The Quran (Koran), 1st translation, - [red queen free ebook txt] 📗

like flagons shall be borne round among them:

Flagons of silver whose measure themselves shall mete.

And there shall they be given to drink of the cup tempered with zendjebil (ginger)

From the fount therein whose name is Selsebil (the softly flowing).

Aye-blooming youths go round among them. When thou lookest at them thou wouldest deem them scattered pearls;

And when thou seest this, thou wilt see delights and a vast kingdom:

Their clothing green silk robes and rich brocade: with silver bracelets shall they be adorned; and drink of a pure beverage shall their Lord give them.

This shall be your recompense. Your efforts shall meet with thanks.

We ourselves have sent down to thee the Koran as a missive from on high.

Await then with patience the judgments of thy Lord, and obey not the wicked among them and the unbelieving:

And make mention of the name of thy Lord at morn, at even,

And at night. Adore him, and praise him the livelong night.

But these men love the fleeting present, and leave behind them the heavy day of doom.

Ourselves have we created them, and strengthened their joints; and when we please, with others like unto themselves will we replace them.

This truly is a warning: And whoso willeth, taketh the way to his Lord;

But will it ye shall not, unless God will it, for God is Knowing, Wise.

He causeth whom He will to enter into his mercy. But for the evil doers, He hath made ready an afflictive chastisement.

_______________________

1 When in the womb.

2 With (the water of) Kafoor. Lane.

3 Desire no recompense from you.

SURA XLIV.-SMOKE [LIII.]

MECCA.-59 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Ha. Mim.1 By this clear Book!

See! on a blessed night2 have we sent it down, for we would warn mankind:

On the night wherein all things are disposed in wisdom,3

By virtue of our behest. Lo! we have ever sent forth Apostles,

A mercy from thy Lord: he truly heareth and knoweth all things-

Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth and of all that is between them,-if ye be firm in faith-

There is no God but He!-He maketh alive and killeth!-Your Lord and the Lord of your sires of old!

Yet with doubts do they disport them.

But mark them on the day when the Heaven shall give out a palpable SMOKE,

Which shall enshroud mankind: this will be an afflictive torment.

They will cry, "Our Lord! relieve us from this torment: see! we are believers."

But how did warning avail them, when an undoubted apostle had come to them;

And they turned their backs on him, and said, "Taught by others, possessed?"

Were we to relieve you from the plague even a little, ye would certainly relapse.4

On the day when we shall fiercely put forth our great fierceness, we will surely take vengeance on them!

Of old, before their time, had we proved the people of Pharaoh, when a noble apostle presented himself to them.

"Send away with me," cried he, "the servants of God; for I am an apostle worthy of all credit:

And exalt not yourselves against God, for I come to you with undoubted power;

And I take refuge with Him who is my Lord and your Lord, that ye stone me not:

And if ye believe me not, at least separate yourselves from me."

And he cried to his Lord, "That these are a wicked people."

"March forth then, said God, with my servants by night, for ye will be pursued.

And leave behind you the cleft sea: they are a drowned host."

How many a garden and fountain did they quit!

And corn fields and noble dwellings!

And pleasures in which they rejoiced them!

So was it: and we gave them as a heritage to another people.

Nor Heaven nor Earth wept for them, nor was their sentence respited;

And we rescued the children of Israel from a degrading affliction-

From Pharaoh, for he was haughty, given to excess.

And we chose them, in our prescience, above all peoples,5

And we shewed them miracles wherein was their clear trial.

Yet these infidels say,

"There is but our first death, neither shall we be raised again:

Bring back our sires, if ye be men of truth."

Are they better than the people of Tobba,6

And those who flourished before them whom we destroyed for their evil deeds?

We have not created the Heavens and the Earth and whatever is between them in sport:

We have not created them but for a serious end:7 but the greater part of them understand it not.

Verily the day of severing8 shall be the appointed time of all:

A day when the master shall not at all be aided by the servant, neither shall they be helped;

Save those on whom God shall have mercy: for He is the mighty, the merciful.

Verily the tree of Ez-Zakkoum9

Shall be the sinner's10 food:

Like dregs of oil shall it boil up in their bellies,

Like the boiling of scalding water.

"-Seize ye him, and drag him into the mid-fire;

Then pour on his head of the tormenting boiling water.

-'Taste this:' for thou forsooth art the mighty, the honourable!

Lo! this is that of which ye doubted."

But the pious shall be in a secure place,

Amid gardens and fountains,

Clothed in silk and richest robes, facing one another:

Thus shall it be: and we will wed them to the virgins with large dark eyes:

Therein shall they call, secure, for every kind of fruit;

Therein, their first death passed, shall they taste death no more; and He shall keep them from the pains of Hell:-

'Tis the gracious bounty of thy Lord! This is the great felicity.

We have made this Koran easy for thee in thine own tongue, that they may take the warning.

Therefore wait thou, for they are waiting.11

_______________________

1 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32.

