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Hour shall be most grievous and bitter.
Verily the sinners are in error and madness!
One day they shall be dragged into the fire on their faces: “Taste ye the touch of Hell.
Verily all things have we created by a decree,
And our command is but one moment, like the twinkling of an eye.
And we have destroyed the like of you:—but doth any one mind?
And everything that they do is in the Books;
Everything, little and great, is written down.
Verily the pious shall be amid gardens and rivers,
In the seat of truth, before the King Omnipotent.

(liv.)

K.
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
K. By the glorious Korān.
Nay, they marvel that a warner from among themselves hath come to them: and the unbelievers say, “This is a marvellous thing!
When we are dead and are become dust!—that is a far-fetched return!”
We know what the earth consumeth of them, and with us is a book that keepeth count.
Nay, they called the truth a lie when it came to them, but they are in a perplexed state.
Will they not look up to the heaven above them, how we built it, and beautified it, and there are no flaws therein?
And we spread out the earth, and cast stable mountains upon it, and caused to grow there plants of all beauteous kinds,
For consideration and warning to every repentant servant.
And we sent down water from heaven as a blessing, and caused thereby gardens and harvest grain to grow,
And tall palm-trees with spathes heaped up,
A provision for our servants; and revived thereby a barren land. Like that shall the resurrection be.
Before them the people of Noah and the people of Er-Rass and Thamūd called the prophets liars,
And Ad, and Pharaoh, and the brethren of Lot, and the people of the grove, and the people of Tubba´—one and all called the apostles liars,—and found the threat true.
Were we then impotent as to the first creation? yet they are in doubt about a new creation.
We created man, and we know what his soul whispereth, and we are nearer to him than his jugular vein.
When the two note-takers take note, sitting on the right hand and on the left,
Not a word doth he utter, but a watcher is by him ready.
And the stupor of death shall come in truth;—“this is what thou would’st have avoided.”
And the trumpet shall be blown,—that is the Day of the Threat!
And every soul shall come, along with a driver and a witness—
“Thou didst not heed this: so we have taken away from thee thy veil, and to-day thy sight is keen.”
And his companion shall say, “This is what I am ready to witness.”
“Cast ye into Hell every unbelieving rebel,
Hinderer of the good, transgressor, doubter,
Who setteth up other gods with God; cast ye him into the fierce torment.”
His companion shall say, “O our Lord! I misled him not; but he was in fathomless error.”
God shall say, “Wrangle not before me, for I charged you before about the threat.
My word does not change, and I am not unjust to my servants.”
On that day will we say to Hell, “Art thou full?” and it shall say, “Is there more?”
And Paradise shall be brought nigh to the righteous, not afar:—
“This is what ye were promised, unto every one who turneth himself to God and keepeth His laws,
Who feareth the Merciful in secret, and cometh with a contrite heart;
Enter it in peace:”—that is the Day of Eternity!
They shall have what they please therein, and increase at our hands.
And how many generations have we destroyed before them, mightier than they in valour! then seek through the land—is there any refuge?
Verily in that is a warning to him who hath a heart, or giveth ear, and is a beholder.
And We created the heavens, and the earth, and what is between them, in six days, and no weariness touched us.
Then be patient with what they say, magnify thy Lord with praise before the rising of the sun and its setting,
And in the night magnify Him, and in the endings of the prayers.
And give ear to the day when the crier shall cry from a near place,
The day when they shall hear the shout in truth—that is the day of resurrection!
Verily it is we who give life and death, and to us do all return.
The day when the earth shall gape asunder over them suddenly—that is the gathering easy to us!
We know well what they say: and thou art not a tyrant over them.
But warn by the Korān him who feareth the threat.

(l.)

