Do they [really think that they] have deities that could shield them from Us? Those [alleged deities] are not [even] able to succour themselves: hence, neither can they [who worship them hope to] be aided [by them] against Us.
"O my companions in imprisonment! Which is more reasonable:* [belief in the existence of numerous divine] lords, each of them different from the other"* -or [in] the One God, who holds absolute sway over all that exists?
"[And now,] O my companions in imprisonment, [I shall tell you the meaning of your dreams:] as for one of you two, he will [again] give his lord [the King] wine to drink; but as for the other, he will be crucified, and birds will eat off his head. [But whatever be your future,] the matter on which you have asked me to enlighten you has been decided [by God]."
Said [Moses]: "If, after this, I should ever question thee, keep me not in thy company: [for by] now thou hast heard enough excuses from me."
'[Revere thy parents;] yet should they endeavour to make thee ascribe divinity, side by side with Me, to something which thy mind cannot accept [as divine],* obey them not; but [even then] bear them company in this world's life with kindness, and follow the path of those who turn towards Me. In the end, unto Me you all must return; and thereupon I shall make you [truly] understand all that you were doing [in life].'
the Originator of the heavens and the earth! How could it be that He should have a child without there ever having been a mate for Him - since it is He who has created everything, and He alone knows everything?
and of his spouse, and of his brother,
for [we know] that sublimely exalted is our Sustainer's majesty: no consort has He ever taken unto Himself, nor a son!
and from his spouse and his children:
AND WORSHIP God [alone], and do not ascribe divinity, in any way, to aught beside Him.* And do good unto your parents, and near of kin, and unto orphans, and the needy, and the neighbour from among your own people, and the neighbour who is a stranger,* and the friend by your side, and the wayfarer, and those whom you rightfully possess.* Verily, God does not love any of those who, full of self-conceit, act in a boastful manner;
Has it, then, never occurred to them* that there is no madness whatever in [this] their fellowman? He is only a plain warner.*
If you do not succour the Apostle,* then [know that God will do so -just as] God succoured him at the time when those who were bent on denying the truth drove him away, [and he was but] one of two:* when these two were [hiding] in the cave, [and] the Apostle said to his companion, "Grieve not: verily, God is with us."* And thereupon God bestowed upon him from on high His (gift of] inner peace,* and brought utterly low the cause of those who were bent on denying the truth, whereas the cause of God remained supreme:* for God is almighty, wise.
And so [the man] had fruit in abundance. And [one day] he said to his friend, bandying words with him, "More wealth have I than thou, and mightier am I as regards [the number and power of my] followers!"
And his friend answered him in the course of their argument: "Wilt thou blaspheme against Him who has created thee out of dust,* and then out of a drop of sperm, and in the end has fashioned thee into a [complete] man?
Say: I counsel you one thing only: Be [ever conscious of] standing before God, whether you are in the company of others or alone;* and then bethink yourselves [that] there is no madness in [this prophet,] your fellow-man:* he is only a warner to you of suffering severe to come."
This fellow-man of yours has not gone astray, nor is he deluded,*
But they summoned their [boldest] companion, and he ventured [upon the evil deed], and cruelly slaughtered [the animal]:*
BEAR THEN with patience thy Sustainer's will and be not like him of the great fish, who cried out [in distress] after having given in to anger.*
For, this fellow-man of yours is not a madman:*
but those who are bent on denying the truth and giving the lie to Our messages - they are destined for the fire, and therein shall they abide.
Yea! Those who earn evil and by their sinfulness are engulfed - they are destined for the fire. therein to abide;
whereas those who attain to faith and do righteous deeds -they are destined for paradise, therein to abide.
Verily, We have sent thee [O Prophet] with the truth, as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner: and thou shalt not be held accountable for those who are destined for the blazing fire.
They will ask thee about fighting in the sacred month.* Say: "Fighting in it is an awesome thing (grave transgression); but turning men away from the path of God and denying Him, and [turning them away from] the Inviolable House of Worship and expelling its people there from - [all this] is yet more awesome (greater transgression) in the sight of God, since oppression is more awesome (greater transgression) than killing." [Your enemies] will not cease to fight against you till they have turned you away from your faith, if they can. But if any of you should turn away from his faith and die as a denier of the truth - these it is whose works will go for nought in this world and in the life to come; and these it is who are destined for the fire, therein to abide.
God is near unto those who have faith, taking them out of deep darkness into the light - whereas near unto those who are bent on denying the truth are the powers of evil that take them out of the light into darkness deep: it is they who are destined for the fire, therein to abide.
THOSE who gorge themselves on usury* behave but as he might behave whom Satan has confounded with his touch; for they say, "Buying and selling is but a kind of* usury" - the while God has made buying and selling lawful and usury unlawful. Hence, whoever becomes aware of his Sustainer's admonition,* and thereupon desists [from usury], may keep his past gains, and it will be for God to judge him; but as for those who return to it -they are destined for the fire, therein to abide!
[But,] behold, as for those who are bent on denying the truth - neither their worldly possessions nor their children will in the least avail them against God: and it is they who are destined for the fire, therein to abide.
