The Koran Part 52

Let them feast and enjoy themselves, and let hope beguile them: but they shall know the truth at last.

We never destroyed a city whose term was not perfixed:3

No people can forestall or r.e.t.a.r.d its destiny.

They say: "O thou to whom the warning hath been sent down, thou art surely possessed by a djinn:

Wouldst thou not have come to us with the angels, if thou wert of those who a.s.sert the truth?"

-We will not send down the angels without due cause.4 The Infidels would not in that case have been respited.

Verily, We have sent down the warning, and verily, We will be its guardian;

And already have We sent Apostles, before thee, among the sects of the ancients;

But never came Apostles to them whom they did not deride.

In like manner will We put it into the hearts of the sinners of Mecca to do the same:

They will not believe on him though the example of those of old hath gone before.

Even were We to open above them a gate in Heaven, yet all the while they were mounting up to it,

They would surely say: It is only that our eyes are drunken: nay, we are a people enchanted.

We have set the signs of the zodiac5 in the Heavens, and adorned and decked them forth for the beholders,

And We guard them from every stoned6 Satan,

Save such as steal a hearing:7 and him doth a visible flame pursue.

And the Earth have We spread forth, and thrown thereon the mountains, and caused everything to spring forth in it in balanced measure:

And We have provided therein sustenance for you, and for the creatures which not ye sustain:

And no one thing is there, but with Us are its storehouses; and We send it not down but in settled measure:

And We send forth the fertilising winds, and cause the rain to come down from the heaven, and give you to drink of it; and it is not ye who are its storers:

And We cause to live and We cause to die,8 and We are the heir of all things:

We know those of you who flourish first and We know those who come later:

And truly thy Lord will gather them together again, for He is Wise, Knowing.

We created man of dried clay, of dark loam moulded;

And the djinn had We before created of subtle fire.

Remember when thy Lord said to the Angels, "I create man of dried clay, of dark loam moulded:

And when I shall have fas.h.i.+oned him and breathed of my spirit into him, then fall ye down and wors.h.i.+p him."

And the Angels bowed down in wors.h.i.+p, all of them, all together,

Save Eblis: he refused to be with those who bowed in wors.h.i.+p.

"O Eblis,"9 said G.o.d, "wherefore art thou not with those who bow down in wors.h.i.+p?"

He said, "It beseemeth not me to bow in wors.h.i.+p to man whom thou hast created of clay, of moulded loam."

He said, "Begone then hence; thou art a stoned one,10

And the curse shall be on thee till the day of reckoning."

He said, "O my Lord! respite me till the day when man shall be raised from the dead."

He said, "One then of the respited shalt thou be

Till the day of the predestined time."

He said, "O my Lord! because thou hast beguiled me, I will surely make all fair seeming to them11 on the earth; I will surely beguile them all;

Except such of them as shall be thy sincere servants."

He said, "This is the right way with me;

For over none of my servants shalt thou have power, save those beguiled ones who shall follow thee."

And verily, h.e.l.l is the promise for them one and all.

It hath seven Portals;12 at each Portal is a separate band of them;

But 'mid gardens and fountains shall the pious dwell:

"Enter ye therein in peace, secure-"

And all rancour will We remove from their bosoms: they shall sit as brethren, face to face, on couches:

Therein no weariness shall reach them, nor forth from it shall they be cast for ever.

Announce to my servants that I am the Gracious, the Merciful,

And that my chastis.e.m.e.nt is the grievous chastis.e.m.e.nt.

And tell them of Abraham's guests.

When they entered in unto him, and said, "Peace."