But they who gainsay our signs shall know that there will be no escape for them.

All that you receive is but for enjoyment in this life present: but better and more enduring is a portion with God, for those who believe and put their trust in their Lord;

And who avoid the heinous things of crime, and filthiness, and when they are angered, forgive;

And who hearken to their Lord, and observe prayer, and whose affairs are guided by mutual COUNSEL, and who give alms of that with which we have enriched them;

And who, when a wrong is done them, redress themselves:

—Yet let the recompense of evil be only a like evil—but he who forgiveth and is reconciled, shall be rewarded by God himself; for He loveth not those who act unjustly.

And there shall be no way open against those who, after being wronged, avenge themselves;

But there shall be a way open against those who unjustly wrong others, and act insolently on the earth in disregard of justice. These! a grievous punishment doth await them.

And whoso beareth wrongs with patience and forgiveth;— this verily is a bounden duty;

But he whom God shall cause to err, shall thenceforth have no protector. And thou shalt behold the perpetrators of injustice,

Exclaiming, when they see the torment, “Is there no way to return?”

And thou shalt see them when set before it, downcast for the shame: they shall look at it with stealthy glances: and the believers shall say, “Truly are the losers they who have lost themselves and their families on the day of Resurrection! Shall not the perpetrators of injustice be in lasting torment?”

And no other protectors shall there be to succour them than God; and no pathway for him whom God shall cause to err.

Hearken then to your Lord ere the day come, which none can put back when God doth ordain its coming. No place of refuge for you on that day! no denying your own works!

But if they turn aside from thee, yet we have not sent thee to be their guardian. ’Tis thine but to preach. When we cause man to taste our gifts of mercy, he rejoiceth in it; but if for their by-gone handy-work evil betide them, then lo! is man ungrateful.

God’s, the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth! He createth what He will! and he giveth daughters to whom He will, and sons to whom He will:

Or He giveth them children of both sexes, and He maketh whom He will to be childless; for He is Wise, Powerful!

It is not for man that God should speak with him but by vision, or from behind a veil:

Or, He sendeth a messenger to reveal, by his permission, what He will: for He is Exalted, Wise!

Thus have we sent the Spirit (Gabriel¹⁰) to thee with a revelation, by our command. Thou knewest not, ere this, what “the Book” was, or what the faith. But we have ordained it for a light: by it will we guide whom we please of our servants. And thou shalt surely guide into the right way,

The way of God, whose is all that the Heaven and the Earth contain. Shall not all things return to God?