We will stigmatize him on the nose.

Verily we have tried the Meccans, as we formerly tried the owners of the garden; when they swore that they would gather the fruit thereof in the morning, and added not the exception, if it please G.o.d: wherefore a surrounding destruction from thy LORD encompa.s.sed it, while they slept; 20 and in the morning it became like a garden whose fruits had been gathered.

And they called the one to the other as they rose in the morning, saying, Go out early to your plantation, if ye intend to gather the fruit thereof: so they went on, whispering to one another, No poor man shall enter the garden upon you, this day.

And they went forth early, with a determined purpose.

And when they saw the garden blasted and destroyed, they said, We have certainly mistaken our way: but when they found it to be their own garden, they cried, Verily we are not permitted to reap the fruit thereof.

The worthier of them said, Did I not say unto you, Will ye not give praise unto G.o.d?

They answered, Praise be unto our LORD! Verily we have been unjust doers.

30 And they began to blame one another, and they said, Woe be unto us! verily we have been transgressors: peradventure our LORD will give us in exchange a better garden than this: and we earnestly beseech our LORD to pardon us.

Thus is the chastis.e.m.e.nt of this life: but the chastis.e.m.e.nt of the next shall be more grievous: if they had known it, they would have taken heed.

Verily for the pious are prepared, with their LORD, gardens of delight.

Shall we deal with the Moslems, as with the wicked?

What aileth you that ye judge thus?

Have ye a book from heaven, wherein ye read that ye are therein promised that which ye shall choose?

Or have ye received oaths which shall be binding upon us to the day of resurrection, that ye shall enjoy what ye imagine?

40 Ask them, which of them will be the voucher of this.

Or have they companions who will vouch for them? Let them produce their companions, therefore, if they speak truth.

On a certain day the leg shall be made bare; and they shall be called upon to worship, but they shall not be able.

Their looks shall be cast down: ignominy shall attend them; for that they were invited to the worship of G.o.d, while they were in safety, but would not hear.

Let me alone, therefore, with him who accuseth this new revelation of imposture. We will lead them gradually to destruction, by ways which they know not: and I will bear with them for a long time; for my stratagem is effectual.

Dost thou ask them any reward for thy preaching? But they are laden with debts.

Are the secrets of futurity with them; and do they transcribe the same from the table of G.o.d's decrees?

Wherefore patiently wait the judgment of thy LORD: and be not like him who was swallowed by the fish; when he cried unto G.o.d, being inwardly vexed.

Had not grace from his LORD reached him, he had surely been cast forth on the naked sh.o.r.e, covered with shame: 50 but his LORD chose him, and made him one of the righteous.

It wanteth little but that the unbelievers strike thee down with their malicious looks, when they hear the admonition of the Koran; and they say, He is certainly distracted: but it is no other than an admonition unto all creatures.

CHAPTER LXIX.

ENt.i.tLED, THE INFALLIBLE; REVEALED AT MECCA.

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL G.o.d.

THE infallible!

What is the infallible?

And what shall cause thee to understand what the infallible is?

The tribes of Thamud and Ad denied as a falsehood the day which shall strike men's hearts with terror.

But Thamud were destroyed by a terrible noise: and Ad were destroyed by a roaring and furious wind; which G.o.d caused to a.s.sail them for seven nights and eight days successively: thou mightest have seen people during the same, lying prostrate, as though they had been the roots of hollow palm-trees; and couldest thou have seen any of them remaining?

Pharaoh also, and those who were before him, and the cities which were overthrown, were guilty of sin: 10 and they severally were disobedient to the apostle of their LORD; wherefore he chastised them with an abundant chastis.e.m.e.nt.

When the water of the deluge arose, we carried you in the ark which swam thereon; that we might make the same a memorial unto you, and the retaining ear might retain it.

And when one blast shall sound the trumpet, and the earth shall be moved from its place, and the mountains also, and shall be dashed in pieces at one stroke: on that day the inevitable hour of judgment shall suddenly come; and the heavens shall cleave in sunder, and shall fall in pieces, on that day: and the angels shall be on the sides thereof; and eight shall bear the throne of thy LORD above them, on that day.

On that day ye shall be presented before the judgment-seat of G.o.d; and none of your secret actions shall be hidden.

And he who shall have his book delivered into his right hand shall say, Take ye, read this my book; 20 verily I thought that I should be brought to this my account: he shall lead a pleasing life, in a lofty garden, the fruits whereof shall be near to gather.

Eat and drink with easy digestion; because of the good works which ye sent before you, in the days which are past.

But he who shall have his book delivered into his left hand shall say, Oh that I had not received this book; and that I had not known what this my account was!

Oh that death had made an end of me!

My riches have not profited me; and my power is pa.s.sed from me.

30 And G.o.d shall say to the keepers of h.e.l.l, Take him, and bind him, and cast him into h.e.l.l to be burned: then put him into a chain of the length of seventy cubits: because he believed not in the great G.o.d; and was not solicitous to feed the poor: wherefore this day he shall have no friend here; nor any food, but the filthy corruption flowing from the bodies of the d.a.m.ned, which none shall eat but the sinners.

