The Koran Part 60

Follow those who ask not of you a recompense, and who are rightly guided.

And why should I not wors.h.i.+p Him who made me, and to whom ye shall be brought back?

Shall I take G.o.ds beside Him? If the G.o.d of Mercy be pleased to afflict me, their intercession will not avert from me aught, nor will they deliver:

Truly then should I be in a manifest error.

Verily, in your Lord have I believed; therefore hear me."8

-It was said to him, "Enter thou into Paradise:" And he said, "Oh that my people knew

How gracious G.o.d hath been to me, and that He hath made me one of His honoured ones."

But no army sent we down out of heaven after his death, nor were we then sending down our angels-

There was but one shout from Gabriel, and lo! they were extinct.

Oh! the misery that rests upon my servants! No apostle cometh to them but they laugh him to scorn.

See they not how many generations we have destroyed before them?

Not to false G.o.ds is it that they shall be brought9 back,

But all, gathered together, shall be set before Us.

Moreover, the dead earth is a sign to them: we quicken it and bring forth the grain from it, and they eat thereof:

And we make in it gardens of the date and vine; and we cause springs to gush forth in it;

That they may eat of its fruits and of the labour of their hands. Will they not therefore be thankful?

Glory be to Him, who hath created all the s.e.xual pairs of such things as Earth produceth,10 and of mankind themselves; and of things beyond their ken!

A sign to them also is the Night. We withdraw the day from it, and lo! they are plunged in darkness;

And the Sun hasteneth to her place of rest. This, the ordinance of the Mighty, the Knowing!

And as for the Moon, We have decreed stations for it, till it change like an old and crooked palm branch.

To the Sun it is not given to overtake the Moon, nor doth the night outstrip the day; but each in its own sphere doth journey on.

It is also a sign to them that we bare their posterity in the full-laden Ark;

And that we have made for them vessels like it on which they embark;

And if we please, we drown them, and there is none to help them, and they are not rescued,

Unless through our mercy, and that they may enjoy themselves for yet awhile.

And when it is said to them, Fear what is before you and what is behind you,11 that ye may obtain mercy... .

Aye, not one sign from among the signs of their Lord dost thou bring them, but they turn away from it!

And when it is said to them, Give alms of what G.o.d hath bestowed on you,12 they who believe not say to the believers, "Shall we feed him whom G.o.d can feed if He will? Truly ye are in no other than a plain error."

And they say, "When will this promise be fulfilled, if what ye say be true?"

They await but a single blast: as they are wrangling shall it a.s.sail them:

And not a bequest shall they be able to make, nor to their families shall they return.

And the trumpet shall be blown, and, lo! they shall speed out of their sepulchres to their Lord:

They shall say, "Oh! woe to us! who hath roused us from our sleeping place?

'Tis what the G.o.d of Mercy promised; and the Apostles spake the truth."

But one blast shall there be,13 and, lo! they shall be a.s.sembled before us, all together.

And on that day shall no soul be wronged in the least: neither shall ye be rewarded but as ye shall have wrought.

But joyous on that day shall be the inmates of Paradise, in their employ;

In shades, on bridal couches reclining, they and their spouses:

Therein shall they have fruits, and shall have whatever they require-

"Peace!" shall be the word on the part of a merciful Lord.

"But be ye separated this day, O ye sinners!

Did I not enjoin on you, O sons of Adam, 'Wors.h.i.+p not Satan, for that he is your declared foe,'

But 'Wors.h.i.+p Me: this is a right path'?

But now hath he led a vast host of you astray. Did ye not then comprehend?

This is h.e.l.l with which ye were threatened:

Endure its heat this day, for that ye believed not."

On that day will we set a seal upon their mouths; yet shall their hands speak unto us, and their feet14 shall bear witness of that which they shall have done.

And, if we pleased, we would surely put out their eyes: yet even then would they speed on with rivalry in their path: but how should they see?

And, if we pleased, we would surely transform them as they stand,15 and they would not be able to move onward, or to return.

Him cause we to stoop through age whose days we lengthen. Will they not understand?