The Koran Part 45

"Eat," said We, "of the good things with which we have supplied you; but without excess, lest my wrath fall upon you; for on whom my wrath doth fall, he perisheth outright.

Surely however will I forgive him who turneth to G.o.d and believeth, and worketh righteousness, and then yieldeth to guidance.

But what hath hastened thee on apart from thy people,18 O Moses?"

He said, "They are hard on my footsteps: but to thee, O Lord, have I hastened, that thou mightest be well pleased with me."

He said, "Of a truth now have we proved thy people since thou didst leave them, and Samiri19 had led them astray."

And Moses returned to his people, angered, sorrowful.

He said, "O my people! did not your Lord promise you a good promise? Was the time of my absence long to you? or desired ye that wrath from your Lord should light upon you, that ye failed in your promise to me?"

They said, "Not of our own accord have we failed in the promise to thee, but we were made to bring loads of the people's trinkets, and we threw them into the fire and Samiri likewise cast them in, and brought forth to them a corporeal lowing20 calf: and they said, "This is your G.o.d and the G.o.d of Moses, whom he hath forgotten."'

What! saw they not that it returned them no answer, and could neither hurt nor help them?

And Aaron had before said to them, "O my people! by this calf are ye only proved: surely your Lord is the G.o.d of Mercy: follow me therefore and obey my bidding."

They said, "We will not cease devotion to it, till Moses come back to us."

He said, "O Aaron! when thou sawest that they had gone astray, what hindered thee from following me? Hast thou then disobeyed my command?"

He said, "O Son of my mother! seize me not by my beard, nor by my head: indeed I feared lest thou shouldst say,

Thou hast rent the children of Isreal asunder, and hast not observed my orders."'

He said, "And what was thy motive, O Samiri?" He said, "I saw what they saw not: so I took a handful of dust from the track21 of the messenger of G.o.d, and flung it into the calf, for so my soul prompted me."

He said, "Begone then: verily thy doom even in this life shall be to say, 'Touch me not.'22 And there is a threat against thee, which thou shalt not escape hereafter. Now look at thy G.o.d to which thou hast continued so devoted: we will surely burn it and reduce it to ashes, which we will cast into the sea.

Your G.o.d is G.o.d, beside whom there is no G.o.d: In his knowledge he embraceth all things."

Thus do We recite to thee histories of what pa.s.sed of old; and from ourself have we given thee admonition.

Whoso shall turn aside from it shall verily carry a burden on the day of Resurrection:

Under it shall they remain: and grievous, in the day of Resurrection, shall it be to them to bear.

On that day there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and We will gather the wicked together on that day with leaden23 eyes:

They shall say in a low voice, one to another,-"Ye tarried but ten days on earth."

We are most knowing with respect to that which they will say when the most veracious24 of them will say. "Ye have not tarried above a day."

And they will ask thee of the mountains: SAY: scattering my Lord will scatter them in dust;

And he will leave them a level plain: thou shalt see in it no hollows or jutting hills.

On that day shall men follow their summoner25-he marcheth straight on: and low shall be their voices before the G.o.d of Mercy, nor shalt thou hear aught but the light footfall.

No intercession shall avail on that day, save his whom the G.o.d of Mercy shall allow to intercede, and whose words he shall approve.

He knoweth their future and their past; but in their own knowledge they comprehend it not:-

And humble shall be their faces before Him that Liveth, the Self-subsisting: and undone he, who shall bear the burden of iniquity;

But he who shall have done the things that are right and is a believer, shall fear neither wrong nor loss.

Thus have We sent down to thee an Arabic Koran, and have set forth menaces therein diversely, that haply they may fear G.o.d, or that it may give birth to reflection in them.

Exalted then be G.o.d, the King, the Truth! Be not hasty in its recital26 while the revelation of it to thee is incomplete. Say rather, "O my Lord, increase knowledge unto me."

And of old We made a covenant with Adam; but he forgat it; and we found no firmness of purpose in him.

And when We said to the angels, "Fall down and wors.h.i.+p Adam," they wors.h.i.+pped all, save Eblis, who refused: and We said, "O Adam! this truly is a foe to thee and to thy wife. Let him not therefore drive you out of the garden, and ye become wretched;

For to thee is it granted that thou shalt not hunger therein, neither shalt thou be naked;

But Satan whispered him: said he, "O Adam! shall I shew thee the tree of Eternity,27 and the Kingdom that faileth not?"

And they both ate thereof, and their nakedness appeared to them, and they began to sew of the leaves of the Garden to cover them, and Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray.

Afterwards his Lord chose him for himself, and was turned towards him, and guided him.

And G.o.d said, "Get ye all down hence, the one of you a foe unto the other.

Hereafter shall guidance come unto you from me;

And whoso followeth my guidance shall not err, and shall not be wretched:

But whoso turneth away from my monition, his truly shall be a life of misery:

And We will a.s.semble him with others on the day of Resurrection, blind."28

He will say, "O my Lord! why hast thou a.s.sembled me with others, blind?

whereas I was endowed with sight."

He will answer, "Thus is it, because our signs came unto thee and thou didst forget them, and thus shalt thou be forgotten this day."

Even thus will We recompense him who hath transgressed and hath not believed in the signs of his Lord; and a.s.suredly the chastis.e.m.e.nt of the next world will be more severe and more lasting.

Are not they, who walk the very places where they dwelt, aware how many generations we have destroyed before them? Verily in this are signs to men of insight.

And had not a decree of respite from thy Lord first gone forth, their chastis.e.m.e.nt had at once ensued. Yet the time is fixed.

Put up then with what they say; and celebrate the praise of thy Lord before the sunrise, and before its setting; and some time in the night do thou praise him, and in the extremes29 of the day, that thou haply mayest please Him.

And strain not thine eye after what We have bestowed on divers of them-the braveries of this world-that we may thereby prove them. The portion which thy Lord will give, is better and more lasting.