The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 6 (of 14): Medieval Arabic, Moorish, and Turkish — John Shaqi
The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 6 (of 14): Medieval Arabic, Moorish, and Turkish
Religion
The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 6 (of 14): Medieval Arabic, Moorish, and Turkish
Oriental literature -- Translations into English
Verily among the signs of the resurrection will be the taking away of
knowledge from among men; and their being in great ignorance and much
wickedness and much drinking of liquor, and diminution of men, and
there being many women; to such a degree that there will be fifty women
to one man, and he will work for a livelihood for the women.
How can I be happy, when Israfil hath put the trumpet to his mouth
to blow it, leaning his ear toward the true God for orders, and hath
already knit his brow, waiting in expectation of orders to blow it?
_Of Destiny_
The hearts of men are at the disposal of God like unto one heart,
and he turneth them about in any way that he pleaseth. O Director of
hearts, turn our hearts to obey thee.
The first thing which God created was a pen, and he said to it,
"Write." It said, "What shall I write?" And God said, "Write down the
quantity of every separate thing to be created." And it wrote all that
was and all that will be to eternity.
There is not one among you whose sitting-place is not written by God,
whether in the fire or in paradise. The companions said, "O Prophet!
since God hath appointed our place, may we confide in this and abandon
our religious and moral duty?" He said, "No, because the happy will do
good works, and those who are of the miserable will do bad works."
The Prophet of God said that Adam and Moses (in the world of spirits)
maintained a debate before God, and Adam got the better of Moses; who
said, "Thou art that Adam whom God created by the power of his hands,
and breathed into thee from his own spirit, and made the angels bow
before thee, and gave thee an habitation in his own paradise: after
that thou threwest man upon the earth, from the fault which thou
committedst." Adam said, "Thou art that Moses whom God elected for his
prophecy, and to converse with, and he gave to thee twelve tables, in
which are explained everything, and God made thee his confidant, and
the bearer of his secrets: then how long was the Bible written before
I was created?" Moses said, "Forty years." Then Adam said, "Didst thou
see in the Bible that Adam disobeyed God?" He said, "Yes." Adam said,
"Dost thou then reproach me on a matter which God wrote in the Bible
forty years before creating me?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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