O you who have been granted revelation [aforetime]! Believe in what We have [now] bestowed from on high in confirmation of whatever [of the truth] you already possess, lest We efface your hopes and bring them to an end* - just as We rejected those people who broke the Sabbath: for God's will is always done.*
whereas they who are bent on denying the truth and giving the lie to Our messages-they are destined for the blazing fire.
I am willing, indeed, for thee to bear [the burden of] all the sins ever done by me as well as of the sin done by thee:* [but] then thou wouldst be destined for the fire, since that is the requital of evildoers!"
whereas they who are bent on denying the truth and giving the lie to Our messages - they are destined for the blazing fire.
SAY: "Shall we invoke, instead of God, something that can neither benefit us nor harm us, and [thus] turn around on our heels after God has guided us aright? -like one whom the satans have enticed into blundering after earthly lusts, the while his companions, trying to guide him, call out unto him [from afar] ,* `Come thou to us!"' Say: "Verily, God's guidance is the only guidance: and so we have been bidden to surrender ourselves unto the Sustainer of all the worlds,
but they who give the lie to Our messages and scorn them in their pride-these are destined for the fire, therein to abide.
But those who attain to faith and do righteous deeds - [and] We do not burden any human being with more than he is well able to bear - they are destined for paradise, therein to abide,
And the inmates of paradise will call out to the inmates of the fire: "Now we have found that what our Sustainer promised us has come true; have you. too, found that what your Sustainer promised you has come true?" [The others] will answer, "Yes!"-whereupon from their midst a voice* will loudly proclaim: "God's rejection is the due of the evildoers
And between the two there will be a barrier.* And there will be persons who [in life] were endowed with the faculty of discernment [between right and wrong], recognizing each by its mark.* And they will call out unto the inmates of paradise, "Peace be upon you!"-not having entered it themselves, but longing [for it].
And whenever their eyes are turned towards the inmates of the fire, they will cry: "O our Sustainer! Place us not among the people who have been guilty of evildoing!"
And they who [in life] had possessed this faculty of discernment will call out to those whom they recognize by their marks [as sinners], saying: "What has your amassing [of wealth] availed you, and all the false pride of your past?
And the inmates of the fire will call out unto the inmates of paradise: "Pour some water upon us, or some of the sustenance [of paradise] which God has provided for you!" [The inmates of paradise] will reply: "Verily, God has denied both to those who have denied the truth -
Have, then, the stories of those who preceded them never come within the ken of these [hypocrites and deniers of the truth]?-[the stories] of Noah's people, and of [the tribes of] `Ad and Thamud, and of Abraham's people, and of the folk of Madyan, and of the cities that were overthrown?* To [all of] them their apostles had come with all evidence of the truth. [but they rejected them:] and so it was not God who wronged them [by His punishment], but it was they who wronged themselves.
IT DOES NOT behove the Prophet and those who have attained to faith to pray that they who ascribed divinity to aught beside God be forgiven [by Him] even though they happened to be [their] near of kin* -after it has been made clear unto them that those [dead sinners] are destined for. the blazing fire.
For those who persevere in doing good there is the ultimate good in store, and more [than that].* No darkness and no ignominy will overshadow their faces [on Resurrection Day]: it is they who are destined for paradise, therein to abide.
But us for those who have done evil deeds - the recompense of an evil, deed shall be the like thereof:* and - since they will have none to defend them against God - ignominy will overshadow them as though their faces were veiled by the night's own darkness:* it is they who are destined for the fire. therein to abide.
Behold, [only] those who attain to faith and do righteous deeds and humble themselves before their Sustainer - [only] they are destined for paradise, and there shall they abide.
BUT IF thou art amazed [at the marvels of God's creation], amazing, too, is their saying, "What! After we have become dust, shall we indeed be [restored to life] in a new act .of creation?"* It is they who [thus show that they] are bent on denying their Sustainer;* and it is they who carry the shackles [of their own making] around their necks;* and it is they who are destined for the fire, therein to abide.
AND THE DWELLERS of the wooded dales [of Madyan, too,] were inveterate evildoers,*
AND, [likewise,] indeed, the people of Al-Hijr* gave the lie to [Our] message-bearers:
[AND SINCE the life of this world is but a test,* dost thou [really] think that [the parable of] the Men of the Cave and of [their devotion to] the scriptures could be deemed more wondrous than any [other] of Our messages?*
Say: "Everyone is hopefully waiting [for what the future may bring]:* wait, then, [for the Day of Judgment] for then you will come to know as to who has followed the even path, and who has found guidance!"
and the dwellers of Madyan; and [so, too,] Moses was given the lie [by Pharaoh].* And [in every ease] I gave rein, for a while, to the deniers of the truth: but then I took them to task - and how awesome was My denial [of them,]!
whereas those who strive against Our messages, seeking to defeat their purpose - they are destined for the blazing fire.
[whereas] on that same Day those who are destined for paradise will be graced with the best of abodes and the fairest place of repose.*
And [remember how We punished the tribes of] Ad and Thamud and the people of Ar-Rass,* and many generations [of sinners] in-between:
and as soon as the two hosts came in sight of one another, the followers of Moses exclaimed: Behold, we shall certainly be overtaken [and defeated]!"
