-- provisional translation by Joshua Hall
This is the Súrah of the Arabs which has been revealed by
One Who is the Revealer, the Ancient of Days
He is the Sanctified, the Transcendent, the Exalted, the
Most Effulgent
These are the verses of God which have been sent down from
the heaven of wondrous glory, and which God has made to be a proof and
testament from Him unto the worlds. Within it are mentioned the servants of God
who recognized God in His own Self, who were not shut out as by a veil on
account of the outcry of the idolators, who entered the shelter of His loving
providence and reposed in the precincts of His mercy which surpasses all
contingent things – this, indeed, is a great bounty.
These are they upon whom the heavenly concourse pronounce their
blessings, as well as the angels that have drawn nigh. These are they who fell
on their faces in prostration before God, the Exalted, the Sublime, when the
Everlasting Sun once again shed Its effulgence upon them from the Most High
Horizon.
O Beloved of God from amongst the Arabs! Give ear unto the
call of God proceeding from this Tree upraised in truth, all of Whose leaves
speak forth in all things: “I am God; none other god is there beside Him, the
Sanctified, the Almighty, the Munificent”.
O people, hasten unto the Sidrah [1] of God and take shelter
beneath Its shade. By the One True God! Were you to search all the climes of
the earth and the expanse of the heavens, never would you find an abode of
safety save beneath the shade of this Tree which overshadows the worlds. From
amidst Its leaves the sweet-scented breeze of the Lord is wafted, giving life
to every moldering bone. Turn unto It and partake of Its fruits, that your
hearts may be purified thereby of the suggestions of every wretched deceiver.