A picture of the Paradise which is promised to the God-fearing! Therein are
rivers of water, which corrupt not: rivers of milk, whose taste changeth not:
and rivers of wine, delicious to those who quaff it;
And rivers of honey clarified: and therein are all kinds of fruit for them
from their Lord! Is this like the lot of those who must dwell for ever in the
fire? and shall have draughts of boiling water forced on them which will rend
their bowels asunder?
Some of them indeed hearken to thee, until when they go out from thee, they
say with sneers to those to whom "the knowledge" hath been given, "What is
this he said?" These are they whose hearts God hath sealed up, and who follow
their own lusts.
But as to those who have the guidance, He will increase their guidance, and
He will teach them what to fear.
For what do the infidels wait, but that the Hour come suddenly on them?
Already are its signs come,5 and when it hath come on them indeed, how can
they be warned then?
Know, then, that there is no god but God: and ask pardon for thy sin, and for
believers, both men and women. God knoweth your busy movements, and your
final resting-places.
The believers say, "Oh, would that a Sura were sent down!"6 but when a
peremptory Sura is revealed, whose burden is war, thou mayest see the
diseased of heart look toward thee, with a look of one on whom the shadows of
death have fallen! But better in them would be obedience and becoming
language.
And if, when the command for war is issued, they are true to God, it will be
assuredly best for them.
Were ye not ready, if ye had turned back from Him, to spread disorder in the
land, and violate the ties of blood?
These are they whom God hath cursed, and made deaf, and blinded their eyes!
Will they not then meditate on the Koran? Are locks upon their hearts?
But as to those who return to their errors after "the guidance" hath been
made plain to them, Satan shall beguile them, and fill them with his
suggestions.
This–because they say to those who abhor what God hath sent down, "We will
comply with you in part of what ye enjoin." But God knoweth their secret
reservations.
But how? When the angels, in causing them to die, shall smite them on the
face and back!
This because they follow that which angereth God, and abhor what pleaseth
Him: therefore will He make their works fruitless.
Think these men of diseased hearts, that God will not bring out their malice
to light?
If such were our pleasure, we could point them out to thee, and thou surely
know them by their tokens: and know them thou shalt, by the strangeness of
their words.7 God knoweth your doings.
And we will surely test you, until we know the valiant and the steadfast
among you: and we will test the reports of your conduct.
Verily they who believe not, and turn others from the way of God, and
separate from the Apostle after that "the guidance" hath been clearly shewn
them, shall in no way injure God: but their works shall he bring to nought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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