And serve ye what ye choose beside Him. SAY: The losers truly will they be who shall lose their own souls and their families on the day of resurrection: Is not this the clear ruin?

Canopies of fire shall be over them, and floors of fire beneath them. With this doth God alarm his servants: Fear ye me, then, O my servants!

But good tidings are there for those who shun the worship of Thagout and are turned to God. Cheer then with good tidings those my servants who hearken to my word and follow its excellence. These are they whom God guideth, and these are men of insight.

Him then on whom the sentence of punishment hath justly lighted—him who is doomed to the fire canst thou rescue?

But for those who fear their Lord are storied pavilions beneath which shall the rivers flow: it is the promise of God, and God will not fail in his promise.

Seest thou not that God sendeth down water from heaven, and guideth it along so as to form springs in the earth—then bringeth forth by it corn of varied sorts—then causeth he it to wither, and thou seest it become yellow—then crumbleth it away? Lo! herein is teaching for men of insight.

Shall he then whose breast God hath opened to Islam, and who hath light from his Lord …? But woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the remembrance of God! They plainly err.

The best of recitals hath God sent down—a book in unison with itself, and teaching by iteration.⁵ The very skins of those who fear their Lord do creep at it! Then do their skins and their hearts soften at the remembrance of their Lord! This is God’s guidance: by it will He guide whom He pleaseth; and, whom God shall mislead, no guide shall there be for him.

Shall he who shall have nought but his own face to shelter him with from the torment of the punishment on the day of the resurrection …? Aye, to the evil doers it shall be said, “Taste what ye have earned.”

They who were before them said it was a lie; but a punishment came upon them whence they looked not for it:

And God made them taste humiliation in this present life: but greater surely will be the punishment of the life to come. Did they but know it!

Now have we set before man in this Koran every kind of parable for their warning:

An Arabic Koran, free from tortuous wording, to the intent that they may fear God.

God setteth forth the comparison of a man with associates⁶ at variance among themselves, and of a man devoted wholly to a man. Are these to be held alike? No, praise be to God! But the greater part of them understand not.

Thou truly shall die, O Muhammad, and they too shall die:

Then, at the day of resurrection, ye shall wrangle with one another in the presence of your Lord.

And who acteth more unjustly than he who lieth of God, and treateth the truth when it cometh to him as a lie? Is there not a dwelling-place in Hell for the infidels?

But he who bringeth the truth, and he who believeth it to be the truth: these are the God-fearing.

Whatever they shall desire, awaiteth them with their Lord! This is the reward of the righteous;