أَلْهَاكُمُ التَّكَاثُرُ
YOU ARE OBSESSED by greed for more and more (1)
حَتَّىٰ زُرْتُمُ الْمَقَابِرَ
until you go down to your graves. (2)
كَلَّا سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ
Nay, in time you will come to understand! (3)
ثُمَّ كَلَّا سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ
And once again: Nay, in time you will come to understand! (4)
كَلَّا لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ عِلْمَ الْيَقِينِ
Nay, if you could but understand [it] with an understanding [born] of certainty, (5)
لَتَرَوُنَّ الْجَحِيمَ
you would indeed, most surely, behold the blazing fire [of hell]! (6)
ثُمَّ لَتَرَوُنَّهَا عَيْنَ الْيَقِينِ
In the end you will indeed, most surely, behold it with the eye of certainty: (7)
ثُمَّ لَتُسْأَلُنَّ يَوْمَئِذٍ عَنِ النَّعِيمِ
and on that Day you will most surely be called to account for [what you did with] the boon of life! (8)
- until you go down to your graves.1
- 1 The term takathur bears the connotation of "greedily striving for an increase", i.e., in benefits, be they tangible or intangible, real or illusory. In the above context it denotes man's obsessive striving for more and more comforts, more material goods, greater power over his fellow-men or over nature, and unceasing technological progress. A passionate pursuit of such endeavours, to the exclusion of everything else, bars man from all spiritual insight and, hence, from the acceptance of any restrictions and inhibitions based on purely moral values - with the result that not only individuals but whole societies gradually lose all inner stability and, thus, all chance of happiness.
- Until ye visit the graves.6258
- 6258 That is, until the time comes when you must lie down in the graves and leave the pomp and circumstance of an empty life. The true Reality will then appear before you. Why not try to strive for a little understanding of that Reality in this very life?
-
Until ye visit the graves.
— Abdullah Yusuf Ali -
Until ye come to the graves.
— Marmaduke Pickthall -
Until you come to the graves.
— M. Habib Shakir -
Until you visit the graves (i.e. till you die).
— Taqiuddin Hilali and M. Mohsin Khan -
Until ye visit the graves.
— Abdul-Majid Daryabadi -
until you visit the graves.
— Hasan Qaribullah and Ahmed Darwish -
till you visit the tombs.
— Ayub Khan -
Till you reach the graves.
— Sher Ali -
until you go down to your graves.
— Muhammad Asad -
even till you visit the tombs.
— Arthur Arberry -
until you reach your graves.{{2}}
— Abu'l Ala Maududi