themselves created:

Dead are they, lifeless! and they know not

When they shall be raised!

Your God is the one God: and they who believe not in a future life, have
hearts given to denial, and are men of pride:-

Beyond a doubt God knoweth what they conceal and what they manifest:-

He truly loveth not the men of pride.

For when it is said to them, "What is this your Lord hath sent down?" they
say, "Fables of the ancients,"-

That on the day of resurrection they may bear their own entire burden, and
the burden of those whom they, in their ignorance, misled. Shall it not be a
grievous burden for them?

They who were before them did plot of old. But God attacked their building at
its foundation the roof fell on them from above; and, whence they looked not
for it, punishment overtook them:4

On the day of resurrection, too, will He shame them. He will say, "Where are
the gods ye associated with me, the subjects of your disputes?" They to whom
"the knowledge" hath been given will say, Verily, this day shall shame and
evil fall upon the infidels.

The sinners against their own souls whom the angels shall cause to die will
proffer the submission, "No evil have we done." Nay! God knoweth what ye have
wrought:

Enter ye therefore the gates of Hell to remain therein for ever: and horrid
the abiding place of the haughty ones!

But to those who have feared God it shall be said, "What is this that your
Lord hath awarded?" They shall say, "That which is best. To those who do
good, a good reward in this present world; but better the mansion of the
next, and right pleasant the abode of the God-fearing!"

Gardens of Eden into which they shall enter; rivers shall flow beneath their
shades; all they wish for shall they find therein! Thus God rewardeth those
who fear Him;

To whom, as righteous persons, the angels shall say, when they receive their
souls, "Peace be on you! Enter Paradise as the meed of your labours."

What can the infidels expect but that the angels of death come upon them, or
that a sentence of thy Lord take effect? Thus did they who flourished before
them. God was not unjust to them, but to their ownselves were they unjust;

And the ill which they had done recoiled upon them, and that which they had
scoffed at encompassed them round about.

They who have joined other gods with God say, "Had He pleased, neither we nor
our fathers had worshipped aught but him; nor should we, apart from him, have
forbidden aught." Thus acted they who were before them. Yet is the duty of
the apostles other than public preaching?

And to every people have we sent an apostle saying:-Worship God and turn away
from Taghout.5 Some of them there were whom God guided, and there were others
decreed to err. But go through the land and see what hath been the end of
those who treated my apostles as liars!

If thou art anxious for their guidance, know that God will not guide him whom
He would lead astray, neither shall they have any helpers.

And they swear by God with their most sacred oath that "God will never raise
him who once is dead." Nay, but on Him is a promise binding, though most men
know it not,-

That He may clear up to them the subject of their disputes, and that the
infidels may know that they are liars.

Our word to a thing when we will it, is but to say, "Be," and it is.6

And as to those who when oppressed have fled their country for the sake of
God, we will surely provide them a goodly abode in this world, but greater
the reward of the next life, did they but know it

They who bear ills with patience and put their trust in the Lord!

None have we sent before thee but men inspired ask of those who have Books of
Monition,7 if ye know it not-

With proofs of their mission and Scriptures: and to thee have we sent down
this Book of Monition that thou mayest make clear to men what hath been sent
down to them, and that they may ponder it.

What! Are they then who have plotted mischiefs, sure that God will not cause
the earth to cleave under them? or that a chastisement will not come upon
them whence they looked not for it?

Or that He will not seize upon them in their comings and goings, while they
shall not be able to resist him?

Or that he will not seize them with some slowly wasting scourge? But verily
your Lord is Good, Gracious.



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