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

God, and His message: and for such as shall rebel against God and his apostle is the fire of Hell! they shall remain therein alway,-for ever!

Until they see their threatened vengeance they will be perverse! but then shall they know which side was the weakest in a protector and the fewest in number.

SAY: I know not whether that with which ye are threatened be nigh, or whether my Lord hath assigned it to a distant day: He knoweth the secret, nor doth He divulge his secret to any,

Except to that Apostle who pleaseth Him; and before him and behind him He maketh a guard to march:

That He may know if his Apostles have verily delivered the messages of their Lord: and He embraceth in his knowledge all their ways, and taketh count of all that concerneth them.

_______________________

1 This interview with the Djinn took place at Nakhla, probably the "Wady Mohram" of Burckhardt, midway between Mecca and Taef, when Muhammad was driven from Mecca. A.D. 620.

SURA LXVII.-THE KINGDOM [LXIII.]

MECCA.- 30 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

BLESSED be He is whose hand is the KINGDOM! and over all things is He potent:

Who hath created death and life to prove which of you will be most righteous in deed; and He is the Mighty, the Forgiving!

Who hath created seven Heavens one above another: No defect canst thou see in the creation of the God of Mercy: Repeat the gaze: seest thou a single flaw?

Then twice more repeat the gaze: thy gaze shall return to thee dulled and weary.

Moreover we have decked the lowest heaven with lights, and have placed them there to be hurled at the Satans, for whom we have prepared the torment of the flaming fire.

And for those who believe not in their Lord is the torment of Hell; and horrid the journey thither!

When they shall be thrown into it, they shall hear it braying:1 and it shall boil-

Almost shall it burst for fury. So oft as a crowd shall be thrown into it, its keepers shall ask them, "Came not the warner to you?"

They shall say, Yes! there came to us one charged with warnings; but we treated him as a liar, and said, "Nothing hath God sent down: ye are in nothing but a vast delusion."

And they shall say, "Had we but hearkened or understood, we had not been among the dwellers in the flames;"

And their sin shall they acknowledge: but, "Avaunt, ye dwellers in the flame."

But pardon and a great reward for those who fear their Lord in secret!

Be your converse hidden or open, He truly knoweth the inmost recess of your breasts!

What! shall He not know who hath created? for He is the Subtil,2 the
Cognizant.

It is He who hath made the earth level for you: traverse then its broad sides, and eat of what He hath provided.-Unto Him shall be the resurrection.

What! are ye sure that He who is in Heaven will not cleave the Earth beneath you? And lo, it shall quake.

Or are ye sure that He who is in Heaven will not send against you a stone- charged whirlwind? Then shall ye know what my warning meant!

And verily, those who flourish before you treated their prophets as liars: and how grievous my wrath!

Behold they not the birds over their heads, outstretching and drawing in their wings? None, save the God of Mercy, upholdeth them: for he regardeth all things.

Who is he that can be as an army to you, to succour you, except the God of
Mercy? Truly, the infidels are in the merest delusion.

Or who is he that will furnish you supplies, if He withhold His supplies? Yet do they persist in pride and in fleeing from Him!

Is he who goeth along grovelling on his face, better guided than he who goeth upright on a straight path?

SAY: It is He who hath brought you forth, and gifted you with hearing and sight and heart: yet how few are grateful!

SAY: It is He who hath sown you in the earth, and to Him shall ye be gathered.

And they say, "When shall this threat be put in force, if ye speak the truth?"

SAY: Nay truly, this knowledge is with God alone: and I am only an open warner.

But when they shall see it nigh, sad shall wax the countenances of the infidels: and it shall be said, "This is what ye have been calling for."

SAY: What think ye? Whether God destroy me or not, and those who follow me, or whether he have mercy on us, yet who will protect the infidels from a woeful torment?

SAY: He is the God of Mercy: in Him do we believe, and in Him put we our trust; and ye shall know hereafter who is in a manifest error.

SAY: What think ye? If at early morn your waters shall have sunk away, who then will give you clear running water?

_______________________

1 Thus Shakespeare uses the word braying of clamours of Hell; and Milton speaks of braying horrible discord. Comp. Sura xxv. 12-21.

2 Der alles durchdringt. Ullm.; perspicax. Mar.; sagacious. Sale. The primary meaning of the Arabic root is to draw near; hence the above signification, in the sense of God's presence as interpenetrating all things: hence also the other sense of benign, as in Sura [lxxxiii.] xlii. 18.

SURA XXIII.-THE BELIEVERS [LXIV.]

MECCA.1-118 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

HAPPY now the BELIEVERS,

Who humble them in their prayer,

And who keep aloof from vain words,2

And who are doers of alms deeds,

And who restrain their appetites,

(Save with their wives, or the slaves whom their right hands possess: for in that case they shall be free from blame:

But they whose desires reach further than this are transgressors:)

And who tend well their trusts and their covenants,

And who keep them strictly to their prayers:

These shall be the heritors,

Who shall inherit the paradise, to abide therein for ever.

