Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem

Wash shamsi wa duhaa haa

Wal qamari izaa talaa haa

Wannahaari izaa jallaa haa

Wallaili izaa yaghshaa haa

Wassamaaa'i wa maa banaahaa

Wal ardi wa maa tahaahaa

Wa nafsinw wa maa sawwaahaa

Fa-alhamahaa fujoorahaa wa taqwaahaa

Qad aflaha man zakkaahaa

Wa qad khaaba man dassaahaa

Kazzabat Samoodu bi taghwaahaaa

Izim ba'asa ashqaahaa

Faqaala lahum Rasoolul laahi naaqatal laahi wa suqiyaahaa

Fakazzaboohu fa'aqaroohaa fadamdama 'alaihim Rabbuhum bizambihim fasaw waahaa

Wa laa yakhaafu'uqbaahaa

In the name of Allah, The Most Kind, The Most Merciful,

By the Sun and his (glorious) splendour;

By the Moon as she follows him;

By the Day as it shows up (the Sun's) glory;

By the Night as it conceals it;

By the Firmament and its (wonderful) structure;

By the Earth and its (wide) expanse:

By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it;

And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right;-

Truly he succeeds that purifies it,

And he fails that corrupts it!

The Thamud (people) rejected (their prophet) through their inordinate wrong-doing,

Behold, the most wicked man among them was deputed (for impiety).

But the Messenger of Allah said to them: "It is a She-camel of Allah. And (bar her not from) having her drink!"

Then they rejected him (as a false prophet), and they hamstrung her. So their Lord, on account of their crime, obliterated their traces and made them equal (in destruction, high and low)!

And for Him is no fear of its consequences.

Surat Ash-Shams begins with a series of oaths. It is important to note that the Arabic word for sun 'ash-Shams' is feminine in Arabic. It, therefore, takes the feminine pronoun 'haa.' This Qur'anic tone gives pleasure to the reciter of this surah. One enjoys repeating it and drawing closer to Allah.

Verses 8, 9 and 10 reveal a great psychological fact. Allah has given everyone a conscience or inner voice. This conscience enables man to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. The person who learns to listen to his inner voice finds that this voice becomes louder and audible; such a person achieves success, while the person who stifles this voice and remains unmindful to it fails.

The second part of the surah evokes the civilization of Thamood and the ruin of its great city. The Qur'an attributes the destruction of Thamood to their rejection of the call of their Prophet Saleh AS, a rejection that led to the destruction of other peoples before Thamood as well.

The people of Thamood disobeyed their Prophet Saleh AS. They rejected the truth that he came with, as the she-camel of Allah was his miracle, which Allah had brought forth from a rock as a sign for them and a proof against them. They transgressed against her in her drinking, for she had been allocated a day to drink and they had been allocated a day to drink. They slaughtered Allah's she-camel. Nothing was more sinful for them than the unjustified killing of the she-camel. By slaying her, they disobeyed Allah and rebelled against Him; this of course led to their destruction. Modern civilizations have valuable lessons to learn from the ruined tribe of Thamood.

Source: Islamic Studies, Darrussalam Publication and Yusuf Ali Translation.