Qur'an (early-manuscript selection)

Wheel of Heaven Translation

Suras 21:1–5, 54:1, 56:15–24 — the three citations the Raëlian canon engages, sourced from the oldest known Hijazi-script Qur'anic manuscripts (mid-7th c. CE)

An English translation of three short Qur'anic passages — Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ 1–5, Sūrat al-Qamar 1, and Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah 15–24 — produced from the rasm (bare consonantal skeleton) of the earliest-attested Hijazi-script Qur'anic manuscripts (mid-to-late 7th c. CE, radiocarbon-dated). The project's first Islamic-tradition text and first Arabic-source text. The three passages are the only Qur'anic passages the Raëlian canon engages with chapter-and-verse precision (in Extra-Terrestrials Took Me To Their Planet).

The early-manuscript approach. Rather than working from the modern Cairo recension (1924 King Fuad edition, the standard printed Qur'an based on the late-medieval Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim reading-tradition), this translation works from the rasm of the earliest-surviving Qur'anic manuscript-witnesses. The rasm is the bare consonantal skeleton — no dots distinguishing letters of similar shape (iʿjām), no vowel marks (tashkīl) — that constitutes the manuscript's actual scribal content. The dots and vowel marks were added to Qur'anic manuscripts over the course of the 8th–10th centuries CE; the underlying rasm in the earliest manuscripts is substantially what was copied in the 7th century.

Sources per sura. Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ 1–5 is sourced from Tübingen Fragment Ma VI 165 (Hijazi script; radiocarbon-dated 649–675 CE, within 17–43 years of the traditional Uthmanic codification c. 650 CE; contains Suras 17–36) with cross-collation against Codex Parisino-petropolitanus (BnF Arabe 328 et al.; Hijazi, late 7th c.). Sūrat al-Qamar 1 and Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah 15–24 are sourced from Codex Parisino-petropolitanus.

Verification status. This is a best-effort reconstruction from published facsimiles and the Corpus Coranicum digital apparatus; verification against the original manuscript codicology and the full Sadeghi–Goudarzi 2010 / Hilali 2017 / Déroche 2009 / Déroche 2014 apparatus is pending. Variants where the early manuscripts differ from the modern Cairo recension are documented per ayah.

The textual-criticism context. The Qur'an's textual transmission is genuinely scholarly-contested in modern manuscript studies. The Sadeghi-Goudarzi 2010 thesis frames the early manuscripts as evidence of an early canonical text with limited variation. The Hilali 2017 thesis frames the Sanʿāʾ 1 palimpsest evidence as showing 'transmission in flux' during the first century AH. Earlier scholarship (Wansbrough 1977, Crone-Cook 1977) proposed later-canonization frameworks that more recent manuscript discoveries have substantially nuanced. This translation preserves the textual-criticism dispute rather than adjudicating it.

The Raëlian-canon citation context. Extra-Terrestrials Took Me To Their Planet cites Sura 21:1–5, Sura 54:1, and Sura 56:15–24. The WoH-Translation pipeline produces the philologically-disciplined version of these passages from the earliest manuscript-witnesses, with explicit operational disavowals against the Raëlian-canon's pre-filtered readings (Sura 54:1 inshiqāq al-qamar read as 'ET propulsion event'; Sura 56:15–24 read against the orientalist-houris stereotype with the canon's paradisal-reception framing layered on top) — acknowledgment-without-endorsement, per the Shi'ur Qomah parasangs precedent.

Available as a CC0 dataset on Hugging Face · Kaggle →

Sūra 21

Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ 1–5 — The Prophets: the eschatological reckoning draws near

1
The reckoning has drawn near for humankind, yet they, in heedlessness, are turning away.
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
ٱقْتَرَبَ iqtaraba لِلنَّاسِ li-n-nāsi حِسَابُهُمْ ḥisābuhum وَهُمْ wa-hum فِي fī غَفْلَةٍ ġaflatin مُّعْرِضُونَ muʿriḍūna
2
No newly-given reminder comes to them from their Lord but they listen to it while they are at play,
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
مَا mā يَأْتِيهِم yaʾtīhim مِّن min ذِكْرٍ ḏikrin مِّن min رَّبِّهِم rabbihim مُّحْدَثٍ muḥdaṯin إِلَّا illā ٱسْتَمَعُوهُ stamaʿūhu وَهُمْ wa-hum يَلْعَبُونَ yalʿabūna
3
their hearts distracted. And those who do wrong have hidden their whispered counsel: "Is this anything but a mortal like you? Will you then approach sorcery with open eyes?"
الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
لَاهِيَةً lāhiyatan قُلُوبُهُمْ qulūbuhum, ۗ wa-asarrū وَأَسَرُّوا۟ n-najwā ٱلنَّجْوَى lladīna ٱلَّذِينَ ẓalamū, ظَلَمُوا۟ hal هَلْ hāḏā هَٰذَا illā إِلَّا bašarun بَشَرٌ miṯlukum, مِّثْلُكُمْ a-fa-taʾtūna ۖ s-siḥra أَفَتَأْتُونَ wa-antum ٱلسِّحْرَ tubṣirūna وَأَنتُمْ تُبْصِرُونَ
4
He said: "My Lord knows every word in the heavens and the earth, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing."
مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ
قَالَ qāla رَبِّي rabbī يَعْلَمُ yaʿlamu ٱلْقَوْلَ l-qawla فِي fī ٱلسَّمَآءِ s-samāʾi وَٱلْأَرْضِ wa-l-arḍi, ۖ wa-huwa وَهُوَ s-samīʿu ٱلسَّمِيعُ l-ʿalīmu ٱلْعَلِيمُ
5
But they say: "A jumble of dreams! No, he has forged it! No, he is a poet-seer! Let him then bring us a sign, as the ancients were sent."
إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ
بَلْ bal قَالُوٓا۟ qālū أَضْغَٰثُ aḍġāṯu أَحْلَٰمٍۭ aḥlāmin بَلِ bali ٱفْتَرَىٰهُ ftarāhu بَلْ bal هُوَ huwa شَاعِرٌ šāʿirun فَلْيَأْتِنَا fa-l-yaʾtinā بِـَٔايَةٍ bi-āyatin كَمَآ kamā أُرْسِلَ ursila ٱلْأَوَّلُونَ l-awwalūna
Sūra 54

