of you shall not be able either to profit or to hurt the other. And we will say unto those who have acted unjustly, Taste ye the pain of hell fire, which ye rejected as a falsehood. When our evident signs are read unto them, they say of thee, O Mohammed, This is no other than a man, who seeketh to turn you aside from the gods which your fathers worshiped. And they say of the Koran, This is no other than a lie blasphemously forged. And the unbelievers say of the truth, when it is come unto them, This is no other than manifest sorcery: yet we have given them no books of scripture wherein to exercise themselves, nor have we sent unto them any warner before thee. They who were before them in like manner accused their prophets of imposture: but these have not arrived unto the tenth part of the riches and strength which we had bestowed on the former: and they accused my apostles of imposture; and how severe was my vengeance! Say, Verily I advise you unto one thing, namely, that ye stand before God by two and two, and singly; and then consider seriously, and you will find that there is no madness in your companion Mohammed: he is no other than a warner unto you, sent before a severe punishment. Say, I ask not of you any reward for my preaching; it is your own, either to give or not: my reward is to be expected from God alone; and he is witness over all things. Say, Verily my Lord sendeth down the truth to his prophets: he is the knower of secrets. Say, Truth is come, and falsehood is vanished, and shall not return any more. Say, If I err, verily I shall err only against my own soul: but if I be rightly directed, it will be by that which my Lord revealeth unto me; for he is ready to hear, and nigh unto those who call upon him. If thou couldst see, when the unbelievers shall tremble, and shall find no refuge, and shall be taken from a near place, and shall say, We believe in him! But how shall they receive the faith from a distant place: since they had before denied him, and reviled the mysteries of faith, from a distant place? And a bar shall be placed between them and that which they shall desire; as it hath been done with those who behaved like them heretofore: because they have been in a doubt which hath caused scandal. CHAPTER XXXV ENTITLED, THE CREATOR: REVEALED AT MECCA IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD 1 Praise be unto God, the Creator of heaven and earth; who maketh the angels his messengers, furnished with two, and three, and four pair of wings: 1 God maketh what he pleaseth unto his creatures; for God is almighty. The mercy which God shall freely bestow on mankind, there is none who can withhold; and what he shall withhold, there is none who can bestow, besides him: and he is the mighty, the wise. O men, remember the favor of God toward you: is there any creator, besides God, who provideth food for you from heaven and earth? There is no God but he: how therefore are ye turned aside from acknowledging his unity? If they accuse thee of imposture, apostles before thee have also been accused of imposture; and unto God shall all things return. O men, verily the promise of God is true: let not therefore the present life deceive you, neither let the deceiver deceive you concerning God: for Satan is an enemy unto you; wherefore hold him for an enemy: he only inviteth his confederates to be the inhabitants of hell. For those who believe not there is prepared a severe torment: but for those who shall believe and do that which is right is prepared mercy and a great reward. Shall he therefore for whom his evil work hath been prepared, and who imagineth it to be good, be as he who is rightly disposed and discerneth the truth? Verily God will cause to err whom he pleaseth, and will direct whom he pleaseth. Let not thy soul therefore be spent in sighs for their sakes, on account of their obstinacy; for God well knoweth that which they do. It is God who sendeth the winds, and raiseth a cloud; and 1 That is, some angels have a greater and some a lesser number of wings, according to their different orders, the words not being designed to express the particular number. Gabriel is said to have appeared to Mohammed, on the night he made his journey to heaven, with no less than six hundred wings. |