Are they better than the people of Tobba,6 And those who flourished before them whom we destroyed for their evil deeds? We have not created the Heavens and the Earth and whatever is between them in sport: We have not created them but for a serious end:7 but the greater part of them understand it not. Verily the day of severing8 shall be the appointed time of all: A day when the master shall not at all be aided by the servant, neither shall they be helped; Save those on whom God shall have mercy: for He is the mighty, the merciful. Verily the tree of Ez-Zakkoum9 Shall be the sinner's10 food: Like dregs of oil shall it boil up in their bellies, Like the boiling of scalding water. "-Seize ye him, and drag him into the mid-fire; Then pour on his head of the tormenting boiling water. -'Taste this:' for thou forsooth art the mighty, the honourable! Lo! this is that of which ye doubted." But the pious shall be in a secure place, Amid gardens and fountains, Clothed in silk and richest robes, facing one another: Thus shall it be: and we will wed them to the virgins with large dark eyes: Therein shall they call, secure, for every kind of fruit; Therein, their first death passed, shall they taste death no more; and He shall keep them from the pains of Hell:- 'Tis the gracious bounty of thy Lord! This is the great felicity. We have made this Koran easy for thee in thine own tongue, that they may take the warning. Therefore wait thou, for they are waiting.11 _______________________ 1 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32. 2 Of the 23rd and 24th of Ramadhan, in which, according to the Muslim creed, all the events of the year subsequent are arranged. See Sura xcvii. n. 2, p. 27. 3 Lit. We settle each wise affair-called wise, because proceeding direct from the will of Him who is absolute wisdom. 4 Beidh, and others suppose this verse to have been revealed at Medina. This opinion, however, is based upon the supposition that it refers to the famine with which Mecca was visited after the Hejira. 5 Comp. Ex. xx. 20; Deut. viii. 16. 6 Tobba, i.e. Chalif or successor, is the title of the Kings of Yemen; or of Hadramont, Saba, and Hamyar.-See Pocock, Spec. Hist. Ar. p. 60. 7 Lit. in truth. 8 That is, Of the good from the bad. 9 See Sura xxxvii. 60, p. 81. 10 The commentators suppose this sinner to be Abu Jahl, one of the chief of the Koreisch, and the bitter enemy of Muhammad. 11 To see the turn which events may take. SURA L.-KAF [LIV.] MECCA.-45 Verses In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Kaf1. By the glorious Koran: They marvel forsooth that one of themselves hath come to them charged with warnings. "This," say the infidels, "is a marvellous thing: What! when dead and turned to dust shall we. . . .? Far off is such a return as this?" Now know we what the earth consumeth of them, and with us is a Book in which account is kept.