Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)

87. Sūrat al-A‘lā 1

In the Name of Allah,
the All-beneficent, the All-merciful.

1 Celebrate the Name of your Lord, the Most Exalted,
2 who created and proportioned,
3 who determined and guided,
4 who brought forth the pasture,
5 then turned it into a black scum.

6 We shall have you recite [the Qur’ān],
then you will not forget [any of it]
7 except what Allah may wish.
Indeed He knows the overt and what is hidden.
8 We shall smooth your way to [preach] the easiest [canon].
9 So admonish, for admonition is indeed beneficial:
10 he who fears will take admonition,
11 and the most wretched will shun it
12 — he who will enter the Great Fire,
13 then neither live in it, nor die.
14 Felicitous is he who purifies himself,
15 celebrates the Name of his Lord, and prays.
16 Rather you prefer the life of this world,
17 while the Hereafter is better and more lasting.
18 This is indeed in the former scriptures,
19 the scriptures of Abraham and Moses.

1 The sūrah is named after ‘the Most Exalted’ (al-a‘lā), mentioned in verse 1.

Cite this page

Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation, Islamic College for Advance Studies Press (ICAS), London (Distributed by The Centre for Translation of the Holy Qur’ān, Qom, Iran), Consulted online at “Quran Archive - Texts and Studies on the Quran” on 28 Mar. 2024: http://quran-archive.org/explorer/ali-quli-qarai/2005?page=878