[AND] the dwellers of the wooded dales [of Madyan] gave the lie to [one of God's] message-bearers
but We saved him, together with all who were in the ark, which We then set up as a symbol [of Our grace] for all people [to remember].
Behold, Satan is a foe unto you: so treat him as a foe. He but calls on his followers to the end that they might find themselves among such as are destined for the blazing flame
AND SET FORTH unto them a parable - [the story of how] the people of a township [behaved] when [Our] message-bearers came unto them.
Behold, those who are destined for paradise shall today have joy in whatever they do:
and [the tribe of] Thamud, and the people of Lot, and the dwellers of the wooded dales [of Madyan]: they all were leagued together, [as it were, in their unbelief:]
NOW [thus it is:] when affliction befalls man, he is likely to cry out to his Sustainer, turning unto Him [for help];* but as soon as He has bestowed upon him a boon by His grace, he forgets Him whom he invoked before, and claims that there are other powers that could rival God* - and thus leads [others] astray from His path. Say [unto him who sins in this way]: Enjoy thyself for a while in this thy denial of the truth; [yet,] verily, thou art of those who are destined for the fire!
And thus shall thy Sustainer's word come true against all who are bent on denying the truth: they shall find themselves in the fire [of hell].
There is no doubt that what you summon me to is something that has no claim to being invoked either in this world or in the life to come - as [there is no doubt] that unto God is our return, and that they who have wasted their own selves shall find themselves in the fire:
it is they who are destined for paradise, therein to abide as a reward for all that they have done.
It is [such as] these from whom We shall accept the best that they ever did,* and whose bad deeds We shall overlook: [they will find themselves] among those who are destined for paradise, in fulfillment of the true promise which they were given [in this world].
[Long] before those [who now deny resurrection] did Noah's people give the lie to this truth, and [so did] the folk of Ar-Rass,* and [the tribes of] Thamud
and the dwellers of the wooded dales [of Madyan], and the people of Tubba:* they all gave the lie to the apostles - and thereupon that whereof I had warned [them] came true.
And, verily, they who are bent on doing evil shall have their share [of evil] like unto the share of their fellows [of old]:* so let them not ask Me to hasten [their doom]!
Thus, there shall be such as will have attained to what is right:* oh, how [happy] will be they who have attained to what is right!
And there shall be such as will have lost themselves in evil: oh, how [unhappy] will be they who have lost themselves in evil!*
NOW AS FOR those who have attained to righteousness - what of those who have attained to righteousness?*
with those who have attained to righteousness:*
BUT AS FOR those who have persevered in evil - what of those who have persevered in evil?*
And if one happens to be of those who have attained to righteousness,*
[he, too, will be welcomed into paradise with the words,] Peace be unto thee [that art] of those who have attained to righteousness!"
For, they who have attained to faith in God and His Apostle - it is they, they who uphold the truth, and they who bear witness [thereto] before God:* [and so] they shall have their reward and their light! But as for those who are bent on denying the truth and on giving the lie to Our messages - it is they who are destined for the blazing fire!
Neither their worldly possessions nor their offspring will be of the least avail to them against God: it is they who are destined for the fire, therein to abide!
Not equal are those who are destined for the fire and those who are destined for paradise: those who are destined for paradise - it is they, they [alone] who shall triumph [on Judgment Day]!
O YOU who have attained to faith! Be not friends with people whom God has condemned!* They [who would befriend them] are indeed bereft of all hope of a life to come* - just as those deniers of the truth are bereft of all hope of [ever again seeing] those who are [now] in their graves.*
But as for those who are bent on denying the truth and on giving the lie to Our messages - they are destined for the fire, therein to abide: and how vile a journey's end!
And they will add: "Had we but listened [to those warnings], or [at least] used our own reason, we would not [now] be among those who are destined for the blazing flame!"*
Thus will they come to realize their sins: but [by that time,] remote will have become all good from those who are destined for the blazing flame.
[As for such sinners,] behold, We [but] try them* as We tried the owners of a certain garden who vowed that they would surely harvest its fruit on the morrow,
For We have caused none but angelic powers to lord over the fire [of hell];* and We have not caused their number to be aught but a trial for those who are bent on denying the truth* - to the end that they who have been granted revelation aforetime might be convinced [of the truth of this divine writ];* and that they who have attained to faith [in it] might grow yet more firm in their faith; and that [both] they who have been granted the earlier revelation and they who believe [in this one] might be freed of all doubt; and that they in whose hearts is disease* and the who deny the truth outright might ask, "What does [your] God mean by this parable?"* In this way God lets go astray him that wills [to go astray], and guides aright him that wills [to be guided].* And none can comprehend thy Sustainers forces save Him alone: and all this* is but a reminder to mortal man.
save those who shall have attained to righteousness:*
THEY DESTROY [but] themselves,* they who would ready a pit
Such are they that have attained to righteousness;*
whereas those who are bent on denying the truth of Our messages they are such as have lost themselves in evil,
ART THOU NOT aware of how thy Sustainer dealt with the Army of the Elephant?*