I swear by that which ye see, and that which ye see not, 40 that this is the discourse of an honourable apostle and not the discourse of a poet: how little do ye believe!

Neither is it the discourse of a soothsayer: how little are ye admonished!

It is a revelation from the LORD of all creatures.

If Mohammed had forged any part of these discourses concerning us, verily we had taken him by the right hand, and had cut in sunder the vein of his heart; neither would we have withheld any of you from chastising him.

And verily this book is an admonition unto the pious; and we well know that there are some of you who charge the same with imposture: 50 but it shall surely be an occasion of grievous sighing unto the infidels; for it is the truth of a certainty.

Wherefore praise the name of thy LORD, the great G.o.d.

CHAPTER LXX.

ENt.i.tLED, THE STEPS; REVEALED AT MECCA.

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL G.o.d.

ONE demanded and called for vengeance to fall on the unbelievers: there shall be none to avert the same from being inflicted by G.o.d, the possessor of the steps: by which the angels ascend unto him, and the spirit Gabriel also, in a day whose s.p.a.ce is fifty thousand years: wherefore bear the insults of the Meccans with becoming patience; for they see their punishment afar off, but we see it nigh at hand.

On a certain day the heaven shall become like molten bra.s.s, and the mountains like wool of various colours, scattered abroad by the wind: 10 and a friend shall not ask a friend concerning his condition, although they see one another. The wicked shall wish to redeem himself from the punishment of that day, by giving up his children, and his wife, and his brother, and his kindred who showed kindness unto him, and all who are in the earth; and that this might deliver him: by no means: for h.e.l.l fire, dragging them by their scalps, shall call him who shall have turned his back, and fled from the faith, and shall have ama.s.sed riches, and covetously h.o.a.rded them.

Verily man is created extremely impatient: 20 when evil toucheth him, he is full of complaint; but when good befalleth him, he becometh n.i.g.g.ardly: except those who are devoutly given, and who persevere in their prayers; and those of whose substance a due and certain portion is ready to be given unto him who asketh, and him who is forbidden by shame to ask: and those who sincerely believe the day of judgment, and who dread the punishment of their LORD: (for there is none secure from the punishment of their LORD:) and who abstain from the carnal knowledge of women 30 other than their wives, or the slaves which their right hands possess: (for as to them they shall be blameless; but whoever coveteth any woman besides these, they are transgressors:) and those who faithfully keep what they are intrusted with, and their covenant; and who are upright in their testimonies, and who carefully observe the requisite rites in their prayers: these shall dwell amidst gardens, highly honoured.

What aileth the unbelievers, that they run before thee in companies, on the right hand and on the left?

Doth every man of them wish to enter into a garden of delight?

By no means: verily we have created them of that which they know.

40 I swear by the LORD of the east and of the west, that we are able to destroy them, and to subst.i.tute better than them in their room; neither are we to be prevented, if we shall please so to do.

Wherefore suffer them to wade in vain disputes, and to amuse themselves with sport: until they meet their day with which they have been threatened; the day whereon they shall come forth hastily from their graves, as though they were troops hastening to their standard: their looks shall be downcast; ignominy shall attend them. This is the day with which they have been threatened.

CHAPTER LXXI.

ENt.i.tLED, NOAH; REVEALED AT MECCA.

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL G.o.d.

VERILY we sent Noah unto his people, saying, Warn thy people, before a grievous punishment overtake them.

Noah said, O my people, verily I am a public warner unto you; wherefore serve G.o.d, and fear him, and obey me; he will forgive you part of your sins; and will grant you respite until a determined time: for G.o.d'S determined time, when it cometh, shall not be deferred; if ye were men of understanding, ye would know this.

He said, LORD, verily I have called my people night and day; but my calling only increaseth their aversion: and whensoever I call them to the true faith, that thou mayest forgive them, they put their fingers in their ears, and cover themselves with their garments, and persist in their infidelity, and proudly disdain my counsel.

Moreover I invited them openly, and I spake to them again in public; and I also secretly admonished them in private; 10 and I said, Beg pardon of your LORD; for he is inclined to forgive: and he will cause the heaven to pour down rain plentifully upon you, and will give you increase of wealth and of children; and he will provide you gardens, and furnish you with rivers.

What aileth you, that ye hope not for benevolence in G.o.d; since he hath created you variously?

Do ye not see how G.o.d hath created the seven heavens, one above another; and hath placed the moon therein for a light, and hath appointed the sun for a taper?

G.o.d hath also produced and caused you to spring forth from the earth: hereafter he will cause you to return into the same; and he will again take you thence, by bringing you forth from your graves.

And G.o.d hath spread the earth as a carpet for you, 20 that ye may walk therein through s.p.a.cious paths.

Noah said, LORD, verily they are disobedient unto me; and they follow him whose riches and children do no other than increase his perdition.

And they devised a dangerous plot against Noah: and the chief men said to the others, Ye shall by no means leave your G.o.ds; neither shall ye forsake Wadd, nor Sowa, nor Yaghuth, and Yauk, and Nesr.

And they seduced many; (for thou shalt only increase error in the wicked:) because of their sins they were drowned, and cast into the fire of h.e.l.l; and they found none to protect them against G.o.d.