signs of his Lord.

53:19 Have you [O disbelievers] thought about [the idols of] Lāt and ‘Uzzā,

53:20 and Manāt, the third one as well[1]?

53:21 Do you choose for yourselves males and for Him females?

53:22 That is then an unfair division!

53:23 These [idols] are no more than names you and your forefathers have made up[1], for which Allah has not sent down any authority. They follow nothing but conjecture and what their souls desire, although there has come to them guidance from their Lord.

53:24 Is it that man can get whatever he wishes for[1]?

53:25 Rather, to Allah belongs the Hereafter and this world.

53:26 How many angels there are in the heavens whose intercession will be of no avail except after Allah’s permission to whom He wills and pleases.