Sūrat al-Qamar 1 — The Moon: the Hour has drawn near and the moon has split

1
The Hour has drawn near, and the moon has split.
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ الم
ٱقْتَرَبَتِ iqtarabati ٱلسَّاعَةُ s-sāʿatu وَٱنشَقَّ wa-nšaqqa ٱلْقَمَرُ l-qamaru
Sūra 56

Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah 15–24 — The Inevitable: the paradisal reception of the foremost

15
Upon closely-wrought couches,
قُلْ أَؤُنَبِّئُكُم بِخَيْرٍ مِّن ذَٰلِكُمْ لِلَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا وَأَزْوَاجٌ مُّطَهَّرَةٌ وَرِضْوَانٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ
عَلَىٰ ʿalā سُرُرٍ sururin مَّوْضُونَةٍ mawḍūnatin
16
reclining upon them, facing one another.
الَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا إِنَّنَا آمَنَّا فَاغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
مُتَّكِـِٔينَ muttakiʾīna عَلَيْهَا ʿalayhā مُتَقَٰبِلِينَ mutaqābilīna
17
Among them circulate youths of unaging endurance,
الصَّابِرِينَ وَالصَّادِقِينَ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْمُنفِقِينَ وَالْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ بِالْأَسْحَارِ
يَطُوفُ yaṭūfu عَلَيْهِمْ ʿalayhim وِلْدَٰنٌ wildānun مُّخَلَّدُونَ muḫalladūna
18
with goblets, ewers, and a cup from a flowing spring —
شَهِدَ اللَّهُ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ وَأُولُو الْعِلْمِ قَائِمًا بِالْقِسْطِ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
بِأَكْوَابٍ bi-akwābin وَأَبَارِيقَ wa-abārīqa وَكَأْسٍ wa-kaʾsin مِّن min مَّعِينٍ maʿīnin
19
by which they are neither pained with headache nor brought to depletion;
إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللَّهِ الْإِسْلَامُ وَمَا اخْتَلَفَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ إِلَّا مِن بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَهُمُ الْعِلْمُ بَغْيًا بَيْنَهُمْ وَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ
لَّا lā يُصَدَّعُونَ yuṣaddaʿūna عَنْهَا ʿanhā وَلَا wa-lā يُنزِفُونَ yunzafūna
20
and fruit of their choosing,
فَإِنْ حَاجُّوكَ فَقُلْ أَسْلَمْتُ وَجْهِيَ لِلَّهِ وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِ وَقُل لِّلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ وَالْأُمِّيِّينَ أَأَسْلَمْتُمْ فَإِنْ أَسْلَمُوا فَقَدِ اهْتَدَوا وَّإِن تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّمَا عَلَيْكَ الْبَلَاغُ وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ
وَفَٰكِهَةٍ wa-fākihatin مِّمَّا mimmā يَتَخَيَّرُونَ yataḫayyarūna
21
and the flesh of fowl, of what they desire.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ النَّبِيِّينَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ وَيَقْتُلُونَ الَّذِينَ يَأْمُرُونَ بِالْقِسْطِ مِنَ النَّاسِ فَبَشِّرْهُم بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ
وَلَحْمِ wa-laḥmi طَيْرٍ ṭayrin مِّمَّا mimmā يَشْتَهُونَ yaštahūna
22
And wide-eyed companions,
أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَالُهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَمَا لَهُم مِّن نَّاصِرِينَ
وَحُورٌ wa-ḥūrun عِينٌ ʿīnun
23
like the likeness of sheltered pearls —
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا نَصِيبًا مِّنَ الْكِتَابِ يُدْعَوْنَ إِلَىٰ كِتَابِ اللَّهِ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَهُمْ ثُمَّ يَتَوَلَّىٰ فَرِيقٌ مِّنْهُمْ وَهُم مُّعْرِضُونَ
كَأَمْثَٰلِ ka-amṯāli ٱللُّؤْلُؤِ l-luʾluʾi ٱلْمَكْنُونِ l-maknūni
24
a recompense for what they used to do.
ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا لَن تَمَسَّنَا النَّارُ إِلَّا أَيَّامًا مَّعْدُودَاتٍ وَغَرَّهُمْ فِي دِينِهِم مَّا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ
جَزَآءًۢ jazāʾan بِمَا bi-mā كَانُوا۟ kānū يَعْمَلُونَ yaʿmalūna
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