Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
12 We made the night and the day two signs.
Then We effaced the sign of the night,
and made the sign of the day lightsome
that you may seek grace from your Lord
and that you may know the number of years
and the calculation [of time],
and We have elaborated everything in detail.1
13 We have attached every person’s omen
to his neck,
and We shall bring it out for him
on the Day of Resurrection
as a wide open book that he will encounter.
14 ‘Read your book!
Today your soul suffices as your own reckoner.’2
15 Whoever is guided
is guided only for [the good of] his own soul,
and whoever goes astray,
goes astray only to its detriment.
No bearer shall bear another’s burden.
We do not punish [any community]
until We have sent [it] an apostle.
16 And when We desire to destroy a town
We command its affluent ones [to obey Allah].
But they commit transgression in it,
and so the word becomes due against it,
and We destroy it utterly.
17 How many generations We have destroyed
since Noah!
1 Or ‘articulated everything distinctly.’
2 Or ‘today you suffice as your own reckoner.’