Now of fine clay have we created man:

Then we placed him, a moist germ,3 in a safe abode;

Then made we the moist germ a clot of blood: then made the clotted blood into a piece of flesh; then made the piece of flesh into bones: and we clothed the bones with flesh: then brought forth man of yet another make4-Blessed therefore be God, the most excellent of Makers5-

Then after this ye shall surely die:

Then shall ye be waked up on the day of resurrection.

And we have created over you seven heavens:6-and we are not careless of the creation.

And we send down water from the Heaven in its due degree, and we cause it to settle on the earth;-and we have power for its withdrawal:-

And by it we cause gardens of palm trees, and vineyards to spring forth for you, in which ye have plenteous fruits, and whereof ye eat;

And the tree that groweth up on Mount Sinai; which yieldeth oil and a juice for those who eat.

And there is a lesson for you in the cattle: We give you to drink of what is in their bellies, and many advantages do ye derive from them, and for food they serve you;

And on them and on ships are ye borne.

We sent Noah heretofore unto his people, and he said, "O my people! serve
God: ye have no other God than He: will ye not therefore fear Him?

But the chiefs of the people who believed not said, "This is but a man like yourselves: he fain would raise himself above you: but had it pleased God to send, He would have sent angels: We heard not of this with our sires of old;-

Verily he is but a man possessed; leave him alone therefore for a time."

He said, "O my Lord! help me against their charge of imposture."

So we revealed unto him, "Make the ark under our eye, and as we have taught, and when our doom shall come on, and the earth's surface shall boil up,7

Carry into it of every kind a pair, and thy family, save him on whom sentence hath already passed: and plead not with me for the wicked, for they shall be drowned.

And when thou, and they who shall be with thee, shall go up into the ark; say, 'Praise be unto God, who hath rescued us from the wicked folk.'

And say, 'O my Lord! disembark me with a blessed disembarking: for thou art the best to disembark."'

Verily in this were signs, and verily we made proof of man.

We then raised up other generations after them;

And we sent among them an apostle from out themselves, with, "Worship ye God! ye have no other God than He: will ye not therefore fear Him?"

And the chiefs of His people who believed not, and who deemed the meeting with us in the life to come to be a lie, and whom we had richly supplied in this present life, said, "This is but a man like yourselves; he eateth of what ye eat,

And he drinketh of what ye drink:

And if ye obey a man like yourselves, then ye will surely be undone.

What! doth he foretell you, that after ye shall be dead and become dust and bones, ye shall be brought forth?

Away, away with his predictions!

There is no life beyond our present life; we die, and we live, and we shall not be quickened again!

This is merely a man who forgeth a lie about God: and we will not believe him."

He said, "O my Lord! help me against this charge of imposture."

He said, "Yet a little, and they will soon repent them!"

Then did the shout of the destroying angel in justice surprise them, we made them like leaves swept down by a torrent. Away then with the wicked people!

Then raised we up other generations after them-

Neither too soon, nor too late, shall a people reach its appointed time-

Then sent we our apostles one after another. Oft as their apostle presented himself to a nation, they treated him as a liar; and we caused one nation to follow another; and we made them the burden of a tale. Away then with the people who believe not!

Then sent we Moses and his brother Aaron, with our signs and manifest power,

To Pharaoh and his princes; but they behaved them proudly, for they were a haughty people.

And they said, "Shall we believe on two men like ourselves, whose people are our slaves?"

And they treated them both as impostors; wherefore they became of the destroyed.

And we gave Moses the Book for Israel's guidance.

And we appointed the Son of Mary, and His mother for a sign; and we prepared an abode for both in a lofty spot,8 quiet, and watered with springs.

"O ye apostles! eat of things that are good: and do that which is right: of your doings I am cognisant.

And truly this your religion is the one religion;9 and I am your Lord: therefore fear me."

But men have rent their great concern, one among another, into sects; every party rejoicing in that which is their own;

Wherefore leave them till a certain time, in their depths of error.

What! think they that what we largely, bestow on them of wealth and children,

We hasten to them for their good? Nay, they have no knowledge.

But they who are awed with the dread of their Lord,

And who believe in the signs of their Lord,

And who join no other gods with their Lord,

And who give that which they give with hearts thrilled with dread because they must return unto their Lord,

These hasten after good, and are the first to win it.

We will not burden a soul beyond its power: and with us is a book, which speaketh the truth; and they shall not be wronged:

But as to this Book, their hearts are plunged in error, and their works are far other than those of Muslims, and they will work those works,

Until when we lay hold on their affluent ones with punishment; lo! they cry for