The Koran Part 72

They who shall be gathered upon their faces into h.e.l.l, shall have the worst place, and be farthest from the path of happiness.

Heretofore we gave the law to Moses, and appointed his brother Aaron to be his counsellor:12

And we said, "Go ye to the people who treat our signs as lies." And them destroyed we with utter destruction.

And as to the people of Noah! when they treated their Apostles as impostors, we drowned them; and we made them a sign to mankind:-A grievous chastis.e.m.e.nt have we prepared for the wicked!

And Ad and Themoud, and the men of Ra.s.s,13 and divers generations between them:

Unto each of them did we set forth parables for warnings, and each of them did we utterly exterminate.

Oft are this have the unbelieving Meccans pa.s.sed by the city on which was rained a fatal rain. What! Have they not seen it? Yet have they no hope of a resurrection!

And when they see thee, they do but take thee as the subject of their railleries. "What! Is this he whom G.o.d has sent as an Apostle?

Indeed he had well nigh led us astray from our G.o.ds, had we not persevered steadfastly in their service." But in the end they shall know, when they shall see the punishment, who hath most strayed from the path.

What thinkest thou? He who hath taken his pa.s.sions as a G.o.d-wilt thou be a guardian over him?

Thinkest thou that the greater part of them hear or understand? They are just like the brutes! Yes! they stray even further from the right way.

Hast thou not seen how thy Lord lengtheneth out the shadow?14 Had He pleased he had made it motionless.15 But we made the sun to be its guide;

Then draw it in unto Us with easy indrawing.

He it is who ordaineth the night as a garment, and sleep for rest, and ordaineth the day for waking up to life:

He it is who sendeth the winds as the forerunner of his mercy (rain); and pure water send we down from Heaven,

That we may revive by it a dead land: and we give it for drink to our creation, beasts and men in numbers;

And we distribute it among them on all sides, that they may reflect: but most men refuse to be aught but thankless.

Had we pleased, we had raised up a warner in every city.

Give not way therefore to the Infidels, but by means of this Koran strive against them with a mighty strife.

And He it is who hath let loose the two seas,16 the one sweet, fresh; and the other salt, bitter; and hath put an inters.p.a.ce between them, and a barrier that cannot be pa.s.sed.

And it is He who hath created man of water,17 and established between them the ties of kindred and affinity: and potent is thy Lord.

Yet beside G.o.d do they wors.h.i.+p what can neither help nor hurt them: and the Infidel is Satan's helper against his Lord:

Still we have sent thee only as a herald and a warner.

SAY: I ask of you no recompense for it,18 except from him who is willing to take the way to his Lord.

And put thou thy trust in Him that liveth and dieth not, and celebrate his praise; (He fully knoweth the faults of his servants) who in six days created the Heavens and the Earth, and whatever is between them, then mounted his Throne: the G.o.d of Mercy! Ask now of the Wise concerning Him.

But when it is said to them, "Bow down before the G.o.d of Mercy," they say, "Who is the G.o.d of Mercy? Shall we bow down to what thou biddest?" And they fly from thee the more.

Blessed be He who hath placed in the Heaven the sign of the Zodiac!19 who hath placed in it the Lamp of the Sun, and the light-giving Moon!

And it is He who hath ordained the night and the day to succeed one another for those who desire to think on G.o.d or desire to be thankful.

And the servants of the G.o.d of Mercy are they who walk upon the Earth softly; and when the ignorant20 address them, they reply, "Peace!"

They that pa.s.s the night in the wors.h.i.+p of their lord prostrate and standing:-

And that say, "O our Lord! turn away from us the torment of h.e.l.l, for its torment is endless: it is indeed an ill abode and resting place!

Those who when they spend are neither lavish nor n.i.g.g.ard, but keep the mean:-

Those who call on no other G.o.ds with G.o.d, nor slay whom G.o.d hath forbidden to be slain, except for a just cause, and who commit not fornication (for he who doth this shall meet the reward of his wickedness:

Doubled to him shall be the torment on the day of Resurrection; and in it shall he remain, disgraced, for ever:-

Save those who shall repent and believe and do righteous works-for them G.o.d will change their evil things into good things, for G.o.d is Gracious, Merciful-

And whose turneth to G.o.d and doeth what is right, he verily will convert with a true conversion):

And they who bear not witness to that which is false, and when they pa.s.s by frivolous sport, pa.s.s on with dignity:-

And they who, when monished by the signs of their Lord, fall not down thereat, as if deaf and blind:-

And who say, "O our Lord! give us in our wives and offspring the joy of our eyes, and make us examples to those who fear thee:"

These shall be rewarded with the High Places of Paradise for their steadfast endurance, and they shall meet therein with-Welcome and Salutation:-

For ever shall they remain therein: a fair abode and resting-place!

SAY: Not on your account doth my Lord care if ye call not on Him! ye have treated his Apostle as an impostor: but bye and bye a punishment shall cleave to them.

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1 See Sura [lxv.] xxi. 49.

2 Comp. Sura [lxxiii.] xvi. 105. The frequency with which Muhammad feels it necessary to rebut this charge by mere denial is strongly indicative of its truth.

3 "The meaning may possibly be that the teachers of Muhammad were persons who had taken refuge in Arabia for offences and heresies." Sprenger, Life of M.

p. 96, n. Or, but they utter an injustice and a falsehood. Noldeke combats Dr. Sprenger's supposition that "Tales of the ancients" (verse 6) is a book.

Hist. of Qoran, p. 13.

4 Supply, we will not believe.

5 In your ascriptions of divinity to them. Beidh.

6 Or, far, far be they removed. The same words occur at the end of verse 55.