They shall say, “In sooth, ye came to us in well-omened sort:”5
But they will answer, “Nay, it was ye who would not believe; and we had no power whatever over you. Nay, ye were people given to transgress;
Just, therefore, is the doom which our Lord hath passed upon us.6 We shall surely taste it:
We made you err, for we had erred ourselves.”
Partners therefore shall they be in punishment on that day.
Truly, thus will we deal with the wicked,
Because when it was said to them, There is no God but God, they swelled with pride,
And said, “Shall we then abandon our gods for a crazed poet?”
Nay, he cometh with truth and confirmeth the Sent Ones of old.
And ye shall not be rewarded but as ye have wrought,
Save the sincere servants of God!
A stated banquet shall they have
Of fruits; and honoured shall they be
In the gardens of delight,
Upon couches face to face.
A cup shall be borne round among them from a fountain,
Limpid, delicious to those who drink;
It shall not oppress the sense, nor shall they therewith be drunken.
And with them are the large-eyed ones with modest refraining glances, fair like the sheltered egg.7
And they shall address one another with mutual questions.
Saith one of them, “I truly had a bosom friend,
Who said, ‘Art thou of those who credit it?
What! when we shall have died, and become dust and bones, shall we indeed be judged?”’
He shall say to those around him, “Will ye look?”
And he shall look and see him in the midst of Hell.
And he shall say to him, “By God, thou hadst almost caused me to perish;
And, but for the favour of my Lord, I had surely been of those who have been brought with thee into torment.”
“But do we not die,” say the blessed,
“Any other than our first death? and have we escaped the torment?”8
This truly is the great felicity!
For the like of this should the travailers travail!
Is this the better repast or the tree Ez-zakkoum?
Verily, we have made it for a subject of discord to the wicked.
It is a tree which cometh up from the bottom of hell;
Its fruits is as it were the heads of Satans;
And, lo! the damned shall surely eat of it and fill their bellies with it:
Then shall they have, thereon, a mixture of boiling water:
Then shall they return to hell.
They found their fathers erring,
And they hastened on in their footsteps.
Also before them the greater number of the ancients had erred.
Though we had sent warners among them.
But see what was the end of these warned ones,
Except of God’s true servants.
Noah called on us of old, and right prompt were we to hear him,9
And we saved him and his family out of the great distress,
And we made his offspring the survivors;
And we left for him with posterity,
“Peace be on Noah throughout the worlds!”
Thus do we reward the well-doers,
For he was one of our believing servants;—
And the rest we drowned.
And truly, of his faith was Abraham,
When he brought to his Lord a perfect heart,
When he said to his father and to his people, “What is this ye worship?
Prefer ye with falsehood gods to God?
And what deem ye of the Lord of the worlds?”
So gazing he gazed towards the stars,
And said, “In sooth I am ill:10
And they turned their back on him and departed.
He went aside to their gods and said, “Do ye not eat?
What aileth you that ye do not speak?”
He broke out upon them, with the right hand striking:
When his tribesmen came back to him with hasty steps—
He said, “Worship ye what ye carve,
When God hath created you, and that ye make?”
They said, “Build up a pyre for him and cast him into the glowing flame.”
Fain would they plot against him, but we brought them low.
And he said, “Verily, I repair to my Lord who will guide me:
O Lord give me a son, of the righteous.”
We announced to him a youth of meekness.
And when he became a full-grown youth,11
His father said to him, “My son, I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice thee; therefore, consider what thou seest right.”
He said, “My father, do what thou art bidden; of the patient, if God please, shalt thou find me.”
And when they had surrendered them to the will of God, he laid him down upon his forehead:
We cried unto him, “O Abraham!
Now hast thou satisfied the vision.” See how we recompense the righteous.
This was indeed a decisive test.
And we ransomed his son with a costly12 victim,
And we left this13 for him among posterity,
“Peace be on Abraham!”
Thus do we reward
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