[al Muminun, Mecca 74]

Asad’s version

(23: 1 15) Did you, then, think that We created you in mere idle play, and that you would not have to return to Us?

23:116 [KNOW,] then, [that] God is sublimely exalted, the Ultimate Sovereign, the Ultimate Truth: there is no deity save Him, the Sustainer, in bountiful almightiness enthroned!

The Quranic text and Ali’s version

أَفَحَسِبْتُمْ أَنَّمَا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ عَبَثًا وَأَنَّكُمْ إِلَيْنَا لَا تُرْجَعُونَ ﴿١١٥﴾

23:115. "Did ye then think that We had created you in jest, and that ye would not be brought back to Us (for account)?"

فَتَعَالَى اللَّهُ الْمَلِكُ الْحَقُّ...

116. Therefore exalted be Allah, the King, the Reality;

...لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْكَرِيمِ ﴿١١٦﴾

there is no god but He, the Lord of the Throne of Honor!

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[ Ali’s note: C2950. Allah's Creation is not without a high serious purpose. It is not vain, or for mere play or sport.

As far as man is concerned, the highest issues for him hang on his behaviour in this life. "Life is real, life is earnest, And the grave is not its goal", as Longfellow truly says. We must therefore earnestly search out Allah's Truth, encouraged by the fact that Allah's Truth is also, out of His unbounded mercy, searching us out and trying to reach us.]