Y. S.
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Y. S. By the wise Korān!
Verily thou art of the Messengers
Upon the straight way.
A revelation of the Mighty, the Merciful:—
To warn a people whose fathers were not warned, and themselves are heedless.
Our word has proved true against the most of them; yet they will not believe!
Verily we have put shackles on their necks, reaching to the chin, and their heads are tied back;
And we have put a barrier before them and a barrier behind them, and we have covered them so that they see not;
And it is all one to them whether thou warn them or warn them not: they will not believe.
Thou wilt only warn to good purpose him who followeth the monition and feareth the Merciful in secret: so tell him good tidings of forgiveness and a noble reward.
Verily it is we who quicken the dead, and write down the deeds they have sent before them and the vestiges they leave behind them; and everything do we set down in the plain Exemplar.
And frame for them a parable—the people of the town [of Antioch], when the Apostles came to it;
When we sent unto them two, and they called them liars; so we strengthened them with a third, and they said, “Verily we are sent unto you.”
The people said, “Ye are only men like us; and the Merciful hath not revealed aught; in sooth ye are only lying.”
They said, “Our Lord knoweth that we are indeed sent unto you;
And there is naught laid upon us but to announce a plain message.”
The people said, “Of a truth we have drawn an evil augury from you: unless ye desist, we will surely stone you, and a painful punishment shall surely betide you from us.”
They said, “Your evil augury is with yourselves! If ye be warned?—Nay! ye are an ignorant people.”
And there came from the furthest part of the city a man running: he said, “O my people! follow the Apostles,
Follow those who ask you not for recompense, and who are guided aright.
And what is in me, that I should not worship Him who made me and to whom ye must return?
Shall I take gods beside Him? If the Merciful be pleased to afflict me, their intercession will not avail me aught, nor will they deliver me;
Verily in that case I should be in a manifest error.
Verily I believe in your Lord: therefore hear ye me.”—
It was said, “Enter into Paradise,” and he said, “Would that my people knew
How that my Lord hath forgiven me and hath made me one of the honoured!”
And afterwards we sent not down upon his people armies out of heaven nor what we were wont to send down:
It was but one shout, and lo, they were extinct!
O the pity of men! No apostle cometh to them but they laugh him to scorn.
Do they not consider how many generations we have destroyed before them?
Verily they shall not return to them,
But gathered together before us shall they all be arraigned.
And a sign for them is the dead earth which we quicken and bring thereforth grain, and they eat of it;
And we make therein gardens of palm-trees and vines, and cause springs to gush forth therein;
That they may eat of its fruits, and of the labour of their hands: and will they not be thankful?
Extolled be the glory of Him who hath created all sorts of what the earth beareth, and of men’s selves, and of that they know not of!
And a sign for them is the night. We draw away the day from it, and lo! they are in darkness;
And the sun hasteneth to her resting-place.—This is the ordinance of the Mighty, the Wise!—
And for the moon we have decreed his mansions, till he is wasted to the likeness of a withered palm-branch.
It is not meet that the sun should overtake the moon, nor the night outstrip the day; but each doth swim in its sphere.
And it is a sign for them that we carry their offspring in the burthened ship;
And that we create for them the like of it to ride on;
And if we please, we drown them, and there is no succour for them, nor are they delivered,
Save in our mercy, and for a transient joy.
And when it is said to them, “Fear what is before you and what is behind you; haply ye may obtain mercy:”
Thou bringest not one sign of the signs of their Lord but they turn away from it!
And when it is said to them, “Give alms of what God hath bestowed on you,” they who disbelieve say to those who believe, “Shall we feed him whom God can feed if He pleases? verily ye are only in manifest error.”
And they say “When will this threat come to pass, if ye be speakers of truth?”
They await but a single blast; it shall smite them whilst they are wrangling,
And they shall not be able to make their wills, and unto their families they shall not return.
And the trumpet shall be blown, and behold they shall hasten out of the graves to their Lord:
Saying, “Oh, woe is us! who hath roused us from our sleeping-place? This is what the Merciful threatened; and the apostles spake truth.”
There shall be but one blast, and, lo! all are arraigned before us;
And on that day no soul shall be wronged at all, nor shall ye be recompensed save for what ye have wrought.
Verily on that day the people of Paradise shall, be happy in their pursuits,
They and their wives reclining on couches in the shade;
They have fruit there and whatsoever they demand:
“Peace” is their greeting from a merciful Lord.
“Separate ye this day, O ye sinners!
Did I not charge you, O sons of Adam, not to serve the Devil,—surely he is your open enemy,—
But to worship Me: this is the straight way?
Yet he led away a great multitude of you: had ye no wits?
This is Hell, which ye were threatened with:
Roast there to-day, because ye did not believe.”
On that day will we set a seal on their mouths, but their hands shall speak to us, and their feet shall bear witness of what they have earned for themselves.
And if we pleased, we could put out their eyes, and still would they hasten on their way: but how would they see?
And if we pleased we could transform them as they stand so that they could not go on
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