The Koran Part 18

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

Have we not created you of a sorry germ,

Which we laid up in a secure place,

Till the term decreed for birth?

Such is our power! and, how powerful are We!

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

Have we not made the earth to hold

The living and the dead?

And placed on it the tall firm mountains, and given you to drink of sweet water.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

Begone to that h.e.l.l which ye called a lie:-

Begone to the shadows that lie in triple ma.s.ses;

"But not against the flame shall they shade or help you:"-

The sparks which it casteth out are like towers-

Like tawny camels.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

On that day they shall not speak,

Nor shall it be permitted them to allege excuses.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

This is the day of severing, when we will a.s.semble you and your ancestors.

If now ye have any craft try your craft on me.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

But the G.o.d-fearing shall be placed amid shades and fountains,

And fruits, whatsoever they shall desire:

"Eat and drink, with health,3 as the meed of your toils."

Thus recompense we the good.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

"Eat ye and enjoy yourselves a little while. Verily, ye are doers of evil."

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

For when it is said to them, bend the knee, they bend it not.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture

In what other revelation after this will they believe?

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1 Lit. by the sent (fem.) one after another. Per missas. Mar. Either angels following in a continued series; or, winds, which disperse rain over the earth; or the successive verses of the Koran which disperse truth and distinguish truth from error.

2 Sura xliv. 40.

3 Maimonides says that the majority of the Jews hope that Messiah shall come and "raise the dead, and they shall be gathered into Paradise, and there shall eat and drink and be in good health to all eternity."-Sanhedrin, fol.

119, col. I.

SURA LXXVIII.-THE NEWS [x.x.xVII.]

MECCA.-41 Verses

In the Name of G.o.d, the Compa.s.sionate, the Merciful

Of what ask they of one another?

Of the great NEWS.1

The theme of their disputes.

Nay! they shall certainly knows its truth!

Again. Nay! they shall certainly know it.

Have we not made the Earth a couch?

And the mountains its tent-stakes?

We have created you of two s.e.xes,

And ordained your sleep for rest,

And ordained the night as a mantle,