2 Of the 23rd and 24th of Ramadhan, in which, according to the Muslim creed, all the events of the year subsequent are arranged. See Sura xcvii. n. 2, p. 27.

3 Lit. We settle each wise affair-called wise, because proceeding direct from the will of Him who is absolute wisdom.

4 Beidh, and others suppose this verse to have been revealed at Medina. This opinion, however, is based upon the supposition that it refers to the famine with which Mecca was visited after the Hejira.

5 Comp. Ex. xx. 20; Deut. viii. 16.

6 Tobba, i.e. Chalif or successor, is the title of the Kings of Yemen; or of Hadramont, Saba, and Hamyar.-See Pocock, Spec. Hist. Ar. p. 60.

7 Lit. in truth.

8 That is, Of the good from the bad.

9 See Sura xxxvii. 60, p. 81.

10 The commentators suppose this sinner to be Abu Jahl, one of the chief of the Koreisch, and the bitter enemy of Muhammad.

11 To see the turn which events may take.

SURA L.-KAF [LIV.]

MECCA.-45 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Kaf1. By the glorious Koran:

They marvel forsooth that one of themselves hath come to them charged with warnings. "This," say the infidels, "is a marvellous thing:

What! when dead and turned to dust shall we. . . .? Far off is such a return as this?"

Now know we what the earth consumeth of them, and with us is a Book in which account is kept.

But they have treated the truth which hath come to them as falsehood; perplexed therefore is their state.

Will they not look up to the heaven above them, and consider how we have reared it and decked it forth, and that there are no flaws therein?

And as to the earth, we have spread it out, and have thrown the mountains upon it, and have caused an upgrowth in it of all beauteous kinds of plants,

For insight and admonition to every servant who loveth to turn to God:

And we send down the rain from Heaven with its blessings, by which we cause gardens to spring forth and the grain of harvest,

And the tall palm trees with date-bearing branches one above the other

For man's nourishment: And life give we thereby to a dead country. So also shall be the resurrection.

Ere the days of these (Meccans) the people of Noah, and the men of Rass2 and
Themoud, treated their prophets as impostors:

And Ad and Pharaoh, and the brethren of Lot and the dwellers in the forest, and the people of Tobba,3 all gave the lie to their prophets: justly, therefore, were the menaces inflicted.

Are we wearied out with the first creation? Yet are they in doubt with regard to a new creation!4

We created man: and we know what his soul whispereth to him, and we are closer to him than his neck-vein.

When the two angels charged with taking account shall take it, one sitting on the right hand, the other on the left:

Not a word doth he utter, but there is a watcher with him ready to note it down:

And the stupor of certain death cometh upon him: "This is what thou wouldst have shunned"-

And there shall be a blast on the trumpet,-it is the threatened day!

And every soul shall come,-an angel with it urging it along, and an angel to witness against it5-

Saith he, "Of this day didst thou live in heedlessness: but we have taken off thy veil from thee, and thy sight is becoming sharp this day."

And he who is at this side6 shall say, "This is what I am prepared with against thee."

And God will say, "Cast into Hell, ye twain, every infidel, every hardened one,

The hinderer of the good, the transgressor, the doubter,

Who set up other gods with God. Cast ye him into the fierce torment."

He who is at his side shall say, "O our Lord! I led him not astray, yet was he in an error wide of truth."

He shall say, "Wrangle not in my presence. I had plied you beforehand with menaces:

My doom changeth not, and I am not unjust to man."

On that day will we cry to Hell, "Art thou full?" And it shall say, "Are there more?"7

And not far from thence shall Paradise be brought near unto the Pious:

- "This is what ye have been promised: to every one who hath turned in penitence to God and kept his laws;

Who hath feared the God of Mercy in secret, and come to him with a contrite heart:

Enter it in peace: this is the day of Eternity."

There shall they have all that they can desire: and our's will it be to augment their bliss:

And how many generations have we destroyed ere the days of these (Meccans), mightier than they in strength! Search ye then the land. Is there any escape?

Lo! herein is warning for him who hath a heart, or giveth ear, and is himself an eye-witness.8

We created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six days, and no weariness touched us.9

Wherefore put up with what they say, and celebrate the praise of thy Lord before sunrise and before sunset:

And praise Him in the night: and perform the two final prostrations.

And list for the day whereon the crier shall cry from a place near to every one alike:

The day on which men shall in truth hear that shout will be the day of their coming forth from the grave.

Verily, we cause to live, and we cause to die. To us shall all return.

On the day when the earth shall swiftly cleave asunder over the dead, will this gathering be easy to Us.

We know best what the infidels say: and thou art not to compel them.

Warn then by the Koran those who fear my menace.

_______________________

1 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32.

2 See [lxvi.] xxv. 40.

3 See xliv. 36, p. 90.

4 The Resurrection.

5 Lit. a driver and a witness.

6 The Satan who is chained to him. Sura [lxxi.] xli. 24.

7 Lit. is there any addition? which