And we wrote for him upon the tables a monition concerning every matter, and
said, "Receive them thyself with steadfastness, and command thy people to
receive them for the observance of its most goodly precepts:-I will shew you
the abode of the wicked."
The unjustly proud ones of the earth will I turn aside from my signs, for
even if they see every sign they will not believe them; and if they see the
path of uprightness, they will not take it for their path, but if they see
the path of error, for their path will they take it.
This,-for that they treated our signs as lies, and were heedless of them.
Vain will be the works of those who treated our signs, and the meeting of the
life to come, as lies! Shall they be rewarded but as they have wrought?
And the people of Moses took during his absence a calf made of their
ornaments, and ruddy like gold, and lowing.31 Saw they not that it could not
speak to them, nor guide them in the way?
Yet they took if for a God and became offenders!
But when they repented, and saw that they had erred, they said, Truly if our
Lord have not mercy on us, and forgive us, we shall surely be of those who
perish.
And when Moses returned to his people, wrathful, angered, he said, "Evil is
it that ye have done next upon my departure. Would ye hasten on the judgments
of your Lord?" And he threw down the tables, and seized his brother by the
head and dragged him unto him. Said he, "Son of my mother! the people thought
me weak, and had well nigh slain me. Make not mine enemies to rejoice over
me, and place me not among the wrong doers."
He said, "O Lord, forgive me and my brother, and bring us into thy mercy; for
of those who shew mercy thou art the most merciful."
Verily as to those who took the calf as a god, wrath from their Lord shall
overtake them, and shame in this present life: for thus recompense we the
devisers of a lie.
But to those who have done evil, then afterwards repent and believe, thy Lord
will thereafter be Lenient, Merciful.
And when the anger of Moses was stilled, he took up the tables; and in their
writing was guidance and mercy for those who dread their Lord.
And Moses chose seventy men of his people for a meeting appointed by us. And
when the earthquake overtook them, he said, "O my Lord! if it had been thy
pleasure, thou hadst destroyed them and me ere this! wilt thou destroy us for
what our foolish ones have done? It is nought but thy trial: thou wilt
mislead by it whom thou wilt, and guide whom thou wilt. Our guardian, thou!
Forgive us then and have mercy on us; for of those who forgive art thou the
best:
And write down for us what is good in this world, as well as in the world to
come, for to thee are we guided." He said, "My chastisement shall fall on
whom I will, and my mercy embraceth all things, and I write it down for those
who shall fear me, and pay the alms, and believe in our signs,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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