Sura 22 The Hajj (Al-Hajj)

In the name of God, the Almighty, the Merciful.

[22:1] O people, reverence your Lord. The quaking of the Hour is an awesome thing.

[22:2] On the Day you will see it, every suckling woman will discard what she suckled, and every pregnant woman will miscarry what she carried. You will see people looking intoxicated when they are not intoxicated, but God's punishment is severe.

[22:3] Among the people is he who argues about God without knowledge and follows every rebellious devil.

[22:4] It has been decreed for him that he will misguide the one who allies himself with him and will lead him to the punishment of the Blaze.

[22:5] O people, if you are in doubt about the resurrection, We created you from dust, then from a tiny drop, then from an aalaqah, then from a mudghah, formed and unformed, and so We may clarify things for you. We settle in the wombs what We will for a specified term. Then We bring you out as infants, after which you reach your maturity. Among you is one who is taken back while another among you will be consigned to the least dignified age, whereupon he will know nothing after having had knowledge. You see the earth lifeless, but when We bring the water down on it, it quivers, thrives and grows of every lovely pair.

Footnote 22:5 – The words 'aalaqah' and 'mudghah' carry great scientific content. The word 'aalaqah' literally means something that clings, like a leech or a bloodsucker. This is an appropriate description of the human embryo from days 7-24 when it clings to the endometrium of the uterus, in the same way that a leech clings to the skin.

The word 'mudghah' literally means a chewed substance or chewed lump. Towards the end of the fourth week, the human embryo looks like a chewed lump of flesh, not different from the marks on chewing gum. The chewed appearance results from the somites that resemble teeth marks. The somites represent the beginnings (primordial) of the vertebrae.

[22:6] That is because God is the Truth, and because He brings the dead to life, and because He is Capable of all things,

[22:7] and because the Hour is coming, there is no doubt about it, and because God will resurrect those who are in the graves.

[22:8] Among the people is he who argues about God without knowledge, without guidance, and without an enlightening Book,

[22:9] turning away arrogantly to misguide from the path of God. He will have disgrace in the world, and on the Day of Resurrection, We will make him taste the punishment of the Fire.

[22:10] "That is for what your hands have put forth for God is not unjust towards the servants."

[22:11] Among the people, there is the one who worships God on an edge. If some good comes to him, he is content with it, but if some test befalls him, he makes a detour. He thus loses the world and the Hereafter; such is the clear loss.

[22:12] He calls upon, besides God, what cannot harm him nor benefit him. Such is the extreme misguidance.

[22:13] He calls upon one whose harm is closer to hand than his benefit. What a miserable master! What a miserable associate!

[22:14] God will admit those who believe and do good deeds into Gardens beneath which rivers flow. God does whatever He wills.