Al Furkan

[LXVI.]

MECCA.—77 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

BLESSED be He who hath sent down AL FURKAN¹ (the illumination) on his servant, that to all creatures he may be a warner.

His the Kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth! No son hath He begotten! No partner hath He in his Empire! All things hath He created, and decreeing hath decreed their destinies.

Yet have they adopted gods beside Him which have created nothing, but were themselves created:

And no power have they over themselves for evil or for good, nor have they power of death, or of life, or of raising the dead.

And the infidels say, “This Koran is a mere fraud of his own devising, and others have helped him with it,² who had come hither by outrage and lie.”³

And they say, “Tales of the ancients that he hath put in writing! and they were dictated to him morn and even.”

SAY: He hath sent it down who knoweth the secrets of the Heavens and of the Earth. He truly is the Gracious, the Merciful.

And they say, “What sort of apostle is this? He eateth food and he walketh the streets! Unless an angel be sent down and take part in his warnings,

Or a treasure be thrown down to him, or he have a garden that supplieth him with food …”⁴ and those unjust persons say, “Ye follow but a man enchanted.”

See what likenesses they strike out for thee! But they err, and cannot find their way.

Blessed be He who if he please can give thee better than that of which they speak—Gardens, ’neath which the rivers flow: and pavilions will He assign thee.

Aye, they have treated the coming of “the Hour” as a lie. But a flaming fire have we got ready for those who treat the coming of the Hour as a lie.

When it shall see them from afar, they shall hear its raging and roaring,—

And when they shall be flung into a narrow space thereof bound together, they shall invoke destruction on the spot:

—“Call not this day for one destruction, but call for destructions many.”

SAY: Is this, or the Paradise of Eternity which was promised to the God-fearing, best? Their recompense shall it be and their retreat;

Abiding therein for ever, they shall have in it all that they desire! It is a promise to be claimed of thy Lord.

And on the day when he shall gather them together, and those whom they worshipped beside God, he will say, “Was it ye who led these my servants astray, or of themselves strayed they from the path?”