Ornaments of Gold

[LXI.]

Mecca.—89 Verses.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Ha. Mim.¹ By the Luminous Book!

We have made it an Arabic Koran that ye may understand:

And it is a transcript of the archetypal Book,² kept by us; it is lofty, filled with wisdom,

Shall we then turn aside this warning from you because ye are a people who transgress?

Yet how many prophets sent we among those of old!

But no prophet came to them whom they made not the object of their scorn:

Wherefore we destroyed nations mightier than these Meccans in strength; and the example of those of old hath gone before!

And if thou ask them who created the Heavens and the Earth, they will say: “The Mighty, the Sage, created them both,”

Who hath made the Earth as a couch for you, and hath traced out routes therein for your guidance;

And who sendeth down out of Heaven the rain in due degree, by which we quicken a dead land; thus shall ye be brought forth from the grave:

And who hath created the sexual couples, all of them, and hath made for you the ships and beasts whereon ye ride:

That ye may sit balanced on their backs and remember the goodness of your Lord as ye sit so evenly thereon, and say: “Glory to Him who hath subjected these to us! We could not have attained to it of ourselves:

And truly unto our Lord shall we return.”

Yet do they assign to him some of his own servants for offspring! Verily man is an open ingrate!

Hath God adopted daughters from among those whom he hath created, and chosen sons for you?

But when that³ is announced to any one of them, which he affirmeth to be the case with the God of Mercy,⁴ his face settleth into darkness and he is silent-sad.

What! make they a being to be the offspring of God who is brought up among trinkets, and is ever contentious without reason?

And they make the angels who are the servants of God of Mercy, females. What! did they witness their creation? Their witness shall be taken down, and they shall hereafter be enquired at.

And they say: “Had the God of Mercy so willed it we should never have worshipped them.” No knowledge have they in this: they only lie.

Have we ere this given them a Book?⁵ and do they possess it still?